ABSTRACT
If millenarianism is defined as expectation of an imminent and total transformation by means extraordinary or supernatural, then Owenism was the thickest thread, during the 1850s as before, within the social millenarian milieu in Britain. True, Owen himself had seldom been at all slavishly followed by those who labelled themselves Owenites, even by formal members of Owenite organisations. But the vagaries we are about to see via this chapter would, even by themselves, have provided sufficient explanation for why spiritualists of the Keighley type avoided, apparently, even the label of Owenite. True again, one of the many reasons why his following was so much less than his influence was that his views on types of working-class organisation and even on the basic question of agency had wavered during the decades. But his fundamental system of thought had remained stabler.
