1. Students will analyze the reasons why utopian communities were established.
2. Students will explain why utopianists chose Ohio as their home.
3. Students will explain the origins of the Shaker communities and Zoar.
4. Students will explain the unique relationship between men and women.
5. Students will analyze the joint ownership of property.
6. Students will locate the Shaker communities and Zoar in Ohio

1. Creating The Perfect World
   Ask students to consider what their vision is of a perfect world. Have them write down their ideas. Break students into groups of six to eight and have them exchange their ideas. Then have them try to reach a consensus as to how to build a perfect world. Have them consider leadership, laws, education, and work. Have them consider what needs to be done to make the community grow.
    
2. The Experiences of a Shaker or Zoarite
   Have students imagine that they were a Shaker or Zoarite and ask them to describe a typical days' activities, including work and worship.
    
3. Map Study
   Have students plot the location of Ohio utopias on a map.

1. Schedule a visit to Zoar (south of Canton)
   (800)-874-4336 or (330)-874-4336
2. Schedule a visit to the Western Reserve Historical Society
   (216) 721-5722
3. Schedule a visit to the Shaker Historical Society
   (800) 860-6078 or (216) 921-1201

• http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/zoar
• http://www.cwru.edu/affil/shakhist

Books:

• Berry, Brian J.L. America's Utopian Experiments: Communal Havens from Long-Wave Crises. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1992.
• Brewer, Priscilla J. Shaker Communities, Shaker Lives. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1986.
• Dobbs, Catherine R. Freedom's Will: The Society of the Separatists of Zoar: An Historical Adventure of Religious Communism in Early Ohio. New York: William Frederick Press, 1947.
• Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
• Knepper, George W. Ohio and Its People. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1997 (1989).
• Morhart, Hilda Dischinger. The Zoar Story. Dover, Ohio: Seibert Printing , 1969 (1968).
• Ohio Historical Society. Zoar: An Experiment in Communalism. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1970.
• Randall, Emilius Oviatt. History of the Zoar Society: From Its Commencement to Its Conclusion; A Sociological Study in Communism. New York: AMS Press, 1971 (1904).
• Robison, Elwin C. "Heavenly Aspirations and Earthly Realities." Timeline, vol. 17 no. 6 (November-December 2000), pp. 2-25.
• Rokicky, Catherine M. Creating a Perfect World: Religious and Secular Utopias in Nineteenth-Century Ohio. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2002.
• Tyler, Alice Felt. Freedom's Ferment: Phases of American Social History from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Civil War. New York: Harper, 1962 (1944).