UTOPIAN SOCIALISTS

Utopian Socialists

French Utopian Socialists

Révolution de 1830 et situation présente , 1833.
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.
Voyage en Icarie, 1842 - Selections
Réalisation de la communauté d’Icarie : nouvelles de Nauvoo , 1849-50.
Lettres sur la crise actuelle, 1840.
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 mat&ecute;rielle et morale aprés le premier semestre, 1855.

Introduction aux Travaux Scientifiques du Dixneuvieme Siècle, 1807.
Memoire sur la Science de l'Homme, 1813.
New Christianity, 1825.
Semi-mystical founder of the "Saint-Simonian" sect, he envisaged a elite of philosophers, engineers and scientists leading a peaceful process of industrialization tamed by their "rational" Christian-Humanism. His vision was highly influential on French and Continental society throughout the 19th Century - counting Mill as one of the converts. His most substantial contribution was his call for a "science of society" on the same footing as the natural sciences - leading up to Comte and the sociologists, as well as the scientific pretensions of economics.

Egarement de la raison démontré par les ridicules des sciences incertaines, 1806.
The Social Destiny of Man, 1808.
Tableau analytique de cocuage,
Le nouveau monde industriel et societaire, 1829-30.
Although with less of a following than Saint-Simon, Fourier was even more disliked by the Marxians. He envisaged a utopian society in "natural harmony" with the cosmos that could be achieved by non-violent means. He attempted various times to set up such colonies - perhaps among the earliest attempts at co-operative enterprises.

L'Organisation du Travail , 1839. - (1)
Lettres a l'Angleterre, 1863 - Vol. I , Vol. II
A radically socialist journalist, Blanc was one of the leaders of the 1848 Revolution in Paris and gave it a more labor-oriented hue by calling for the take-over of private property and completely egalitarian distribution of income. Later on in his life, he curbed his radicalism and called instead for state involvement in social programs and making a more equal distribution of income an objective.

Sometimes incomprensible spirit behind the French "syndicalist" movement. Claiming himself to be a Marxian, he nonetheless emphasised the violent and irrational motivations of social and economic conduct (echoing Pareto in many ways). He held a deep suspicion for "armchair socialists" and advocated massive general strikes and worker action - not for the small concessions from employers those might bring, but rather as a way of continuously disrupting the working of capitalism and thus eventually achieving worker control of means of production. Sorel himself, however, kept himself at arm's distance from actual sabotage, boycotts and strikes conducted by the syndicalist movement in the early part of the century.

German Utopian Socialists

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.
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 for evaluations by Böhm-Bawerk and by Engels

Gesammelte Reden und Schriften, 1920.
A Young Hegelian and friend of Marx, Lassalle nonetheless 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". In 1863, Lassalle formed the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein, the first German labor party and was subsequently co-opted by the Prussian Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who had a similar distaste for laissez- faire, but Lassalle died in a duel soon after.

English Utopian Socialists

Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System, 1815.
A New view of Society, 1816.
Two Memorials on Behalf of the Working Classes, 1818.
Report to the County of Lanark, 1821.
Lectures on an Entire New State of Society, 1830.
A "doer" as much as a "talker", Robert Owen founded the famous New Lanark Mills in Scotland as an example of co- operative factory communities. Many industrialists actually visited these "model factories" and some even adopted parts of Owen's system. Owen attempted to extend these into agriculture - advocating collective farming, as in New Harmony, Indiana. Although most of these efforts failed, he continued on his social work - becoming the head of one of the largest trade union federations in Britain in 1843.

The Effects of Civilization, 1805.
One of the earliest thinkers to take the 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).

An Essay on Naval Discipline, 1813.
Travels in the North of Germany, 1820.
Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital, 1825. - Copy (2)
Popular Political Economy, 1828.
The Natural and Artifical Right of Property Contrasted, 1834.
Bibliography of Hodgskin.
One of the earliest anarchists, Hodgskin was also one of its brightest and most eloquent. Also took the labor theory of value to its exploitation logic, but preferred to criticize social organization rather than recommend any utopian visions for it. His 1828 textbook was perhaps the best in socialist economics at the time - even though he later became involved with the The Economist

Lecture on Human Happiness, 1825.
The Social System, 1831.
Remedy for the Distress of Nature, 1842.
Money, 1848.
A failed businessman, 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.

Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy, 1839.
A Voyage from Utopia, 18??.
An American living in England, he also turned to the labor exploitation thesis. He also recommended the setting up of worker co-operatives in a communal property system.

American Socialists and Populists

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