Most of the great Utopian socialists were French, i.e. St. Simon, Fourier etc. One exception was Robert Owen who was born in England in 1771. He developed a reformist philosophy which sought to persuade all people to rearrange society so that the means of production were owned in common by all members of the society. He tried to establish these ideas in practice by experimentation in his home town of New Lanarck, England and in the United States.

In 1825 he purchased 30.000 acres in Indiana near the present town of New Harmony, Indiana. He established a self-contained community on that location which lasted just three years. He then returned to England and tried other experiments their and did extensive writing on his ideas.

This book contains a short survey of Robert Owen's life and a sample of his ideas taken for his writings. It is a worthy addition to any history library.