Professor Sombart's work contains little that is directly controversial; but it gives the impression that the purpose of the socialists is based on a fallacy, that it is not, in reality, in harmony with evolution, and that it will not prevail. It may be added that the style of the work is worthy of the thought that it expresses, and that the English translation is worthy of the original. The book will take its place among the more valuable of the works on Socialism that have thus far appeared. JOHN B. CLARK, Columbia University, New York. PREFACE What is here published was originally delivered in the form of lectures, in the Fall of 1896, in Zurich, before miscellaneous but in general appreciative and inspiring audiences. The approval which they received, and the earnestly expressed wish of many hearers that the addresses might appear in print, have finally overcome a not inconsiderable reluctance on my part, felt by all in like position. The lectures are in many places enlarged; indeed, largely put into new form--changed from extemporaneous utterance into the more formal style proper for the written word. But their character remains, especially the restricted setting into which a great mass of material had to be compressed. This is done intentionally, since what I would offer to a larger public through this book is a brief, pointed, well-defined view of "Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century." W.S. CONTENTS PAGE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v INTRODUCTORY NOTE by Professor John B. Clark viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix CHAPTER I. WHENCE AND WHITHER 1 Class struggle--Kant--The meaning of the social movement--Essential elements in every social movement--Characterisation of the social movement--Conditions under which the working class lives--Russian peasants--Irish "rack-rent" tenants-- Uncertainty of existence--The Japanese--The Kurd-- Hegel--The ground of revolutionary passions in the modern proletariat--Time environment of the modern social movement--"Revolutionism." II. CONCERNING UTOPIAN SOCIALISM 19 Social literature, old and new--Adam Smith--David Ricardo--"Christian socialism"--Lamennais--Kingsley-- "Ethical socialism"--Sismondi--Carlyle--"Philanthropic socialism"--Pierre Leroux--Grün--Hess-- Anti-capitalistic literature--Adam Müller--Leopold von Haller--Capitalistic methods of production--Utopian socialists--St. Simon--Fourier--Owen. III. THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT 37