Miss Martineau’s Account of Communities in America, in Competition in Peril by Bower.
Commentary on Harriet Martineau’s writing
(Martineau) Bower, Samuel. Competition in peril. Or the present position of the Owenites or Rationalists, considered. Together with Miss Martineau’s account of communities in America. Leeds: Printed by J. Hobson, 1837.
12mo.; 12p.; blank beige wrappers; rough edges.
First edition of this pamphlet by naturalist writer Samuel Bower, which includes a lengthy commentary on the writing of female sociologist Harriet Martineau. Bower quotes Martineau’s writing on the “moral and economical principles” of American communities, specifically those of the Shaker religious sect in parts of Massachusetts; the legacy of the Shakers included their observation of gender equality, which they institutionalized in the 1780s. Bower goes on to contrast the ideas of Utopian societies with Rationalist views.
Bower, an early disciple of the eccentric British philosopher James Pierrepont Greaves, Bower later joined Bronson Alcott’s vegan community in Harvard, Massachusetts, in 1843, after developing an interest in the idea of Utopian communities. After a few months, Bower left to experiment with naturism, the belief that clothing is spiritually stifling. In 1838 Bower published The Peopling of Utopia, or a Sufficiency of Socialism for Human Happiness.
OCLC locates two copies of this edition in the United States, at Emory University and California State University in Los Angeles.
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