Étienne Cabet
| Étienne Cabet | |
|---|---|
Étienne Cabet
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| Born |
January 1, 1788 Dijon, Côte-d'Or |
| Died | November 9, 1856 (aged 68) St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Occupation | philosopher |
| Known for | founder of the Icarian movement |
| Notable work | "Travel and Adventures of Lord William Carisdall in Icaria" (1840) |
Étienne Cabet (French: [kabɛ]; January 1, 1788 – November 9, 1856) was a French philosopher and utopian socialist. He was the founder of the Icarian movement. His goal was to replace capitalist production with workers' cooperatives. He became the most popular socialist advocate of his day, with a special appeal to artisans who were being undercut by factories. Cabet led groups of emigrants to found utopian communities in Texas and Illinois. However his work was undercut by recurring feuds with his followers.
Cabet was born in Dijon, Côte-d'Or. Educated as a lawyer, he was appointed attorney-general in Corsica, representing the government of Louis Philippe, after having headed an insurrectionary committee and participated actively in the July Revolution of 1830. However he was dismissed from this position for his attack upon the conservatism of the government in his Histoire de la révolution de 1830. In 1831, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in France as the representative of Côte d'Or. He sat with the extreme radicals.
Due to his bitter attacks on the government he was accused of treason in 1834 and fled to England, seeking political asylum. Influenced by Robert Owen, he wrote Voyage et aventures de lord William Carisdall en Icarie ("Travel and Adventures of Lord William Carisdall in Icaria") (1840), which depicted a utopia in which a democratically elected governing body controlled all economic activity and closely supervised social life. The nuclear family remained the only other independent unit. Icaria is the name of the fictional country and ideal society he describes. The success of this book prompted him to take steps to realize his Utopia.
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