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News ReleaseFor Immediate Release
Suppose you could live, surrounded by congenial, caring neighbors, in a perfect community where crime, poverty, violence and injustice are unknown. Since colonial times, this has been one of the most persistent of American dreams. Unfortunately, most ideal communities remain in the realm of daydreams, and most of those which do not are dismal failures. One of the most successful flourished for fifteen years, from 1841 to 1856, in Hopedale, Massachusetts. Much has been written about America's communitarian heritage, but little that is accessible to children and families. A new book, To Live a Truer Life: A Story of the Hopedale Community (Blackstone Editions, 2003, ISBN 0-9725017-2-X, $20.00), fills this gap by presenting the history and ideals of the Hopedale Community in language a child can understand. Author Lynn Gordon Hughes, a graduate student in United States history at Brown University, based the story on the community's newspaper and the accounts of the participants. Artist Linda Rogers - known professionally as Lindro - has used archival photographs and drawings to create illustrations which combine a wealth of period detail with the simplicity of a period folk-art painting. In 32 pages of simple text and pictures, To Live a Truer Life takes its readers on a tour of Hopedale in 1855, guided by the community's lively eight-year-old mail carrier, Susie. As she makes her rounds, Susie tells of the community's commitment to nonviolence, their approach to education, economy and recreation, their involvement in the antislavery movement and the Underground Railroad, women's rights and dress reform, and what happened when a burglar came to town. All of these topics are addressed in a child's voice, in words intended for a child's ear. Here is Susie's explanation of the community's philosophy of nonviolence, which they called Christian Non-Resistance: "Resist means fight back. Non-Resistant means we don't fight back - no matter what! Everyone who lives in Hopedale has to promise never to kill, hurt, or hate anybody, even their worst enemy." This is not a story of life in a simpler, more idyllic time. The 1850s were a time of slavery, widespread disillusionment with American political institutions, and approaching civil war. In the mill towns of central Massachusetts, workers faced unemployment, starvation wages, child labor, and the unregulated industrial expansion that ultimately brought about the community's downfall. To Live a Truer Life is a tribute to a group of women and men who, against the odds, managed to create a just, compassionate, and meaningful life for themselves and their children. To Live a Truer Life may be purchased on-line from Amazon.com. It and other books about the Hopedale Community and its founder, Adin Ballou, are available (at a 10% discount) from Friends of Adin Ballou at www.adinballou.org.
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