The new book An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder (Pegasus Crime, 2023) by Susan Wels is a true crime odyssey that explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the reader from a free-love community in Upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield. [Read more…] about Assassin in Utopia: The Oneida Community & The Garfield Assassination
Oneida Community
New Documentary About NY’s Burned Over District In The Works
A new documentary film about the religious history of 19th century Western New York is in production.
Burned Over, a reference to the region’s nickname, “The Burned-over District,” focuses on the history of the Oneida Community, a commune led by John Humphrey Noyes, and the Fox sisters, the two girls from outside Rochester that launched the phenomenon of spiritualism.
The film was halted by the pandemic, but now a new fundraising campaign on Kickstarter has been launched and a new teaser has been released. [Read more…] about New Documentary About NY’s Burned Over District In The Works
The Campaign Against the Oneida Community
This week on The Historians podcast Michael Doyle discusses his new book on a 19th century utopian community in Upstate New York, The Ministers’ War: John W. Mears, the Oneida Community, and the Crusade for Public Morality.
Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about The Campaign Against the Oneida Community
Uncle Johnny’s Girl Farm: Pulp Magazines and Utopian Fantasies
On Sunday, March 19th at 1 pm, the Oneida Community Mansion House (OCMH) will host Dr. Molly Jessup as she speaks about mid-twentieth century male escapism and pulp fiction fantasies in her presentation Uncle Johnny’s Girl Farm: Escapism Through Utopian Fantasy.
Today, the Oneida Community is known for its utopian social practices, including equality between women and men. But in the 1950s and 1960s, a number of men’s magazines, such as Man’s Conquest and Men, published salacious stories about “Uncle Johnny’s girl farm” and “the sex cult that rocked New York.” [Read more…] about Uncle Johnny’s Girl Farm: Pulp Magazines and Utopian Fantasies