National Historical Publications & Records Commission

Documentary History of George Rapp’s Harmony Society

refer to caption

 

George Rapp, as painted from memory by Phineas Staunton in 1835.

 

Clark University

Additional information at http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/mg/mg437.htm

An edition in German and English. Johann Georg Rapp (1757–1847), also known as George Rapp, was the founder of the religious sect called Harmonists, Harmonites, Rappites, or the Harmony Society. The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785. Rapp and his group of believers eventually emigrated to the United States, where they established three communities: Harmony, Pennsylvania; Harmony (later named New Harmony), Indiana; and Economy, Pennsylvania. Rapp later wrote Thoughts on the Destiny of Man, published in German in 1824 and in English a year later, in which he outlined his ideas and philosophy. This edition provides background for and traces the development of the Harmonists from a communal society in the early part of the 19th century to one that later engaged in capitalistic investments such as railroads, oil wells, real estate, and manufacturers until its dissolution in 1916.

  • A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society 1814–1824. 2 vols. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1975–78.
  • Economy on the Ohio, 1826–1834: The Harmony Society During the Period of its Greatest Power and Influence and its Messianic Crisis; George Rapp's Third Harmony: A Documentary History. Worcester, Mass.: Harmonie Society Press, 1984.
  • George Rapp's Harmony Society, 1785–1847. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.
  • George Rapp's Re-Established Harmony Society: Letters and Documents of the Baker-Henrici Trusteeship, 1848–1868. New York: P. Lang, 1993.
  • George Rapp's Separatists, 1700–1803: The German Prelude to Rapp's American Harmony Society; A Documentary History. Worcester, Mass.: Harmonie Society Press, 1980.
  • George Rapp's Successors and Material Heirs, 1847–1916. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1971.
  • George Rapp's Years of Glory: Economy on the Ohio, 1834–1847. New York: P. Lang, 1987.
  • Harmony on the Connoquenessing 1803–1815: George Rapp's First American Harmony. Worcester, Mass.: Harmonie Society Press, 1980.
  • Harmony on the Wabash in Transition to Rapp's Divine Economy on the Ohio and Owen's New Moral World at New Harmony on the Wabash 1824–1826. Worcester, Mass.: Harmonie Society Press, 1984.

Complete in 10 volumes.

 

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