Abstract
The place of Etienne Cabet in the history of French and European socialism has been misunderstood and its real importance diminished in part due to the only detailed study of his life and thought, Jules Prudhommeaux's Icarie et son fondateur Etienne Cabet (Paris: Cornély, 1907). This work possesses many merits but is limited by the framework made explicit in its subtitle: “a contribution to the study of Experimental Socialism”. The author is principally concerned with Cabet as the creator of a communist colony in the backwoods of America. This emphasis relieved Prudhommeaux of the task of investigating the role of Cabet in the turbulent politics of France before and during the Revolution of 1848. By ignoring this period of Icarian history, he inadvertently strengthened the impression that Cabet's historical significance was as the Utopian archetype. Such was not the unique image of the father of Icarian communism during the 1840's, however.
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