The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists

On the Continent, the nation had triumphed in the long struggle against Napoleon, but at home, it wallowed in social evils brought on by the factory system. By current standards, working conditions were terrible. 

Children of ten years and younger labored in such industrial centers as Manchester and Birmingham in poorly ventilated buildings that lacked basic sanitary and safety measures. It was not unusual for children to be whipped — not only for a slight mistake, but to stimulate efficiency.

Robert Owen (1771-1858) known as the founder of British socialism

He believed that humanity is no better than its environment. Since people are shaped by the environment, improvement of that environment can produce a paradise on earth. 

Within five years, Robert Owen revolutionized mill operations by eliminating the typical evils of the British factory system and transforming New Lanark into a model workers' community, which was visited by writers, reformers, and skeptics — even the Tsar of Russia. 

At the age of sixty-four, Robert Owen, the successful capitalist who disavowed capitalism, realized that his utopian projects had ended in failure. But he did not give up. Instead, he publicized his ideas in tracts and wrote his Autobiography. At the age of eighty-seven, he died, still optimistic.

A depiction of utopia 

 An impractical social, intellectual, or political scheme. - Also refers to those ideal states which fail because they lack ideal human beings. Utopias are based on what the author thinks ought to be rather than what actually exists

Saint-Simon (1760-1825) Count Henri de Rouvroy de Saint-Simon, a French aristocrat

Is called the founder of French socialism. Defining a nation as "nothing but a great industrial society," and politics as "the science of production," he took as his motto: "Everything by industry; everything for industry."

Charles Fourier (1772-1837) 

He believed that the earth was geared to life cycles lasting 80,000 years — 40,000 years of "ascending vibrations" and an equal number of "descending vibrations." The advancement of humanity consisted of eight stages. Four stages — Confusion, Savagery, Patriarchism, and Barbarousness — have already passed.

Utopian Socialists are reformers who were inspired largely by the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, particularly the belief in progress and the perfectibility of humanity. They did not preach class hatred but appealed to the intellectual and capitalistic classes to reform society voluntarily.