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At 250 the Paradox of Robert Owen Continues
NICK MATTHEWS reflects on the enduring legacy of one of our most influential early socialists
PRECURSOR: Robert Owen Memorial Museum, Newtown; (left) Owen’s portrait by William Henry Brooke, 1834
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“THE paradox of Robert Owen has continuing fascination. Why has he remained a central figure of the English socialist tradition even though Owenite socialist institutions failed, and his version of socialism was already outmoded before his death?
How was it that Friedrich Engels could condemn Owen’s socialism as utopian and yet concede that “‘every social movement, every real advance on behalf of workers links itself to the name of Robert Owen’?”
John Harrison contributed this to a collection of essays celebrating the 200th anniversary of Owens birth in 1971.
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