Provides an introduction to the philosophy of the Shakers, the most successful and long-lived Utopian society in history, and features readings that examine the contributions of the Shakers to various aspects of American life, including architecture, furniture, medicine, farming, music, and others.

"Will Rees is adjusting to life on his Maine farm in 1797, but he's already hungering for the freedom of the road, and his chance to travel comes sooner than he expects. Lydia has just received a letter from her old friend Mouse, a soft-spoken and gentle woman who now lives in the Shaker community in Mount Unity, New York. To Lydia and Rees's astonishment, she's in trouble with the law. She's kidnapped five children, claiming that their mother, Maggie...

Gabrielle Hope has a special gift of "knowing" the future. When she and her mother join the Pleasant Hill Shaker community in 1807, the members embrace her ability, although it sometimes frightens quiet Gabrielle. But when one vision comes true, a chain of events and an unlikely love challenge her loyalty to this chaste community.

Introduces the Shaker lifestyle with full color photographs of Shaker architecture and furniture, crafts and clothing, textiles and gardens.

"In 1971, a property speculator named Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reel-to-reel machine. Reflecting on his childhood in the early twentieth century, Harley recounts that after his father's sudden death, his family migrated down to Florida's swamplands--mere miles away from what would become Disney World--to join a community of Shakers. Led by Elder John, a generous man with a mysterious past, the colony devoted itself to labor,...

Tells the story of one of America's last Shaker communities during its twilight years, and of its seven remarkable "survivor" women, who were among the last representatives of our longest-lived and best-known communal utopian society.