AN ASSASSIN IN UTOPIA The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder

Kitty Hendrix has a truly American voice--full of energy and tough optimism. It's the perfect voice for this captivating history of America's wild, often overlooked mid-nineteenth century, a period populated by utopian visionaries, con men, impresarios, politicians, and Civil War heroes, such as Horace Greeley, and P.T. Barnum. Especially noteworthy is John Humphrey Noyes, the charismatic founder of the cultish Oneida Community, which was based on a radical theology of free love, group marriage, and eugenics. Hendrix captures the author's tone of quick-witted derision and sadness as he describes narcissistic political office seeker and Oneida outcast Charles J. Guiteau's delusional 1881 assassination of President James A. Garfield. It's the sound of a time when the American Dream turned into a national nightmare. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2023]