All Things in Common explores the history of a Canadian utopian community, highlighting the roles of family, faith, and business pragmatism in its cohesion and longevity.

Ruth Compton Brouwer is a professor emerita in the Department of History at King's University College, Western University.

"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."

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

"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."

Cynthia Comacchio, Professor of History, Wilfrid Laurier 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."

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

"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."