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An Assassin in Utopia
- Author
- Susan Wels
- Narrator
- Kitty Hendrix
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 7 February 2023
- Run Time
- 7 hours 12 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
This true crime odyssey explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the listener from a free-love community in upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield.
It was heaven on earth—and, some whispered, the devil’s garden.
Thousands came by trains and carriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wild woodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds of Ayrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place—especially the women, with their queer cropped hair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of this strange outpost worked and slept together—without sin, they claimed.
From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony in upstate New York—the Oneida Community—was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community—Charles Julius Guiteau—assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook America to its core.
An Assassin in Utopia is the first book that weaves together these explosive stories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder. This deeply researched narrative—by bestselling author Susan Wels—tells the true, interlocking stories of the Oneida Community and its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol, the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, founder of the New Yorker and the New York Tribune; and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfield—who was assassinated after his first six months in office.
Critics Review
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“Kitty Hendrix has a truly American voice—full of energy and tough optimism. It’s the perfect voice for this captivating history…It’s the sound of a time when the American Dream turned into a national nightmare. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile
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“Wels’s kaleidoscopic romp is an undeniable thrill.”
New York Times
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“Packed with colorful characters…an engrossing account of Victorian-era American eccentricity. I was thoroughly immersed.”
Washington Post
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“The descriptions are vivid, the pace is brisk, and the connections among its characters are often surprising. Informative, and entertaining.”
Wall Street Journal
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“Both fascinating and shocking, with uncanny parallels to today’s news stories.”
Library Journal
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“A deeply researched, riveting book…I strongly recommend it.”
Michael Krasny, professor emeritus of American literature and former host of public radio’s KQED Forum
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“Juggling incels and libertines, the mighty and the mightily deranged, Susan Wels deftly brings us this close to an amazing cast of real-life nineteenth century characters—admirable and horrific, brilliant and doomed, messianic and utterly mad—making them newly relatable to our era.”
Chris Connelly, ABC News correspondent
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“An immensely enjoyable and engrossing book. Self-proclaimed messiahs, patronage-dealing politicians, ink-stained journalists, table-rapping mediums, tent-raising charlatans: All are trying to make their mark in Gilded Age America. And, remarkably, all their paths cross in An Assassin in Utopia, with surprising and tragic results.”
John Kelly, Washington Post columnist
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Susan Wels
- Narrator
- Kitty Hendrix
- Duration
- 7 hours 12 minutes
- Release Date
- 7 February 2023
- ISBN
- 9798212378239
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- True crime, True crime: serial killers and murderers, History of the Americas
Synopsis
This true crime odyssey explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the listener from a free-love community in upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield.It was heaven on earth—and, some whispered, the devil’s garden.Thousands came by trains and carriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wild woodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds of Ayrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at the people who lived in this place—especially the women, with their queer cropped hair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of this strange outpost worked and slept together—without sin, they claimed.From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony in upstate New York—the Oneida Community—was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community—Charles Julius Guiteau—assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook America to its core.An Assassin in Utopia is the first book that weaves together these explosive stories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder. This deeply researched narrative—by bestselling author Susan Wels—tells the true, interlocking stories of the Oneida Community and its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol, the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, founder of the New Yorker and the New York Tribune; and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfield—who was assassinated after his first six months in office.
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