Robert Owen wrote over thirty major works. The most important are his autobiography, A New View of Society and the Report to the County of Lanark. Some of these, including the autobiography and "A New View of Society", can be found freely available on the internet. The Co-op archive (see Web Links) includes papers and letters as well as copies of pamphlets and books by him.

To give a flavour of Owen’s writing we have included the items detailed below on this website.

Extracts from Owen’s autobiography. This presents a condensed version of his life in his own words under the following headings:-

• Early Life 1771 - 1786
• Manchester 1786 - 1799
• New Lanark 1800 - 1825
• “A New View of Society” 1813
• Factory Reform 1815
• Plight of the Unemployed 1816
• New Lanark Schools 1816 - 1825
• Public Meetings 1817
• On the Continent 1818
• “Report to the County of Lanark” 1820

Mr Owen’s Plan. After his public meetings in 1817, Robert Owen devoted most of his efforts to establishing model communities, in accordance with "Mr Owen’s Plan" . We present a summary of the Plan, published in 1822.

Letters. Robert Owen was a prolific correspondent. The Museum has 54 of his letters, mostly from his later life. 13 are on general topics, 41 are on spiritualism. Transcripts of a selection are presented. Click on the following:- Miss Carnegy, Nash Family, Fred Hockley Esq.

Robert Owen’s scepticism about organised religion and about Christianity fuelled some of the opposition to his ideas. To see his views in context, we present extracts from A New View of Society and The Address to New Lanark, illustrating Robert Owen’s Religious Views.
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