While my research question is simple, and the answer to it is quite simple as well, there is a greater value to the question that I think can be revealed through my research. While I focus on the failures of New Harmony and Nashoba as self sufficient communities, I want people to see the huge impact that they had on the outside world. Robert Owen and Frances Wright created their communities to evoke change in the world, and once their communities failed, they went on to try and carry that idea of change wherever they want.
New Harmony and Nashoba also revealed a lot to the world about society and the way people function. In New Harmony, one main reason why it failed as a community is because human beings are imperfect beings, and Owen tried to place them into a perfect system. Utopian socialist communities always deal with this same problem that keep them from lasting.
There was a lot to be learned from my research, which is what makes it so important.