A radical thinker and humanitarian employer, Owen made a major contribution to nineteenth-century social movements including co-operatives, trade unions and workers' education. He was a pioneer of enlightened approaches to the education of children and an advocate of birth control.

A selection of some of the most important writings of Robert Owen, the Lanark mill-owner, social philosopher and founder of the early-Victorian co-operative movement. The volume contains not only his two most influential works, A New View of Society and Report to the County of Lanark, but also his Observations on the Effects of the Manufacturing System, his prescriptive texts for a new moral order, and his lectures on religion, poverty and education.

This book provides an account of how, in the years 1800-1825, enlightened entrepreneur and budding reformer Robert Owen used his cotton mill village of New Lanark, Scotland, as a test-bed for a set of political intuitions which would later form the bedrock of early socialism in Britain. Drawing from previously unpublished archival sources, this study shows that New Lanark was not merely on the receiving end of Owen’s innovative brand of industrial paternalism, but also acted as a major source of inspiration for many aspects of his social system, including his desire to remodel society along communitarian lines. This book therefore reaffirms the centrality of New Lanark as the cradle of socialism in Britain, and provides a contextualised, social history of Owen’s ideas, tracing direct continuities between his early years as a paternalistic businessman, and his later career as a radical political leader. In doing so, it eschews the myth of New Lanark as a unidimensional ‘model’ village and addresses the ambiguities of Owen’s journey from paternalism to socialism.

This book is an autobiography of Robert Owen, a pioneering social reformer and visionary who is best known for his experiments in communal living and cooperative socialism. It covers his early life and education, his career as a successful businessman, and his later work as a social reformer and philanthropist. The book provides a fascinating glimpse into the life and times of one of the most influential figures of the 19th century, and offers valuable insights into the social and economic conditions of the time. This new edition is an essential resource for anyone interested in the history of social reform and progressive politics. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The hagiography generated by his disciples did neither his name nor reputation much good, since they transformed the 'Social Father' of their movement into the 'Father of Socialism', a sobriquet that ill fits him, yet it sticks to this day. Ian Donnachie's study is the first full biography of Owen for over fifty years."--BOOK JACKET.