Savardan, Augustin:

$9,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

UN NAUFRAGE AU TEXAS. OBSERVATIONS ET IMPRESSIONS RECUEILLIES PENDANT DEUX ANS ET DEMI AU TEXAS ET A TRAVERS LES ÉTAT-UNIS D'AMÉRIQUE. A captivating account of the failed socialist utopian community at Reunion, written by the group's physician. "In 1853 Victor Considerant and Albert Brisbane journeyed by horseback through Texas, and Considerant returned to Europe full of plans for creating a utopian socialist colony there. He raised over a million francs and purchased 47,000 acres in Texas. In 1855 he returned with colonists and established the settlement of La Reunion near Dallas. Subsequently, close to 500 colonists settled there. These included writers, musicians, artists, artisans, and free spirits, but only two farmers. As might be expected, a couple of years of utopian bickering and successive Texas droughts brought the experiment to a speedy collapse. The colony was abandoned, and Considerant moved to San Antonio, where he lived until 1869 when he returned to France. Many of the colonists at La Reunion were well-educated, and Julie Considerant organized a salon in a cedar brake along the banks of the Trinity, where the colonists met to discuss the ideas of Fourier, Proudhon, Cabet, Sue, Hugo, and other writers and philosophers. Some colonists brought with them extensive libraries, several of which have found their way into university libraries in Texas" - Jenkins.The experiment at Reunion was to be one of the first exercises in practical communism. Considerant, well kn

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