Awards

• Winner of Washington State Book Award (Hist/Gen Nonfiction) 2015

Overview

The true story of an anarchist colony on a remote Puget Sound peninsula, Trying Home traces the history of Home, Washington, from its founding in 1896 to its dissolution amid bitter infighting in 1921. As a practical experiment in anarchism, Home offered its participants a rare degree of freedom and tolerance in the Gilded Age, but the community also became notorious to the outside world for its open rejection of contemporary values. Using a series of linked narratives, Trying Home reveals the stories of the iconoclastic individuals who lived in Home, among them Lois Waisbrooker, an advocate of women’s rights and free love, who was arrested for her writings after the assassination of President McKinley; Jay Fox, editor of The Agitator, who defended his right to free speech all the way to the Supreme Court; and Donald Vose, a young man who grew up in Home and turned spy for a detective agency. Justin Wadland weaves his own discovery of Home—and his own reflections on the concept of home—into the story, setting the book apart from a conventional history. After discovering the newspapers published in the colony, Wadland ventures beyond the documents to explore the landscape, travelling by boat along the steamer route most visitors once took to the settlement. He visits Home to talk with people who live there now. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Trying Home will fascinate scholars and general readers alike, especially those interested in the history of the Pacific Northwest, utopian communities, and anarchism.

Full Product Details

9780870717420

Table of Contents

Reviews

Justin Wadland, librarian for the University of Washington, has written an engaging and often personal account of the history of Home. Dale E. Soden, <i>The Historian</i>

Justin Wadland, librarian for the University of Washington, has written an engaging and often personal account of the history of Home. Dale E. Soden, The Historian [Trying Home] makes its own welcome contribution to the literature of utopian communities in the Northwest. Dale E. Soden, The Historian

[<i>Trying Home</i>] makes its own welcome contribution to the literature of utopian communities in the Northwest. Dale E. Soden, <i>The Historian</i>

[Trying Home] makes its own welcome contribution to the literature of utopian communities in the Northwest. Dale E. Soden, The Historian

Author Information

Justin Wadland works as a librarian at the University of Washington Tacoma Library, USA. He holds an MLIS from the University of Washington and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University. His reviews and creative writing have appeared in Rain Taxi Review of Books, The Believer, Crab Creek Review, and other publications.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available