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Sketch of buildings to be constructed in New Harmony, Ind.
The utopian community modeled on the industrialist’s principles lasted
only two years. [41]Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Robert Owen, born 250 years ago, tried to use his wealth to perfect humanity
in a radically equal society

May 11, 2021 8.50am EDT
[42]Richard Gunderman, Indiana University

Author

1. [43]Richard Gunderman [44]
Richard Gunderman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy,
Indiana University

Disclosure statement

Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive
funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this
article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their
academic appointment.

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[45]Indiana University

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Do you have a work schedule that leaves you with enough time off the
clock to rest up and handle your other responsibilities?

If so, you might owe something to [54]Robert Owen, a wealthy
industrialist who was born in Wales on May 14, 1771.
[55]Portrait of a wealthy, well-dressed man with well-coifed hair in
the 19th century Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, portrayed about a
decade after his experimental community in Indiana collapsed.
[56]National Library of Wales

Owen is widely credited with being the first person to advocate for a
universal “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest”
approach to work-life balance. He experimented with this concept at his
own factories and urged employers everywhere to adopt this management
ethos as part of the [57]socialist ideology he embraced decades before
Karl Marx.

In the early 19th century, many U.S. and European factory workers
worked up to [58]18 hours a day, six days a week.

Once a year, [59]I travel with 15 [60]fellows enrolled in a leadership
program to [61]New Harmony. It’s the site of [62]Owen’s greatest
experiment, a “[63]cooperative community” he founded in southern
Indiana on the banks of the Wabash River. Far more radical than
limiting labor to eight-hour workdays, the utopia Owen envisioned ran
up against human nature.

Early success and a socialist vision

Owen, born into a working-class family, had virtually no formal
education. By the age of 21, he was managing a textile mill, and at 28
he married the daughter of a Scottish mill owner, whose business he
soon purchased. Owen rejected long hours and [64]took steps to make
child labor less exploitative. Although he paid higher wages than his
competitors, the mill’s profits made him a wealthy man.

Owen believed in lifelong education, establishing an [65]Institute for
the Formation of Character and School for Children that focused less on
job skills than on becoming a better person. This innovation attracted
considerable attention, and many dignitaries – including the future
czar of Russia – visited to see it for themselves.

But Owen’s ambitions went far beyond the well-being of his workforce.

He conceived of [66]socialist communities of people who would live
together, as well as collectively prepare and eat their meals. Children
would remain with their families until age 3, at which point the
community would take over raising and educating them. Men and women
would have equal rights.

At the core of Owen’s philosophy was an [67]earnest question: Why
shouldn’t people who work together enjoy the fruits of their labor
communally, promoting “the well-being and happiness of every man,
woman, and child, without regard to class, sect, party, country, or
colour?”

There’s a [68]long-running debate over whether nature or nurture is the
biggest factor shaping human character. Owen firmly sided with nurture.
He believed in a concept then called “[69]human perfectibility.” In his
view, all that was necessary to create better human beings was to
raise, educate and employ them in better circumstances.

Creating New Harmony

Owen sought to demonstrate the viability of his ideals by establishing
a new community in the United States that would adhere to them. His
[70]aspirations belonged to a [71]broader utopian movement that
included the [72]Fruitlands agrarian commune in Massachusetts and the
[73]Oneida community in New York state.

Other Europeans had attempted their own real-life experiments. In fact,
a [74]German religious sect that emphasized a communal way of life was
selling its southern Indiana town of Harmony, and its residents were
[75]relocating to Pennsylvania.

Owen purchased it in 1825 for US$150,000 (the equivalent of about $4
million today) and renamed it [76]New Harmony. He invited “any and all”
to come join his “community of equality” located halfway between St.
Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky.

New Harmony attracted about 1,000 newcomers, including [77]scientists,
naturalists, educators and artists, all eager to build what Owen called
a “union and cooperation of all for the benefit of each.”

Trouble soon began to brew.

For one thing, Owen himself seems to have taken a greater interest in
[78]traveling and promoting his ideas than in securing the success of
the new venture.

A second problem was who moved there. Some residents sincerely believed
in Owen’s ideas, while others had been lured by the [79]promise of an
easy life and did little to promote the community.

Finally, his reforms proved to be at odds with human nature. Few
families wanted their children to be shielded from what he called the
“[80]negative influence” of their parents, and people who worked hard
resented those who contributed little.

Ahead of his time

Despite considerable investments that depleted Owen’s fortune, the
community failed economically after just two years. Perhaps he had
overestimated the malleability of human nature. Owen personally
believed that [81]humanity wasn’t yet ready for his radical new ideas.
[82]A row of colorful buildings The small town of New Harmony, Ind.,
today is a picturesque and historic destination. [83]Timothy K
Hamilton/Creativity+Photography, [84]CC BY-NC-SA

He returned to Europe, where he continued to promote publicly funded
education, better working conditions and his vision of an enlightened
society. He died in Wales in 1858. His four sons and [85]one of his
daughters remained in New Harmony, [86]leading notable lives of their
own.

Owen’s legacy doesn’t just live on in the [87]nine-to-five schedules
that became the norm starting in the early 20th century. It’s also in
the broad notion of social welfare behind everything from public
schools to paid sick leave – including the [88]expansion of government
benefits the Biden administration is proposing.

Visitors to New Harmony, where [89]about 750 people reside today, can
wander around its [90]many historical sites and learn about its
one-time owner and most famous resident, who devoted his fortune and
his life to improving the human condition.

[Insight, in your inbox each day. [91]You can get it with The
Conversation’s email newsletter.]
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