Communal Studies Resources

The Center for Communal Studies and Collections has excellent resources on twentieth-century and contemporary North American intentional societies. The Communal Studies Collection at Rice Library has materials on over 600 contemporary and historic communities, including approximately 25,000 photographs. The Center for Communal Studies (situated with the University Archives and Special Collections, Rice Library 3022) serves as a reference room and as a space for study and meetings.

Organizations

Current Communities

Historic Communities

Publications

Recent publications in Communal Studies

Matchsticks Comtemplating Eternity

Brown, Gregory W., Matchsticks Contemplating Eternity: Life, Death, and Faith in What is. Wipf and Stock, 2022. ISBN 13: 978-1-6667-3408-9 Softcover $49 Hardcover ISBN 13: 9781666729566 Hardcover Retail: $64 Click to see the interview with author, Gregory W. Brown.

The Business of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Architecture of Communal Societies in the 1960's and 1970's

Schwenkbeck, Rahima, The Business of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Architecture of Communal Societies in the 1960s and 1970s. Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2021 edition. ISBN 13: 978-3030883539 Kindle $126 Hardcover ISBN 13: 978-3030883539 Hardcover Retail: $117 Click to see the interview with author, Rahima Schwenkbeck.

Seeing Like a Commons

Lockyer, Joshua. Seeking Like a Commons. Eighty Years of Intentional Community Building and Commons Stewardship in Celo, North Carolina. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. Click to see the interview with author Joshua Lockyer and Dr. Donald Pitzer.

What is Happening in your Community? Why Community Development Matters

Hanka, Matthew J., What is Happening in your Community? Why Community Development Matters. Lanham Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

Growing Good: A Beginner's Guide to Cultivating Caring Communities

Bill Hemminger (editor). Growing Good. A Beginners Guide to Cultivating Caring Communities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021.

Camphill and the Future: Spirituality and Disability in an Evolving Communal Movement

McKanan, Dan. Camphill and the Future: Spirituality and Disability in an Evolving Communal Movement Oakland: University of California Press, 2020

A New Social Question: Capitalism, Socialism and Utopia

Casey Harison, ed., A New Social Question: Capitalism, Socialism and Utopia (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015).

George Rapp: Thoughts on the Destiny of Man, Particularly with Reference to the Present Times by the Harmony Society in Indiana A. D. 1824: A Critical Study

Rode, Silvia. George Rapp. Gedanken über die Bestimmung des Menschen besonders in Hinsicht der gegenwärtigen Zeit von der Harmonie Gesellschaft in Indiana 1824 [Thoughts on the Destiny of Man, Particularly with Reference to the Present Times; by the Harmony Society in Indiana A. D. 1824]. A Critical Study. Indianapolis: NCSA Literatur, 2018.

Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian Origins and the Owenite Phase of Communitarian Socialism in America, 1663-1829

Reprint of Arthur Bestor's Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian Origin and The Owenite Phase of Communitarian Socialism in America 1663-1829, with new introduction by Donald E. Pitzer (Wipf and Stick Publisher, 2012).

Demographic Directory of the Harmony Society

Eileen English, Demographic Directory of the Harmony Society (Richard Couper Press, 2011).

New Harmony Then and Now

Donald E. Pitzer and Darryl Jones, New Harmony Then and Now (Indiana University Press, 2012).

From New Lanark to Mound Bayou: Owenism in the Mississippi Delta

Joel Nathan Rosen, From New Lanark to Mound Bayou: Owenism in the Mississippi Delta (Carolina Academic Press, 2011).

Maclure of New Harmony: Scientist, Progressive Educator, Radical Philanthropist

Leonard Warren, Maclure of New Harmony (Indiana University Press, 2009).