Utopians and Socialists
Rousseauvian Socialism
Utopian Socialism
- Étienne Cabet, 1788-1856. (1),
(2)
- Révolution de 1830 et situation présente , 1833.
- Voyage et aventures de lord William Carisdall en Icarie, 1839 - Selections
- Lettres
sur la crise actuelle, 1840.
- La
propagande communiste ou Questions à discuter et à soutenir ou à écarter,
1842.
- L'ouvrier
: ses misères actuelles, leur cause et leur remède, son futur bonheur dans la
communauté, moyens de l’établir, 1844.
- Réalisation
de la communauté d’Icarie: nouvelles de Nauvoo , 1849-50.
- Le Vrai Christianisme suivant Jésus-Christ, 1847.
- Histoire populaire de la Révolution française de 1789 à 1830, 1849-50. - Selections
- Colonie icarienne aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique. Sa constitution, ses lois, sa situation
matérielle et morale aprés le premier semestre, 1855.
- Lawyer and journalist of the left-wing newspaper, La Populaire.
His political activities led to his exile in England, after being
condemned to death in 1834. In his 1839 utopian novel, Cabet
introduces communism as the greatest realization of democracy and the
direct descendent of Christian principles.
- François-Marie-Charles Fourier
, 1772-1837. - (1), (2), (3), (4), image
- Egarement de la raison
démontré par les ridicules des sciences incertaines, 1806.
- Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales (The Social Destiny of Man), 1808.
- Tableau analytique de cocuage,
- Theory of Social Organization, 1820 (excerpts)
- Traité de l'association doméstique et agricole, 1822
- Le nouveau monde industriel
et societaire, 1829-30.
- Pièges et charlatanisme des deux sectes Saint-Simon et Owen qui promettent l'association et le progrès,
1831
- Théorie de l'unité universelle, 1841 edition of 1829.
- La fausse industrie, 1835
- Unlike his contemporary, Saint-Simon, the
half-mad Charles
Fourier was an outright utopian. Although he was anti-state,
anti-industry, anti-liberal, anti-competition and anti-urban, he distanced
himself from the socialists who wanted the abolition of private property. He envisaged a
utopian society in "natural harmony" with the cosmos that could be achieved by
non-violent means. He advocated the setting up phalanxes, a type of
production and consumption co-operative enterprise or society.
Through his main publication, Réforme industrielle, Fourier
collected numerous followers, many of whom attempted (and failed) at
setting up these mini-societies. He was highly disliked by the Marxians.
Ricardian Socialism
- Charles Hall
, 1745-1825.
- The Effects of Civilization, 1805.
- One of the earliest thinkers to take the Ricardian
labor theory of value to its logical extreme -
i.e. the concept of labor exploitation. However, while some of his claims were often
quoted by contemporary socialists, they were often outlandish and invented for effect
(e.g. only 1/8th of total product was kept by labor).
- John Gray
, 1799-1850.
- Lecture on Human Happiness, 1825.
- The Social System, 1831.
- Remedy for the Distress of Nature, 1842.
- Money, 1848.
- A failed businessman and Ricardian socialist,
Gray was among the first to stress the human element in the
destructiveness of competition in principle. As a substitute, he recommended co-operative
institutions for exchange and production.
- John Francis Bray
, 1809-1895.
- Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy, 1839.
- A Voyage from Utopia, 18??.
- An American living in England, he also turned to the Ricardian
labor exploitation thesis. He also
recommended the setting up of worker co-operatives in a communal property system.
Saint-Simonism
- Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, 1760-1825
- John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873.
Revolutionary Anarcho-Socialism
- Jean-Joseph Louis Blanc
, 1813-1882. - image, (1),
(2) (3)
- L'Organisation du
travail ,
1839 (excerpts)
- Lettre
sur la terreur,
- Histoire de dix ans : 1830-1840, Vol
I, Vol.
II, Vol.
III, Vol.
IV, Vol.
V, 1841
- Histoire de la révolution française, 12 vols, 1847-62
- Le Droit au Travail, 1848.
- Cathécisme des socialistes, 1849
- La révolution de Février au Luxembourg,
1849
- Lettres a l'Angleterre, Vol. I
, Vol. II, 1863
- L'État
et la commune, 1866
- Histoire de la révolution de 1848, 1870
- Histoire de la Constitution du 25 février 1875,
1882
- Quelques vérités économiques,
1911
- A radical socialist journalist, Louis Blanc was greatly responsible for
unleashing the 1848 Revolution with his 1841 account of the corruption of
the orleanist regime. Blanc's 1848 pamphlet, called for state-fostered industrial employment
via producer cooperatives that would eventually replace private
industry. It was Blanc who came closest to articulating the
communist ideal of "from each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs", and, with it, almost single-handedly
converted the rebellious Parisian masses to the socialist cause, giving
the whole revolution a decidedly more labor-oriented hue. Blanc was
pushed by the working classes into the provisional government, where he
stood uncomfortably between republicans like Lamartine and radicals like
Blanqui, neither of whom trusted him. After the failure of the
revolution, Blanc was exiled to Britain until 1871. He gradually curbed his radicalism,
calling only for State involvement in social programs and income
redistribution. Blanc's ideas were to be very influential on later
State socialists like Lassalle. Blanc
refused to endorse the Paris Commune of 1870-1.
