Introduction

Abstract

As this chapter relates, Robert Owen’s reputation as the “Father of British Socialism” rests on a paradoxical political legacy. Celebrated since the late nineteenth century as a promoter of popular education and co-operative economy, he has been criticised for his “utopian” millenarianism and communitarianism. Since the 1980s, many historians have successfully qualified the Marxist distinction between “utopian” and “scientific” socialism. Following on this trail, this book offers a more empirical approach, in line with Owen’s wish to draw up guidelines for social change from direct experience. Relying on previously unpublished archival sources, it offers a new interpretation of Owen’s early years as the manager of the New Lanark mill village (Scotland), and their impact on his budding socialist thought in the period 1800–1825.