List of Fourierist Associations in the United States

The Harbinger (formerly The Phalanx), was the primary organ of the Fourierist movement in the United States.

This is a list of Fourierist Associations in the United States which emerged during a short-lived popular boom during the first half of the 1840s. Between 1843 and 1845 more than 30 such "associations" – known to their adherents as "phalanxes" – were established in the United States, all of which met with economic failure and rapid disestablishment within one or a comparatively few years.

The Fourierist movement of the 1840s was one of the four primary branches of secular utopian socialism in the United States during the 19th century, succeeding Owenism (1825–27) while antedating Icarianism (1848–98) and Bellamyism (1889–96).

Background

The communitarian ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837) were popularized in the United States in a 1840 book by the American Albert Brisbane as well as through a column by Brisbane in the pages of Horace Greeley's New York Tribune in 1842 and 1843.

The Fourierist movement followed an earlier attempt to remake society through exemplary socialist communities attempted on American soil by Robert Owen from 1825 until 1827. John Humphrey Noyes, a historian of these movements in addition to being a communal leader in his own right, noted the difference in the following way:

"The main idea on which Owen and Fourier worked was the same. Both proposed to reconstruct society by gathering large numbers into unitary dwellings. Owen had as clear sense of the compound economies of Association as Fourier had, and discoursed as eloquently, if not as scientifically on the beauties and blessings of combined industry.... The difference in their methods is this: Owen's plan was based on Communism [communalism]; Fourier's plan was based on the Joint-stock principle.^[1]

List

Name	Location	Launched	Terminated	Comments
Adelphia Phalanx	Michigan	1844	1847
Bloomfield Association	New York	1844	1846
Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education	West Roxbury, MA	1841	1847	Unitarian Transcendentalist until 1844, Fourierist thereafter.
Bureau County Phalanx	Bureau County, IL	1843	1843
Clarkson Industrial Association	New York	1844	1844
Clermont Phalanx	Ohio	1844	1846	Established in aftermath of Sept. 1843 Pittsburgh "Western Fourier Convention."[2]
Columbia Phalanx	Ohio	1844	1845?
Goose Pond Community	Pennsylvania	1844	1844
Hopedale Community	Massachusetts	1843	???	Mentioned in Frederic Heath (ed.), Social Democracy Red Book [1900], pg. 15.
Integral Phalanx	Sangamon, IL	1845	1846	Also known as "Sangamon Phalanx." Established in aftermath of Sept. 1843 Pittsburgh "Western Fourier Convention."[2]
Jefferson County Industrial Association	Watertown, NY	1843	1844
LaGrange Phalanx	Indiana	1844	1846
Leroyville Phalanx	Indiana	1844	1844
McKean County Association	McKean County, PA	1843	???
Marlboro Association	Ohio	1841	1845
Moorehouse Union	Hamilton County, NY	1843	1844	Straddled and crossed county line with Herkimer County.
North American Phalanx	Colts Neck, NJ	1843	1856	Last surviving Fourierist Association from the 1840s boom.
Northampton Association	Massachusetts	1842	1846
Ohio Phalanx	Ohio	1844	1845	Established in aftermath of Sept. 1843 Pittsburgh "Western Fourier Convention."[2]
One-Mention Community	Pennsylvania	1843	1844
Ontario Phalanx	Monroe County, NY	1844	???
Prairie Home Community	Logan County, OH	1843	???	Also known as "Grand Prairie Community."
Raritan Bay Union	Perth Amboy, NJ	1853	1860
Social Reform Unity	Pennsylvania	1842	1843
Sodus Bay Phalanx	New York	1844	1844
Spring Farm Association	Wisconsin	1846	1848
Sylvania Association	Pike County, PA	1843	1845	Horace Greeley was Treasurer of this phalanx.[3]
Trumball Phalanx	Ohio	1844	1847	Established in aftermath of Sept. 1843 Pittsburgh "Western Fourier Convention."[2]
Utilitarian Association	Wisconsin	1844	1844
Western New York Industrial Association	New York	1844	???
Wisconsin Phalanx	Ceresco, WI (now Ripon)	1844	1850	One of the longest-lived phalanxes of the 1840s boom.
Zanesville Phalanx	Logan County, OH	1843	???	Also known as "Upper Domain" or "Highland Home." Small offshoot of Prairie Home Community, visited by MacDonald in August 1843.[4]

Source: William Alfred Hinds, American Communities. Second edition. Chicago, IL: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908; pg. 250. (unless otherwise noted)

See also

• List of Owenite communities in the United States

Footnotes

1. John Humphrey Noyes, History of American Socialisms. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1870; pp. 193-194.
2. Carl J. Guarneri, The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991; pg. 230.
3. Noyes, History of American Socialisms, pg. 208.
4. Noyes, History of American Socialisms, pp. 318-320.

Further reading

• T.D. Seymour Bassett, "The Secular Utopian Socialists," in Donald Drew Egbert and Stow Persons (eds.), Socialism and American Life: Volume 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952; pp. 153–211.
• Herman J. Belz, The North American Phalanx: An Experiment in Fourierist Socialism, 1843-1855. PhD dissertation. Princeton University, 1959.
• Herman Belz, "The North American Phalanx: An Experiment in Socialism," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. 81 (Oct. 1963), pp. 215–247.
• Carl J. Guarneri, The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.
• Morris Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States. [1903] Revised Fifth Edition. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1910.
• William Alfred Hinds, American Communities and Co-operative Colonies, Second Edition. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908.
• John Humphrey Noyes, History of American Socialisms. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1880.
• Samuel M. Pedrick, "Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx," Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its 50th Annual Meeting held Dec. 11, 1902. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1903; pp. 190–226.
• Charles Sears, The North American Phalanx: An Historical and Descriptive Sketch. Prescott, WI: John M. Pryse, 1886.
• Edward K. Spann, Brotherly Tomorrows: Movements for a Cooperative Society in America, 1820-1920. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.