Abstract

James Pratt shares the intriguing story of La Réunion, a utopian community based on the ideas of the French philosopher Charles Fourier that struggled to survive in the rough north Texas countryside of the 1850s. After opening with a brief description of Fourier's optimistic ideas, Pratt introduces us to Victor Considerant, Auguste Savardan, and a cast of colorful characters who tried to make the French thinker's bold vision a reality in the American West. Considerant set the ball in motion when he visited Texas and described it as an ideal place to build a communal paradise. He soon attracted a host of European and American adventurers eager to track his footsteps and begin their Lone Star escapade. This was no easy task. Considerant's agents struggled to find free land open for settlement and were eventually forced to purchase a few thousand acres just west of the small town of Dallas....

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