[Kenneth Rexroth in his Communalism: From Its Origins to the 20th Century] takes the Judeo-Christian tradition rather than the Marxist as his starting point [and] is under no illusions about these modern communes, which he sees as often little more than crash pads for an uncommitted, floating, and perhaps work-shy population, who are merely opting out of the everyday world….

Mr Rexroth writes fluently, but behind his easy style there is more scholarship than he chooses to reveal (there are no footnotes, and no bibliography). One may not concur with every judgment, and one may doubt the occasional statement of fact, but a wide knowledge of the sources is always apparent. He has not chosen to offer any analysis of the structural similarities between movements, nor does he draw at all on the now well developed sociology of communitarian movements, but the reader looking for a general account...