He is best known for his two utopian novels, The Future Commonwealth and In Brighter Climes, which discuss a fictional futuristic society, "Socioland," where the economy is governed by socialist ideals rather than capitalism, and where morality is based on social scientific experimentation, rather than traditional religion.

[2] The family initially settled in Wartburg, Tennessee, atop the Cumberland Plateau, but finding the land unsuitable for farming, soon afterward moved to northern Knox County.

[7] Albert Chavannes married fellow French Swiss immigrant Cecile Bolli in 1857, and the two settled down to a life of dairy farming.

[2] One of Chavannes' earliest writings was an article entitled, "How Manure Is Made in Switzerland," published in the agricultural journal, The Cultivator, in 1858.

[10] In 1870, he moved back to Knox County, where he established a new dairy farm in the Adair Creek area north of Knoxville.

[14] Chavannes wrote a non-fiction follow-up to The Future Commonwealth in 1893 entitled, The Concentration of Wealth, and published his second Socioland novel, In Brighter Climes, in 1895.

[3] In The Future Commonwealth, Socioland is described as a country where major industries and modes of transportation are publicly owned, but controlled by popularly elected directors rather than the central government.

[15]: 3  When the Morrills arrive, they find that the Sociolanders are concerned that elements of capitalism are creeping into their economy, and eventually decide to implement a communist-style system.

[15]: iv Chavannes used the term "vital force" to describe the intellectual, emotional and sexual energy stored within the body.

[17]: 30–40  Chavannes believed that individuals require magnetic equilibrium, and suggested that misbehavior and general unpleasantness result from too much or too little stored vital force.

[17]: 87  Chavannes' ideas on sexual magnetism would later provide inspiration for the Karezza method originated by Dr. Alice Bunker Stockham and further developed by J William Lloyd.

East Tennessee Sketches is a collection of six articles, two of which ("Canvassing the District" and "Adair Creek Notes") are written by Chavannes' wife, Cecile.

The novel is set in Richland, New York, with characters and scenes inspired by Chavannes' experiences in the region following the Civil War.