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Reading Group for Backwoods Utopias

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Posted by geekout

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I'm going to be reading a book called Backwoods Utopias, by Bestor, about utopian communities in the 1800s, influenced by Robert Owen, an early Socialist. This was one of the groups that Marx called, derisively, "utopian socialists".


If you'd like to discuss the book, or have read the book, or would like to read the book with a group, I'm down for starting a reading group.

Presently, I'm in another group that's reading John Brown by WEB DuBois. It's pretty great! Here's the URL for that group:  https://www.publicintellectuals.org/forum/topic/book-club-john-brown-by-web-dubois-starting-up/


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Reply by geekout

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Sorry about the lateness. I had to purchase a copy on ebay. It was kind of expensive.

I can shoot some photos of the pages if you want, and you can read them from jpegs. If you get tired of that, just buy the book, or quit reading it.

I'm feeling a little delayed, because I joined a Zinn book club, and I'm behind.

The John Brown club is going to move on to reading Black Reconstruction. BR should be fucking awesome, or horrific, or both. Join us if you want - this is one of the important books of the century, according to a lot of people.


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Reply by Soy Boy LaCroix

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I just subscribed to that site’s newsletter, thank you for linking to it! Unfortunately, I had trouble finding an archived copy of it through a cursory Google search, and don’t have links to, uh, copyright-infringing archives which might have a pdf or epub available.


Is yours print or digital? If it’s the latter, and you have the means to share the text, I’d be super down to join in the reading! Considering how interesting some of Marx’s political and philosophical opponents were (figures like Bakunin, Proudhon, and Stirner come to mind), it’s only fair that I get a better background on the Owenites.


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