ABSTRACT
Most Utopians have started from the belief that man is naturally good and that a favorable environment is bound to bring him to a condition of perfection. The Utopian experiments of the social type began early in the nineteenth century. The first and by far the largest and best-known of the Utopian communities was established by Robert Owen early in 1825. Etienne Cabet’s Utopian novel, Voyage en Icarie, which showed the influence of Owen and the more rigorous socialistic thinkers, brought into being the French Icarian communities. The final decade of the anti-slavery agitation and the years of the Civil War and Reconstruction were not conducive to further Utopian experimentation. The social Utopians failed of practical achievement because of the very nature of their panaceas. The Utopian movement did leave a definite impress on the social progress of the past century.
