Utopian communities intrigue UConn history professor

One hundred and sixty-five years ago and about 50 miles from Storrs, a utopian community flourished.

The site, just up the road from Northampton, Mass., doesn't draw much attention these days, except perhaps from scholars of history, or motorists heading to the Berkshires.

But in the decades preceding the Civil War, utopian communities dotted America's landscape, and historians have long delighted in studying them.

One of the recognized experts on these social experiments is Christopher Clark, a British-born professor in UConn's History Department.

Clark's research tends toward such broad themes as the cultural history of economic life in the United States, social reform movements, and the history of capitalism.

His work intersects with and augments some of what his UConn colleagues are also studying, but in the area of utopian communities, he stands alone.

"My research focuses on the social history of economic life in rural areas," Clark says.

"I'm interested in how people made a living, and the impact of their economic choices on other aspects of life."

His early writing looked at how industry arose in the countryside, and how capitalism operated in a handful of agrarian communities in New England in the 1800s.

Later, he narrowed his scope to the Northampton Community.

Or, as he puts it, "My first book was about six towns, and my second about 500 acres."

Dating back to the 1600s, utopian communities - including the well-known Shakers - have grown up in the United States and faded away, with wild fluctuations in their numbers.

Today, one study estimates there are about 277.

Clark says that beyond being social experiments, these communities are difficult to pigeonhole.

"Some were religious. Some were secular. Some revolved around a charismatic leader; others didn't," he says.

"About the only generalization you can make is that the longer-lasting communities radically rejected traditional social and family relationships."

In the Northampton Community, the desire to abolish slavery united the group, which was loosely linked to the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.

But even with their unity on what was perhaps the most important issue of the day, members of the group clashed on other matters, such as whether parents or the community should exercise control over children.

Clark says that since the formal structure of society and government had been abandoned in Northampton in favor of a conscience-guided community, such questions were not easily resolved.

Serendipity stepped in twice to bring Clark to Northampton.