title: Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia
author:  Sterling F. Delano 
description: Brook Farm is one of America's most famous utopian experiments. Located on a 200-acre dairy farm in Roxbury, Massachusetts, it was founded in 1841, a time of social ferment for women's rights, abolition, and workers' rights. George Ripley, a Unitarian minister who felt constrained by traditional religion and was enamored of the budding transcendentalist movement, started the farm, where all the residents were expected to join equally in manual labor and intellectual pursuits. Days of laboring in the fields began with classical music and ended with dramatic plays. Supporters included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Margaret Fuller. Despite considerable enthusiasm for the project, it failed after six years, primarily due to financial stress. But industrialism, a smallpox scare, and a lawsuit filed by Hawthorne contributed to its demise. Drawing on correspondence, documents, journals, and newspaper accounts, Delano also highlights the personal and class tensions that doomed the experiment. This is a compelling look at the history of progressive social movements in America and the failure of one of the best-known experiments. <i>Vanessa Bush</i><br /><i>Copyright  American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
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  www.blackmask.com
  
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  Brook Farm
  
  
  [PART I. STUDENTS' AND INQUIRERS'
  LETTERS](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos10195)
  
  
    
    
  [INTRODUCTION.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos10488)  
    
  [CHAPTER I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BROOK FARM
  
  
  MOVEMENT.  
    
  [CHAPTER II. THE SECOND
  DEVELOPMENT.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos57846)  
    
  [CHAPTER III. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND
  DESCRIPTIONS.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos96255)
  
  
    
    
  [CHAPTER IV. THE INDUSTRIAL
  PERIOD.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos115061)  
    
  [CHAPTER V. THE RUSH AND HUM OF LIFE AND
  WORK.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos152798)  
    
  [CHAPTER VI. THE “HARBINGER” AND VARIOUS
  SUBJECTS.](Brook%20Farm_split_002.html#filepos191486)
  
  
    
    
  [CHAPTER VII. MY SECOND SPRING.](Brook%20Farm_split_003.html#filepos238060)  
    
  [CHAPTER VIII. THE DRAMA, AND IMPORTANT
  LETTERS.](Brook%20Farm_split_003.html#filepos259702)  
    
  [CHAPTER IX. SOCIAL AND PARLOR
  LIFE.](Brook%20Farm_split_003.ht