"In 1848, David R. Lamson published his account of the Hancock Shaker Village community, Two years' experience among the Shakers. Although written by a man who had turned against the Shaker community in which he had once lived, Lamson's book presents accurate detail about life in a community at the height of the Shaker movement. This reprinting of Lamson's classic account includes a biographical essay about this enigmatic Jacksonian era reformer and his experiences, both with the Shakers and the Hopedale Community, as well as biographical information on all of the individuals mentioned in his landmark Shaker account."--Back cover.