Drawing on archival material from Shaker members, observers, and
apostates, noted historian Suzanne R. Thurman offers a scholarly
yet eminently readable study of life in two of the oldest, most
prominent American Shaker villages: the Harvard and Shirley
communities of massachusetts.
Even as she delves into the complex fabric of Shaker social
life, Thurman challenges traditional perceptions of gender roles
within the community. Shaker spiritual and social ethics, she
points out, strongly favored women. Celibacy and an androgynous
theology, for instance, allowed androgynous social roles to evolve.
Another key factor was the lively arena of nineteenth-century
reformers and intellectuals in nearby Boston. With admirable
detail, Thurman documents the relationship that grew between these
forward thinkers and the Believers. Their influence, she argues,
enlightened Shaker consciousness and empowered their women of
Harvard and Shirley with opportunities denied them in the world at
large.
The author also explores links, particularly economic, between
Shakers and the greater American society. Treating Harvard and
Shirley Believers as an idiosyncratic part of the nation rather
than a fringe group, Thurman sheds new light on their constant
struggle to be in the world but not of it.
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