Dreamers of the American Dream

Visionaries, crackpots, fanatics, dreamers, suffragettes, temperanceworkers, be-sloganned devotees of betterment in marriage,religion, sex, alcohol, labor relations, penal codes & the treatmentof mental illness rub shoulders in a book which encompasses theAmerican dream of Utopia, sobriety & the pursuit of happiness.The shouting & axe-swinging reformer, Carrie Nation, splinteredsaloon mirrors. At Sherrill, NY, John Humphrey Noyes, founderof the Putney Corporation of Perfectionists, fostered 'complexmarriage'-an apt description, since fidelity & exclusiveness inmatrimony were frowned upon. Laura Bridgman, Louis Dwight,Dorothea Dix, Susan B. Anthony & Mrs Stanton fought theirmercurial & protracted battles-usually in defense of the rights ofothers: the deaf, the blind, the insane & the weaker sex. Holbrook'ssummation of these prophets of Excelsior should interest anyonewith even a flickering interest in the history of the country & theevolution of the society we know.