Robert Owen biography at QuotationFun

A Short Biography of Robert Owen

Author Name:

Robert Owen

Born As:

Other Names:

Born:

14 May 1771

Died:

17 Nov 1858

Social reformer and manufacturer

Selected Works:

A New View Of Society, Essays on the Formation of Human Character - 1813
Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System. 2nd edn - 1815
Report to the Committee for the Relief of the Manufacturing Poor. In The Life of Robert Owen written by Himself, 2 vols - 1817, 1857-8.
Two memorials behalf of the working classes. In The Life of Robert Owen written by Himself, 2 vols, 1818, 1857-8.
An Address to the Master Manufacturers of Great Britain - 1819
Report to the County of Lanark of a Plan for relieving Public Distress. Glasgow - 1821
An Explanation of the Cause of Distress which pervades the civilized parts of the world - 1823
Was one of the founders of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union - GNCTU - 1830
An Address to All Classes in the State - 1832
The Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race - 1849.


Robert Owen wrote numerous works about his system. Of these, the most notable are:
The New View of Society
The Report communicated to the Committee on the Poor Law
The Book of the New Moral World
Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race

The Robert Owen Collection, that includes papers and letters as well as copies of pamphlets and books by him and about him is deposited with the National Co-operative Archive, UK.

Wife Caroline Dale

Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:

First, no one was responsible for his will and his own actions, because his whole character is formed independently of himself; people are products of their environment, hence his support for education and labour reform, rendering him a pioneer in human capital investment.
Second, all religions are based on the same absurd imagination, that make man a weak, imbecile animal; a furious bigot and fanatic; or a miserable hypocrite - in dotage, he embraced Spiritualism.
Third, support for the putting-out system instead of the factory system



The putting-out system was a means of subcontracting work. It was also known as the workshop system. In putting-out, work was contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who completed the work in their own facility, usually their own home.