Radical Roots, Utopian Legacies

This is a review of two books that cover cooperative movements, communalism, and utopia in California. The review serves as a vehicle for observations on how cooperative communal movements have influenced each other and the development of radical reform and revolutionary movements from the nineteenth century to the present day. The review, much like the books, looks beyond the communes of the 1960s and fleshes out some differences and similarities between urban and rural movements. The review also charts a radical genealogy of cooperative communalism from the nineteenth century to current movements such as Occupy Oakland.