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An Assassin in Utopia
An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder | Susan Wels
4 posts | 5 read | 1 to read
This true crime odyssey explores a forgotten, astonishing chapter of American history, leading the reader from a free-love community in upstate New York to the shocking assassination of President James Garfield. It was heaven on earth�and, (…more)
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review
KathyWheeler
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Mehso-so

I wanted to like this more than I did. The stories were interesting, but they‘re pretty loosely connected. Implying that the Oneida community had any role in Guiteau‘s assassination of Garfield because he lived there for awhile is a bit of a stretch. Their ideology and practices, as far as I can tell from this book, weren‘t part of his motivation for the killing. The members of the community seem to have found him off putting. #audiowalk

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KathyWheeler
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So far, we‘re getting a lot of separate lives of people, such as Garfield, John Noyes, Horace Greeley, and Margaret Fuller, without a whole lot of connections being made. There are some, but not much. I presume they will all converge at some point. #audiowalk

Bookwormjillk I‘m reading the new Garfield biography now. I‘ll have to add this to my list. 1y
18 likes1 comment
review
Sophronisba
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Mehso-so

Read on its own, this is fine, but it's impossible not to compare it to Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic, which is much better. Spoiler: Garfield's assassination doesn't have that much to do with Oneida, but I guess the publishers couldn't resist getting “sex cult“ into the title.

review
Librarybelle
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Mehso-so

While the anecdotal histories presented are very interesting and connected tangentially by various people, I feel like the title does not completely fit the book. Yes, the Oneida community and President Garfield‘s assassination are discussed, but it‘s almost like the author needed some filler stories to make this a book (and the book itself is a smidge over 200 pages text). Interesting, but also disappointing.