ABSTRACT
In Robert Owen’s view, the “crisis” was over. The great attempt to use Trade Unionism as the instrument of Socialism had ended in disaster for the Trade Unions. The Owenite movement assumed a new shape. Owen himself returned to the preaching of his ideas about education and the influence of environment, and to working out, in ever-growing detail, the principles of the “New Moral World”. The complete conversion of the Owenite movement into an ethical society did not come until after its last great venture in community-making had ended in disaster. Owen was seventy years of age when he became Governor of Queenwood, and seventy-three when he resigned. It was not until 1853, when he was already eighty-two years of age, that Owen became a convert to Spiritualism, and fell under the influence of the new cult, then spreading from America to Europe.
