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 Drawing from previously unpublished archival sources, this study shows that New Lanark was not merely on the receiving end of Owen’s innovative brand of industrial paternalism, but also acted as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

A radical thinker and humanitarian employer, Owen made a major contribution to nineteenth-century social movements including co-operatives, trade unions and workers' education. He was a pioneer of enlightened approaches to the education of children and an advocate of birth control.

This wide-ranging selection of Owen's writings reflects his intense concern for equality, justice, education, and labor reform, offering insights into his radical proposal for a full-scale reorganization of British society through the concept of cooperative model communities.

A spirited defense of the anarchist approach to life James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself. Beginning with what Scott calls "the law of anarchist calisthenics," an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation. Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.

Features a list of the published works by the Welsh socialist and philanthropist Robert Owen (1771-1858). Includes the full text of his essay "A New View of Society," presented online by the Department of Economics at McMaster University.

Robert Owen was one of the most important and controversial figures of his generation. Born in 1771, he lived through the Age of Revolutions and was personally touched the ideas and dramatic changes that characterised that era. Profiting enormously through the first half of his lifetime from the rise of industry, he devoted much of his time thereafter to espousing social and economic philosophy which could serve as a corrective to what he saw as the;excesses' of progress. Much of this derived from his own experience in managing cotton mills and strongly emphasised the importance of environment, education and, ultimately, co-operation. He gained fame - even notoriety - as a social reformer, applying radical ideas in the mills at New Lanark, and subsequently at the experimental community of New Harmony, Indiana, USA. Long after his death in 1858 his ideas continued to inspire others. The hagiography generated by his disciples did neither his name nor reputation much good, since they transformed the 'Social Father' of their movement into the 'Father of Socialism' a sobriquet that ill fits him, yet it sticks to this day.Ian Donnachie's engaging yet judicious study is the first biography of Owen for fifty years. This book was originally published by Tuckwell Press in 2000.