A. J. MacDonald surveyed the utopian and experimental communities in America during 1842 to 1854. He took notes and solicited information on every commune he could find or hear about, to study them and give account of their successes and failures, and lived at many of them for many months. MacDonald died before he could publish his work, but in 1864 John Humphrey Noyes recovered the manuscripts and continued the project, compiling a selection of MacDonald's notes on the different communities, and added on his own work.

The book explains the two communal movements of Fourierism and Owenism, and how they relate to the religious revivals of the time, the women's rights movement, and the anti-slavery movement. The communities studied include the Fourierist phalanxes, Robret Owen's communities, Brook Farm, and the religious communities. The book is written in a clear style with frequent quotes from publications by or about the communities, and discussions about the character of the communities, the movements, and the people involved.