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Paternalism and Democracy in the Politics of Robert Owen*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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Popular conceptions of the politics of Robert Owen have changed surprisingly little since the early nineteenth century. Within a short time of the advent of his national campaign for Poor Law reform, Owen came under attack from radical parliamentary reformers on the grounds of his ostensible political conservatism. Among the rumours then afloat among the reformers, Richard Carlile later wrote, one was “that Mr. Owen was an instrument of the Government, to bring forward this plan of providing for the lower and poorer classes, for the purpose of drawing their attention from Parliamentary Reform”.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1982

References

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18 Ibid., 23 August 1826, p. 383: 10 January 1827, p. 113; London Co-operative Magazine, 1 March 1830, p. 37. For a bitterly critcal reflection upon Owen's goverment at New Harmony, see P.Brown, Twelve Months in New Harmony (Cincinnati, 1827).

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