All Things in Common: A Canadian Family and Its Island Utopia

"Two exemplary contributions to Canadian social history stand out in Ruth Compton Brouwer’s All Things in Common. One is her illustration of how several research areas, such as family, religion, migration, land occupation, and rural life are connected to the utopian form of settlement, a type largely absent from Canadian historical research. Brouwer’s second contribution is to show how a utopian case can be explored sensitively yet dispassionately by a professional historian who is also a descendant of the family at the centre of the story."

Beth Moore Milroy, Toronto Metropolitan University, Histoire sociale / Social History

"All Things in Common traces meticulously the migration patterns and religious influences that shaped the utopian enterprise in twentieth-century Prince Edward Island known as B. Compton Limited, and portrays compellingly its intricate dynamics. Ruth Compton Brouwer has crafted a study of family and communitarianism that has wide-ranging importance, just as in its day the community itself attracted international attention."

John Reid, Professor Emeritus of History, Saint Mary’s University

"A flowing narrative about personalities, lives, loves, successes, setbacks, and just plain carrying on, as ordinary people do, everywhere and in all times, this is an exemplar of the trickiest of all achievements: a compelling personal history that is also a significant scholarly contribution."

Cynthia Comacchio, Professor of History, Wilfrid Laurier University

"Written with wisdom, grace, and an understated wit, All Things in Common demonstrates a rare gift for marrying the local with the universal. In doing so, Ruth Compton Brouwer makes a significant contribution to the study of utopian communities, to rural history in Canada, and to the historiography of Prince Edward Island."

Edward MacDonald, Professor of History and Classics, University of Prince Edward Island