The New Views of Mr. Owen of Lanark Impartially Examined,

£2,750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Goldsmiths’, 22699; Kress, C.351. Relatively well-held institutionally, but significantly scarce at auction with RareBook Hub and ABPC listing only one copy to have sold at auction (Bonhams, 2008). One of the earliest independent accounts of Robert Owen’s educational and social reforms at New Lanark, a cotton mill and worker’s community in Scotland, where Owen pioneered ideas that would become cornerstones of the socialist movement, such as the eight-hour working day, social housing, urban planning, and universal education. A hugely positive and widely cited report, with special reference to Owen’s efforts towards the education of worker’s children described as, “perhaps the fairest in spirit and fullest in detail of any work written concerning Robert Owen” (Lloyd Jones, The Life, Times Labours of Robert Owen , p. 195). The report was undertaken by Henry Grey Macnab (1760-1823), personal physician to Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820). The Duke was one Owen’s more high-profile patrons, and their correspondence shows his interest to have been “genuine and not altogether motivated by the loans made to him by Owen” (Harvey, Robert Owen: Social Idealist , p. 47). The Duke had made plans to visit New Lanark, but the proposed trip never materialised, and he eventually sent Macnab in his place to write a report. Macnab’s visit came at a time of widespread antagonism against Owen for his outspoken denunciation of religion at a notorious meeting at the City of Lond

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.