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The Royal Scottish Society of Arts
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7th Meeting of the 181st Session (2001-2002)

Biography as History:
Deconstructing Robert Owen, Social Reformer

Dr Ian Donnachie
The Open University in Scotland

In the Wolfson Suite, Ground Floor
Edinburgh University Library
George Square, Edinburgh
On Monday 13th May 2002, at 7 pm

Robert Owen (1771-1858) was one of the most enlightened social reformers of the first half of the nineteenth century. He worked his way in the textile trade and became a successful businessman in the Manchester cotton industry. His work in Scotland is well known because of his association with the cotton mills of New Lanark, now a World Heritage Site, where he established a remarkable system of worker education and social welfare that became a model for others both here and abroad. Later, he became involved with working class movements, trades unions, cooperatives, and law reform, and wrote influential periodicals on those subjects.

Owen was a controversial figure, and the many factors influencing him, and his influence on others, as well as many unanswered questions will be examined in their historical context.

Location of meeting


Society Business

The President, Dr Allen D C Simpson, will be in the Chair

Nominations for Fellowship of the Society will be tabled at the meeting.

The Society's Council apologise for the very short notice of this meeting. The planned speaker for this meeting had to withdraw due to ill health and Dr Donnachie has very kindly stepped in. We hope that Fellows will still be able to attend.

Members of the Public are welcome to attend

Graham Rule, Secretary


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