Charles Pierce Lewarne

Bizarre sex practices! Hallucinogenic revelations! A coke addled leader smoking expensive cigars while his followers starved! Sounds pretty exciting, am I right? You wouldn't think so after wading through this incredible dry account of one of the longest-running communal experiments of modern times. I'm sure actual academics will be pleased with the wealth of carefully annotated detail in this book. And LeWarne is admirably fair in his coverage of the Family - it's certainly no apology, but not an indictment, either. Researchers interested in alternate lifestyles or modern Christian sects will find this a useful resource. But it sure could have been more lively.… (meer)

The Love Israel Family is an excellent work of Seattle local history, focusing on a sixties-era Christian commune that has (more-or-less) survived into the twenty-first century. Charles LeWarne manages to keep even the drier parts of the story interesting as he traces the cultural and economic transformation of this "intentional community" from a naive group of urban hippies to a rural collective, and even beyond into the suburbs of Seattle where the group leaders now make their home.

What is most interesting about this story is the role of debt financing in the fortunes of The Love Israel Family - the various crises that occur over the lifetime of the group are (in LeWarne's telling) more a result of poor management of debts than anything else. This angle makes the book something more than expected, as the author skillfully explores the murky intersection of the Family's spiritual goals with the economic reality of surviving in a society powered by hard assets. Given that the book has been published in the middle of a recession, The Love Israel Family is as much a reflection on contemporary capitalism as it is a work of modern history, and the book is all the better for that extra layer of interest.… (meer)