Page "History of socialism" Paragraph 4

The first modern socialists were early 19th century Western European social critics.

In this period socialism emerged from a diverse array of doctrines and social experiments associated primarily with British and French thinkers — especially Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louis Blanc, and Saint-Simon.

These social critics criticised the excesses of poverty and inequality of the Industrial Revolution, and advocated reforms such as the egalitarian distribution of wealth and the transformation of society into small communities in which private property was to be abolished.

Outlining principles for the reorganization of society along collectivist lines, Saint-Simon and Owen sought to build socialism on the foundations of planned, utopian communities.

According to Sheldon Richman, " n the 19th and early 20th centuries, ' socialism ' did not exclusively mean collective or government ownership of the means or production but was an umbrella term for anyone who believed labor was cheated out of its natural product under historical capitalism.