Very rare first edition, one of the founding works on Socialism and social development, a fine copy in the contemporary binding, the major work by Owen, an entrepreneur concerned about his workers to the point of experimenting with cooperative forms of organization.
“The birth of Socialism” (PMM).
“He was one of the first to preach the doctrines of socialism; he has indeed been called the father of British socialism. He was the founder of the British cooperative movement. He was perhaps the most influential figure in the mid-nineteenth century trade-union movement. He was amongst the first to attempt the experiment of the ideal communist community. ´Owenism´ as a political concept has secured a permanent place in the terminology of the historian of socialism. Owen´s influence on these various movements cannot be under-estimated, and their historians have done full justice to that influence” (Gorb, Peter. “Robert Owen as a Businessman.” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 25, no. 3 (1951): 127–48).
The work is dedicated to the philanthropist and abolitionist deputy William Wilberforce (1759-1833), whom the Revolution had honored with the title of French citizen.
According to Owen “man´s character is made not by but for him and that it has been formed by circumstances over which he has no control. The prime necessity in the right formation ofcharacter is there- fore to place him under proper physical, moral and social influences from the very beginning. These principlcs- the fundamental irresponsibility of man and the effect of good early influence-lie at the root of Owen's theories and his practice. New Lanark continued to show their efficacy, and it became a model community, much visited by the statesmen of Europe.” (PMM).
The influence this work had also on the education system was considerable, “Owenism was not primarily a movement to found schools and literary institutes; it was a new view of society whose adherents wanted a radical transformation of the economic and social structure which they believed could be effected in accordance with the laws of social science.” (John F. C. Harrison. “‘The Steam Engine of the New Moral World’: Owenism and Education, 1817-1829.” Journal of British Studies 6, no. 2 (1967): 76–98.).
Robert Owen:
Born in Wales, Robert Owen (1771-1858) was an entrepreneur in the field of cotton mills in Manchester, who “at the age of nineteen was in complete charge of one of the larger spinning mills in Manchester, and before he reached his thirties he had become the head of the largest, and… best equipped and best run, group of cotton mills in the country… At this point in his career Owen completely shifted the area of his interests and activities. Abandoning his position as a successful manufacturer, he began to play an active part in the working-class movement” (Peter Gorb).
Struck by the miserable living conditions of the workers, aware of the effects of large-scale child labor and other physical and moral calamities generated by the industrial revolution, he initiated a program to improve the housing and feeding of his employees, while promoting the education of the youngest.
Owen's New Vision of Society remains to this day an obligatory reference for non-Marxist socialisms.
Continuing on the path of his utopian socialism, Owen, in the following years, will develop his cooperative projects and will make the fight against pauperism his main battle. Marginalized in Britain itself by Chartism and the rise of a more aggressive labor movement -although Owen himself was among the first to recognize the importance of trade unions for the future of social progress- the heritage of Owenism would then be widely reassessed, for example when contemporary Labor undertook, at the end of the 20th century, to distance itself from its Marxian roots.
The influence of Owen had never ceased to be exercised, Schumpeter himself underlined: “[…] ses idées aussi bien que sa pratique prirent une importance séminale en une multitude de façons différentes et qui avaient peu de choses à voir les unes avec les autres. Ainsi, les mesures fondamentalement paternalistes qu'il prit à New Lanark créèrent un modèle pour la politique de main-d'œuvre de l'entreprise moderne à grande échelle, et […] une attitude nouvelle à l'égard des questions de salaire. […] Il avait non seulement la ´grandeur morale´ (Torrens) mais aussi, dans les sphères de la pensée et de l'action que délimitent nos exemples, un bon sens solide et même subtil…” (Joseph A. Schumpeter, Histoire de l'analyse économique, tome II, chap. 3).
Provenance: from the library of Lord Dinorben with his bookplate. This is a most desirable provenance, not only is William Hughes, 1st Baron Dinorben (1767-1852) a Whig MP that Owen wanted to rally to his cause, and also had in common with the author his Wales origin, and to have been a philanthropic entrepreneur. Owner of a copper mine, he is credited with the foundation of a school for the young girls of the people at Kinmel, where he was born - a foundation which there is reason to think that he owes everything to faith in education popular then advocated by Owen.
Printing and the Mind of Man, 271; Goldsmiths´s 20854.
