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Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community
by Spencer Klaw

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251780.Without_Sin_The_Life_and_Death_of_the_Oneida_Community?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1173149655m/251780.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251780.Without_Sin_The_Life_and_Death_of_the_Oneida_Community?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/147128.Spencer_Klaw">Spencer Klaw</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6337319?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars I knew nothing about the Oneida Community previous to coming across Without Sin at my local bookstore. They were a communist religious group who came together under the guidance of John Humphrey Noyes, a man convinced he was God's chosen vessel to lead the world to what he called Bible Communism. The practices and principles of Bible Communism included such concepts as Perfectionism (anyone who commits sin can't be called a Christian), Mutual Criticism (exposing oneself to the criticism of the community in face to face public meetings) and Complex Marriage (free love with the caveat that all trysts had to be sanctioned by Noyes) among others.
 
 Spencer Klaw does a pretty complete job of laying out the story of the Oneida Community and includes a great deal of interesting incidental information. For example, Charles Giteau, who would go on to assassinate president James Garfield, was a community member for some time. Apparently, the reason he left was that he had such poor luck finding sexual partners. Also, the Onedia flatware company, which still exists, was started by the Oneida community and became its most sucessful business venture.
 
 While Complex Marriage gets a lot of coverage, this book is almost completely devoid of any sort of sensationalist flavor. There are no titilating accounts of depraved sexuality, which is to Klaw's credit. As much as it seems obvious that Noyes and other core community members were up to some pretty shady sh*t in controlling sex at Oneida, Klaw deals with the subject matter in a non-opinionated, non-judgemental way. For instance, the fact that Noyes took responsibilty for the first sexual experience of most of the young girls at Oneida is discussed without judgement. Where I would say Noyes was a charismatic, manipulative, Bible banging pedophile, Klaw covers all sides of the issue with impartiality.
 
 Although women at Oneida were not allowed to raise their own children, marry, wear long skirts (they wore short skirts with pants underneath) or have long hair, they may have been treated as the closest thing to equals one will find in the United States of the 19th century. Another big bonus for the ladies was the practice of Male Continence. Men were not allowed to orgasm except when attempting procreation. This prolonged the act of sex and often meant women had orgasms, something not too many folks outside the community cared about in the late 1800's.
 
 For the painful side effects of Male Continence, Noyes recommended prayer and the application of ice. Yikes!
 
 In spite of any nutty religious shenanigans that went on, there are dozens of accounts from community members about how happy they were at Oneida. Until things fell apart in the 1890's, Noyes and his followers lived in almost perfect peace and prosperity. That, to me, is what makes the Oneida story so interesting.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/384892?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Justin's review
rating:
bookshelves: us-history
recommended for: commies, U.S. history buffs, intelligent and open minded Christians

I knew nothing about the Oneida Community previous to coming across Without Sin at my local bookstore. They were a communist religious group who came together under the guidance of John Humphrey Noyes, a man convinced he was God's chosen vessel to lead the world to what he called Bible Communism. The practices and principles of Bible Communism included such concepts as Perfectionism (anyone who commits sin can't be called a Christian), Mutual Criticism (exposing oneself to the criticism of the community in face to face public meetings) and Complex Marriage (free love with the caveat that all trysts had to be sanctioned by Noyes) among others.

Spencer Klaw does a pretty complete job of laying out the story of the Oneida Community and includes a great deal of interesting incidental information. For example, Charles Giteau, who would go on to assassinate president James Garfield, was a community member for some time. Apparently, the reason he left was that he had such poor l...more I knew nothing about the Oneida Community previous to coming across Without Sin at my local bookstore. They were a communist religious group who came together under the guidance of John Humphrey Noyes, a man convinced he was God's chosen vessel to lead the world to what he called Bible Communism. The practices and principles of Bible Communism included such concepts as Perfectionism (anyone who commits sin can't be called a Christian), Mutual Criticism (exposing oneself to the criticism of the community in face to face public meetings) and Complex Marriage (free love with the caveat that all trysts had to be sanctioned by Noyes) among others.

Spencer Klaw does a pretty complete job of laying out the story of the Oneida Community and includes a great deal of interesting incidental information. For example, Charles Giteau, who would go on to assassinate president James Garfield, was a community member for some time. Apparently, the reason he left was that he had such poor luck finding sexual partners. Also, the Onedia flatware company, which still exists, was started by the Oneida community and became its most sucessful business venture.

While Complex Marriage gets a lot of coverage, this book is almost completely devoid of any sort of sensationalist flavor. There are no titilating accounts of depraved sexuality, which is to Klaw's credit. As much as it seems obvious that Noyes and other core community members were up to some pretty shady sh*t in controlling sex at Oneida, Klaw deals with the subject matter in a non-opinionated, non-judgemental way. For instance, the fact that Noyes took responsibilty for the first sexual experience of most of the young girls at Oneida is discussed without judgement. Where I would say Noyes was a charismatic, manipulative, Bible banging pedophile, Klaw covers all sides of the issue with impartiality.

Although women at Oneida were not allowed to raise their own children, marry, wear long skirts (they wore short skirts with pants underneath) or have long hair, they may have been treated as the closest thing to equals one will find in the United States of the 19th century. Another big bonus for the ladies was the practice of Male Continence. Men were not allowed to orgasm except when attempting procreation. This prolonged the act of sex and often meant women had orgasms, something not too many folks outside the community cared about in the late 1800's.

For the painful side effects of Male Continence, Noyes recommended prayer and the application of ice. Yikes!

In spite of any nutty religious shenanigans that went on, there are dozens of accounts from community members about how happy they were at Oneida. Until things fell apart in the 1890's, Noyes and his followers lived in almost perfect peace and prosperity. That, to me, is what makes the Oneida story so interesting....less

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