Overview

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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Reviews

"Susan Wels deftly brings us this close to an amazing cast of real-life nineteenth century characters...making them (and their vivid emotions) newly relatable to our era. You'll be casting An Assassin in Utopia in your head, even as it demonstrates that Free Love is anything but, and that one man can make a difference, often in the worst way possible. -- ""Chris Connelly, ABC News correspondent"" Susan Wels has assembled a large and rowdy cast of characters in this immensely enjoyable and engrossing book...All their paths cross in An Assassin in Utopia with surprising and tragic results. -- ""The Washington Post"" Susan Wels is a gifted and masterful storyteller. Her book is a fascinating, well-told tale of a presidential assassination and sexually unbridled would-be utopia...An Assassin in Utopia is a deeply researched, riveting book told with impressive command and narrative power. I strongly recommend it. -- ""Michael Krasny, Professor Emeritus of American Literature"""

Susan Wels deftly brings us this close to an amazing cast of real-life nineteenth century characters...making them (and their vivid emotions) newly relatable to our era. You'll be casting An Assassin in Utopia in your head, even as it demonstrates that Free Love is anything but, and that one man can make a difference, often in the worst way possible. -- Chris Connelly, ABC News correspondent Susan Wels has assembled a large and rowdy cast of characters in this immensely enjoyable and engrossing book...All their paths cross in An Assassin in Utopia with surprising and tragic results. -- The Washington Post Susan Wels is a gifted and masterful storyteller. Her book is a fascinating, well-told tale of a presidential assassination and sexually unbridled would-be utopia...An Assassin in Utopia is a deeply researched, riveting book told with impressive command and narrative power. I strongly recommend it. -- Michael Krasny, Professor Emeritus of American Literature

Author Information

Susan Wels is a bestselling author, historian, and journalist. Her book Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner spent over a dozen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was a Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today bestseller. Wels' work as a historian includes her acclaimed San Francisco: Arts for the City as well as her research on the role of women at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Wels and her husband divide their time between the San Francisco Bay Area and their farm in the south of Chile.

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