Marxist Socialism
- Georges Sorel, 1847-1922.
Young Hegelians and State Socialism
- Georg W.F. Hegel,
1770-1831
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, 1804 - 1872
- (1),
(2),
(3),
(4),
(5)
- The
Essence of Christianity, 1841
- Lectures
on the Essence of Christianity, 1841
- Principles of
Philosophy of the Future, 1843
- German philosopher and theologian, critic of Hegel's idealism.
Proponent of a materialist conception of history, as later taken up by Marx
and Engels.
The "essence" of Christianity, according to Feuerbach (1841) was
merely religious alienation. Succinctly, Feuerbach argued that, as a
result of difficult material circumstances throughout history, humans had
gradually become alienated from their natural, subjective aspirations
towards beauty, truth, wisdom, etc. and therefore created religion
as the embodiment of these ideals. However, once "reified"
in religion, these ideals had come back to crush human aspirations
entirely. As a result, Feuerbach believed that religion had became
the only obstacle to the realization of human ideals on
earth. A socialist society was only made possible by throwing
out religion, thereby permitting humans to "recapture" their own
ideals for themselves. Karl Marx
criticized Feuerbach's thesis on the grounds that human projections of
religious ideals were mirror images of the imperfections and misery of
actual society. Throwing out religion will accomplish nothing unless
a socialist society is already in place; once material
circumstances improve, Marx argued, the human "need" for
religion would disappear. Click here for evaluations by Marx (1844,
1846)
and Engels (1888)
- Johann Karl Rodbertus
, 1805-1875. -
- Die Fordenrungen der Arbeitenden Klassen, 1839.
- Zur Erkenntnis Unserer Staatswirtschaftlichen Zustände, 1842.
- Soziale Briefe an von Kirchmann, 1850.
- Zur Erklärung und Abhälfe der Heutigen Creditnoth des Grundbesitzes, 1869.
- Much influenced by Saint-Simon.
Highly popular writer and advocate of state socialism, i.e. state provision for the
working classes. He did recommend the collapse of private property, but saw this as a
gradual process not a revolutionary one. He was also an underconsumptionist theorist. Click here for
evaluations of Rodbertus by Böhm-Bawerk
and by Engels.
- Ferdinand Lassalle
, 1825-1864. - image,
- Gesammelte Reden und Schriften, 1920.
- A Young Hegelian, friend and rival of Karl Marx.
Lassalle did not adopt Marx's "scientific socialism". Instead, he was an
advocate of setting up worker's cooperatives, not for utopianism, but rather to get access
to the profit previously denied them. It was Lassalle that coined the term "iron law
of wages" to describe the Ricardian theory. In 1863, Lassalle formed the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein,
the first German labor party. He was subsequently co-opted by the Prussian Chancellor,
Otto von Bismarck (who had a similar distaste for laissez- faire
policies) but Lassalle died
in a duel soon after.
- Adolf H.G. Wagner, 1835-
1917.
Christian Socialism
- Abbé Félicité Robert de Lamennais,
1782-1854. (1),
(2), (3), (4),
(5),
portrait
- L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ,
1824
- De la religion considérée dans ses rapports avec l'ordre politique et civil,
Vol.
1, Vol.
2, 1825
- Paroles d'un croyant,
1834
- Articles du journal L'Avenir,
1837
- Le livre du peuple, 1839
- De l'esclavage moderne,
1839
- Affaires de Rome, Vol.
1, Vol.
2, 1839
- Le pays et la gouvernement, 1840
- Discussions critiques, 1841
- Du passe et de l'avenir du peuple, 1841
- Amschaspands et Darvands, 1843
- La Question du travail, 1848.
