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Palgrave Macmillan

Robert Owen’s Experiment at New Lanark

From Paternalism to Socialism

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ophélie Siméon

    1. Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France

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  • Assesses how Robert Owen transformed New Lanark into a test-bed for his social philosophies
  • Provides the first attempt to trace the origins of 'Owenism' from a social history perspective
  • Utilises previously unpublished archival material

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Utopianism (PASU)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 1-12

  3. Beginnings

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 13-44

  4. The “Preparatory Phase”, 1800–1816

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 45-86

  5. Towards the “New Moral World”, 1816–1825

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 87-107

  6. Visions of New Lanark

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 109-140

  7. Rethinking New Lanark: The Model and The Myth

    • Ophélie Siméon
    Pages 141-165

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 167-173
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Keywords

About this book

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 Drawing from previously unpublished archival sources, this study shows that New Lanark was not merely on the receiving end of Owen’s innovative brand of industrial paternalism, but also acted as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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France

    Ophélie Siméon

About the author

Ophélie Siméon is Associate Professor in British History at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, France.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Robert Owen’s Experiment at New Lanark

  • Book Subtitle: From Paternalism to Socialism

  • Authors: Ophélie Siméon

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Utopianism

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64227-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-64226-0Published: 27 October 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87752-5Published: 24 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-64227-7Published: 16 October 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2946-4471

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-448X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 173

  • Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, Intellectual Studies, Social History, History of Modern Europe, Modern History

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