mainstream America, insofar as it took any notice of the post-Arthurdale settlements, and in particular the new communities’ residents, mistrusted and opposed the planners’ attempts to develop collective and cooperative forms of life. These were perceived as authoritarian and un-American, contrary to such values as individualism and competition. It may have been hyperbolic political rhetoric when a Roosevelt opponent described the settlement projects as “the first Soviet colchos on American soil.” But it was another matter entirely when the homesteaders themselves complained about state
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