- De la société première et de ses lois ou De la religion,
1848
- Le prêtre et
l'ami, Lettres inédites de Lamennais à la baronne Cottu : 1818-1854,
1854
- Confidences de La Mennais : lettres inédites de 1821 à 1848,
1886
- Catholic clergyman and activist. Initially advocated the marriage
of the French Liberal tradition with the
Catholic church, emphasizing freedom of consciousness, worship, speech and
the press, abolition of the death penalty and the separation of Church and
State. His main vehicles, were his pamphlets (like his celebrated Paroles,
1834) and his journal, l'Avenir. Lamennais caused quite a
stir and he attracted many admirers, but it embroiled him in a protracted
conflict with Royalist Conservatives and the Pope himself. After
being excommunicated and breaking with the Catholic Church in 1836 (and
spending a year in prison in 1841), Lamennais devoted himself to
socialist-democratic causes. In his 1848 book, he analyzed the plight of workers under the industrial revolution in fiery
"class struggle" language. However, believed the extension
of suffrage to the working classes would be the only way to achieve the
legalization of trade unions, universal education, diffusion of property
and thereby economic emancipation. He participated in the 1848
Revolution, but was purged in the aftermath.
- Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play,
1806-1862 - (1), (2),
(3), (4),
(5)
- Observations sur le mouvement commercial des principales substances minérales entre la France et les
puissances étrangères pendant les douze dernières années, 1832
- Observations sur l'histoire naturelle et sur la richesse minérale de l'Espagne,
1834
- Description des procédés métallurgiques employés dans le pays de Galles pour la fabrication du
cuivre, 1848
- Le ouvriers européens, Vol.
1, Vol.
2, Vol.
3, Vol.
4, Vol.
5, Vol.
6, Vol. 7, 1855
- Les ouvriers des deux mondes, Vol.
1, Vol.
2, Vol. 3, Vol.
4, Vol.
5 1857-1885
- Instruction sur la méthode d'observation dite des monographies de
familles, 1862
- La Réforme sociale de France, 1864
- Exposition of Social Economics, 1867
- L'organisation du travail selon la coutume des ateliers et la loi du Décalogue,
1870
- La constitution de l'Angleterre considérée dans ses rapports avec la loi de Dieu et les coutumes de la
paix sociale. Vol.
1, Vol. 2, 1875
- L'erreur sous l'Ancien régime et la Révolution, le retour à la vérité et la réforme,
1878
- La méthode
sociale, abrégé des Ouvriers européens, 1879
- La constitution essentielle de l'humanité exposé des principes et des coutumes qui créent la prospérité
ou la souffrance des nations, 1881
- L'organisation de la
famille, selon le vrai modèle signalé par l'histoire de toutes les races et de tous
les temps, 1884
- La nomenclature sociale,
1887
- L'organisation du travail... et le mouvement social contemporain,
1890
- French mining engineer and leader of the Christian socialist movement in
France. In 1863, he founded the Société d'économie sociale and
the journal La réforme sociale (Gallica
link) In his analysis, he
perceived the solidaristic "family" as the main unit of
concern. A pioneer in the social-survey method. A deep pessimist of the social impact of the industrial
revolution, Le Play advocated legal and social reforms that would
encourage a "family-like" relationship between capital and labor
on the factory floor.
American Populists and Socialists
- Henry C. Carey,
1793-1879.
- Richard T. Ely, 1854-1943.
Resources on Utopianism and Socialism
- HET Pages: the Socialist Calculation Debate
- "French
Socialists", 1844, Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine
- Les économistes, les socialistes et le christianisme
by Charles Périn, 1849
- Économie politique et politique : articles extraits du "Globe"
by Barthélémy Prosper Enfantin, 1830-1
- De l'Organisation des Sociétés de prévoyances ou de secours
mutuels, by Gustave-Nicolas Hubbard, 1852.
- Les Associations ouvrières. Etudes sur leur passé, leur présent, leurs conditions de progrès,
by Paul J.-C. Rougier, 1864.
- Les Associations coopératives en France et à l'étranger,
by P. Hubert-Valleroux, 1884.
- Utopian
Bibliography by Ursula Hoffmann.
- Utopian
Socialist Societies in 19th Century America, including
- "Utopie", special
dossier of Gallica
- "Proposed Roads to
Freedom" by Bertrand Russell
- "Guild Socialism
Reconsidered," by Roger A. McCain
- History and Theories of
Socialism at Gardner's World Economics
- Encyclopedia of
Revolutions of 1848 at Ohio
- Francois-Noel
"Gracchus" Babeuf, the Conspiracy
of Equals, and Babeuvism
- Socialist and
Communist Thought at Richmond
- Notes on
Utopian Socialism at Melbourne
- "Socialism
Resources" at Internet Modern History
- "Anarchosocialism"
by Rudolf Rocker, 1938
- Anarchist Timeline
at Anarchist Action Network
- Economie at Gallica - review
of 19th Century French economic thought
- "Introduction
to 19th Century Socialism" by Paul Brians, 1998
- Society for Utopian Studies
- Anarchist Web Links
(numerous!)
- Marxism
in Context at Warwick
- The Christian Socialist Movement
