[UTOPIAN THOUGHT] OWEN, Robert

An Address Delivered to the Inhabitants of New Lanark, on the First of January, 1816, at the Opening of the Institution Established for the Formation of Character [Inscribed]

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817. Third Edition. Octavo (25cm.); later 19th-century green pebbled cloth; 48pp. Cloth boards bumped at corners, added endpapers causing considerable browning to title page and final leaf of text, some light spotting throughout textblock, else a Very Good, still quite sound copy. Inscribed by Owen at head of title page: "With the Author's Regards."

Robert Owen first purchased the textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland, from his father-in-law in 1799 and set about experimenting his socialist theories in the management of the business and its community. Owen's greatest success was revolutionizing the early education of worker's children, the foundation of which he expanded to include worker education. The present New Years address delivered at the opening of the Institute for the Formation of Character, which offered education from infancy through adulthood. Owen opened his oration by delineating the main far-reaching purposes of the Institute, "The first relates to the immediate comfort and benefit of all the inhabitants of this village; The second, to the welfare and advantage of the neighbourhood; The third, to extensive ameliorations throughout the British Dominions; And the last, to the gradual improvement of every nation in the world" (p. [5]). The success of New Lanark, one of the earliest and longest-surviving communities run on socialist principles, has been long-standing, and the village is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "A Bibliography of Robert Owen, the Socialist, 1771-1858" 9.

Price: $1,000.00

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