The Modern Utopian

Back to the Land. Urban communes. Sustainable cooperatives. Thirty years ago, alternative communities swept the nation. Today, with sustainability, peak oil and retirement concerns, people of all ages are reviving and expanding notions of cooperative living as new communities form and thrive.

The Modern Utopian is the definitive exploration of the alternative communities that fascinated a nation and redefined progressive culture in the ‘60s and ‘70s, documented by those who knew it and lived it. This photo-illustrated compilation of articles visits the fabled Drop City, Morningstar Ranch, Timothy Leary at Millbrook, Detroit’s Translove Energies, the still-thriving Twin Oaks and Stephen Gaskin’s Farm, and dozens of other across the nation.

An afterword by author Timothy Miller (Religious Movements in the United States) reveals how several hundred intentional communities now span the USA and more form every year.

Global warming . . . recession . . . peak oil . . . data smog . . . by necessity and by choice, thousands of people are once again being drawn toward collective living, this time empowered by the successes and failures of the past.

Contributions include writings by Alan Watts, Nick Tosches, and The Underground Press Syndicate.

Richard Fairfield is author of the Penguin book “Communes USA” (1972). Fairfield self-published dozens of magazines in the '70s, documenting experimental community groups across the country.