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Childcare, education, working conditions, healthcare, crime: these issues are hotly debated in today's society. They are also issues that Robert Owen, seen by some as a visionary and by others as a knave and a charlatan, sought to address in the early 1800s. This course, Robert Owen and New Lanark uses a series of essays written by Owen to explore the ideas of this important and controversial figure.
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Introduction
Robert Owen (1771–1858) (see Figure 1) was one of the most important and controversial figures of his generation. He lived through the ages of Enlightenment and Romanticism and was personally touched by the ideas and dramatic changes that characterized that era. Profiting enormously during the first half of his life from the progress of industry and having the financial means, he later devoted himself to publicizing and practicing his social and economic ideas. Most of these derived from Enlightenment notions and, he thought, could eliminate poverty and crime, contributing to social and moral betterment.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:- Understand the Enlightenment ideas that underpinned Robert Owen's social reform agenda
- Understand how Owen's background and experience at New Lanark fed through into his thinking in the essays in A New View of Society
- Understand the main proposals in the essays
- Understand New Lanark's role as a model for social reform during this period.
