Utopian Movements and Ideas of the Great Depression

Dreamers, Believers, and Madmen

Utopian Movements and Ideas of the Great Depression explores several lesser known movements for change and reform in the Great Depression Era of the 1930s. It includes studies of a few communal societies, proposals for reform, and analyses of several books written in the 1930s that propose solutions to the nation's economic ills. Arguably, America has been a Utopian experiment from its beginning; these movements and ideas of the 1930s were the latest manifestation of that experiment to that time. Despite their lack of obvious success, they represent an important American idea—that an average person could devise solutions to society's problems. They embody the American belief in progress and the power of the individual.