The failed socialist alternative to Los Angeles in the Mojave desert
16 hours ago
- #utopianism
- #socialism
- #history
- Exploration of Llano del Rio, a utopian colony founded in 1914 by socialist lawyer Job Harriman.
- Introduction to Charles Fourier, whose ideas inspired utopian experiments in America in the 1840s.
- Albert Brisbane's role in popularizing Fourierism in the U.S., including his book 'The Social Destiny of Man'.
- Comparison between Fourier's original ideas and Brisbane's Americanized version with religious undertones.
- Robert Owen's practical approach to utopianism through New Lanark Mill and New Harmony Community of Equality.
- The rise and fall of Fourierist phalanxes in the 1840s, including the Brook Farm experiment.
- Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backward' and its influence on American utopian thought, despite Bellamy's aversion to the term 'socialism'.
- Job Harriman's Llano del Rio colony in California, its challenges, and eventual relocation to Louisiana.
- The impact of water rights disputes and financial mismanagement on Llano del Rio's failure.
- Reflections on the legacy of utopian experiments and their relevance to modern communal and cooperative movements.