QUEST FOR THE NEW MORAL WORLD: Robert Owen and the Owenites in Britain and America

by John F. C. Harrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1969

This excellent, wide-ranging study by a University of Wisconsin professor attempts to set the Owenite movement in its late 18th and early 19th century context. Traditionally viewed either as an antecedent of English trade unionism, or as a variant form of utopian impulses at work in the American West, Owenism was actually a multidimensional ideology whose main tributaries--philanthropy, millenialism, Ricardian socialism, communitarianism--fed many other contemporary bodies of social thought. Harrison spends much of the book surveying the links between Owenism and its constitutent parts, with many stimulating reflections. He relates Owen's emphasis on education not only to his humanitarianism, but to his desire to weaken the family as the major socializing influence; notes the ties between the Poor Law controversy and the rise of a multitude of reform plans, of which Owen's was but one; finds the popularity of utopian ideas rooted in a sense of openness to dramatic change which pervaded both the American frontier and England during the early years of the Industrial Revolution. The later discussion of Owenism's impact in new communities (New Lanark, Equality) and in workingmen's political, cooperative, and trade union movements cover more familiar ground, and are not so rich in fresh interpretations, but they are well done. Some readers may struggle with chronology, or lament the absence of biographical data (superabundant in other works on Owen); but for scholarly libraries this will be a worthwhile addition, rendered more valuable by a 100-page bibliography of Owenite materials.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION