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An Assassin in Utopia

The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder

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An Assassin in Utopia

By: Susan Wels
Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
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About this listen

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Susan Wels (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing
Murder True Crime United States Assassin New York Utopian

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Great lesser known US history story

The story of Guiteau and the Oneida Community is fascinating and well told. Garfield's life and rise to the presidency is also relevant and well done.

it does feel like there wasn't enough material for a full book though, so the author spends a long time on tangents, including every spiritual huckster of the early 1800s, Horace Greeley and PT Barnum.

Overall an engaging listen.

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