Oneida

Starred review from March 7, 2016
In this impressively thorough and engaging work, Wayland-Smith tells the story of the Oneida Community, a 19th-century utopian Christian commune that later became known for silverware manufacturing. The author, a descendent of community founder John Humphry Noyes, combines stellar research with exceptional critical analysis that considers the community in light of the work of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and George Bernard Shaw. Organized in upstate New York in 1848, Oneida was marked by a practical approach to finances and countercultural religious beliefs, including free love or “complex marriage.” A schism split the religious community and it dissolved as Noyes grew old, but his descendants continued to run Oneida’s business operations—primarily silk, animal trap, and iron spoon factories. Their spoon factory soon shone brightest, becoming one of the top silverware companies in the country until its 2006 bankruptcy. Wayland-Smith demonstrates that Oneida was very much a product of its time, placing the community in the context of the Second Great Awakening and the expansion of American capitalism while highlighting Noyes’s incorporation of communism, utopianism, eugenics, and spiritualism (among other aspects of industrial modernism) into his belief system. This book is a fascinating look into the strange history of Oneida silverware and how its origins reflect an exhilarating period of American history. Agent: Rob McQuilkin, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

April 15, 2016
A study of the unlikely origins of one of America's most recognizable brands.For many, little bears the white, middle-class stamp of approval of monogamy more than the timeless wedding gift of silver. But Wayland-Smith (Writing/Univ. of Southern California), great-granddaughter of the former vice president and treasurer of Oneida Limited, unearths the eyebrow-raising history of the rural New York free love-espousing community that spawned one of this country's top silverware makers. Founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes, the Oneida Community brought together a tightknit group of Christian religious dissenters who, for 30 years, pooled their assets and lived as one in a "commune-cum-capitalist powerhouse." Wayland-Smith carefully details the rich biography of Noyes, the fascinating sex-obsessed theologian who had his minister's license from Yale Divinity revoked after he began subscribing to Perfectionism, the belief that a sinner could "not only reform himself by making the right moral choices but also be made 'perfect'--free from sin--simply by accepting God's grace." Finding the traditional definition of Christian marriage too confining, Noyes proceeded to fashion his doctrine to practice eugenics and allow for--indeed to celebrate--completely open relationships, which had the somewhat unintended effect of dissolving (for a time) the strictures of traditional 19th-century gender roles for women. Oneida women were able to undertake the same jobs as their male counterparts and encouraged to shun the restrictive, corseted stays of Victorian dress for more practical attire. The narrative is occasionally dry, but the author offers as in-depth an account as possible of Oneida origins, given that, in 1947, unknown persons burned the community's historical records in an attempt to purge the by-then well-respected industrial giant of its racy past. The spotlight she shines on this remarkable community's beginnings and ending offers a riveting glimpse into the quintessentially American early-19th-century struggle with the rights of the individual and separation of church and state. A smartly contextualized tale of "the tension between radical social critique and unapologetic accommodation...between communal harmony and individual striving."

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2016

In the early 19th century, an odd, socially awkward, and unlikely leader named John Humphrey Noyes (1811-86), similar to other self-proclaimed ministers of the Second Great Awakening, claimed to have exclusive knowledge about Jesus's millennial kingdom. Noyes believed in the perfectibility of human nature and built an intricate revolutionary community of free love and equality. The Oneidans grew to fairly modest but self-sustaining numbers and eventually built businesses to support their way of life. One of these enterprises included flatware. After the Oneidans disbanded in 1880, they converted to a joint-stock company and Oneida Community Limited (now known as Oneida Limited) would become one of the most well-respected brands of silverware for middle-class American families. Author Wayland-Smith is a descendant of Noyes and teaches writing at the University of Southern California. VERDICT This compelling narrative seamlessly threads the unlikely alliance between a "free love utopia" and a household brand name. Fans of Joseph Ellis and David McCullough will appreciate this engrossing entry.--Erin Entrada Kelly, Philadelphia

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2016
Notorious in the nineteenth century for its practice of free love and open marriage, the Oneida commune of upstate New York is better known in the present for its business operations, the famous silverware company. Long gone is the sharing of all work, wealth, and governance. Long gone also is the committee that scheduled couplings of its men and women. By the start of the twentieth century, the utopian agricultural commune following the radical religious ideals of John Humphrey Noyes, a proponent of communism and eugenics who coined the term free love, had become a mainstream manufacturing corporation run by its descendants, an inbred tangle of families trying to forget their past. Despite a secretly executed bonfire of most of Oneida's early documents in the 1940s, the story survives. Drawing from letters, diaries, newsletters, and family stories, the author, an original-family descendant, adds inside information to this retelling of a radical movement's transformation in the shifting current of American ideals. The narrative is engaging and detailed. This is a must-read for those interested in American social history, and should have broad appeal to readers who enjoy microhistories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)