The Cult of Authority: The Political Philosophy of the Saint-Simonians

There exists an extensive literature on the history of the Saint­ Simonian movement as well as on various phases of Saint-Simo­ nian economic, literary, aesthetic, feminist, and pacifist thought and activity. However, until the first edition of the present work, no larger study had undertaken an examination of the important topic of the political thought of the Saint-Simonians. This book attempts a systematic analysis of the political ideas of the Saint­ Simonians in the crucial years between 1828 and 1832 during which the Saint-Simonians, briefly organized as a well structured movement, formulated the diverse ideas of their master into a systematic doctrine. These were also the years of the greatest influence of the Saint-Simonians on the European public. After 1832 the Saint-Simonian movement dissolved into an informal fellowship of likeminded individuals and the tightly knit Saint­ Simonian doctrine into a set of loosely related ideas. This study uses as its main sources the rich collection of lectures, sermons, pamphlets, and newspapers published by the Saint-Simonians between 1828 and 1832. Except for minor corrections and an expanded bibliography, the present second edition is identical with the first. I have purposely eliminated the phrase, "A Chapter in the Intellectual History of Totalitarianism," from the subtitle.