Blackwell Reference Online

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(1788–1856), French pioneer of utopian socialism and founder of the so-called Icarian movement. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1831. His attacks on the government led to a conviction for treason and he fled to England where he came under the influence of Robert Owen. Cabet sought to apply Christian principles to the problems of nineteenth-century industrial society. His Voyage en Icarie (published as a novel, 1840) described a utopian city where all social classes lived in harmony, underpinned by a system of universal education, adult suffrage, and primitive communism . In 1848 he crossed the Atlantic and, together with a group of followers, founded a number of Icarian communities in Texas and Iowa. (See also socialism ) ... log in or subscribe to read full text