Theodore Kallman illuminates the brief life of a Christian socialist community founded by four men-a minister, an editor, a professor, and an engineer-on a worn-out cotton plantation just outside Columbus, Georgia, in 1896. Inspired by primitive Christianity, postmillennial optimism, and American democracy, its courageous, yet naïve, members labored for over four years to achieve their goal, the "Kingdom of God" on earth. Radical by some perspectives, they were emulating two great traditions: the apostolic Christianity of the followers of Christ and the Puritan desire to found a "city upon the hill." Kallman explains how Christ's Sermon on the Mount and the anarchism of Leo Tolstoy took root in west-central Georgia and attracted worldwide attention, including that of Tolstoy and Jane Addams. Their experiment was unique, but they joined thousands of disgruntled Americans who sought to challenge the Gilded Age's unfettered capitalism. Although the Christian Commonwealth only lasted until 1901, its combination of religious communitarianism and socialist ideology proved attractive to many during its existence. They did not realize their hope for social salvation, but for many, personal regeneration brought on by love and sacrifice led them to further endeavors in pursuit of a more humane world. In Kallman's capable hands, what appears to be a minor blip on the history of Georgia and radical thought in the United States instead emerges as a story that teaches us much about Gilded Age America and provides a necessary context for the surging interest in America's socialist past

Mode of access: World Wide Web