William Thompson Pioneer Socialist

An account of the life and work of William Thompson, an Irish landowner who was an important theoretician of the early socialist movement. Thompson described himself as one of the idle classes, living off rent, the produce of the labour of others. So he set himself the task of finding out how Labour might acquire the whole product of its labour, and the claims of Capital and Labour might be conciliated all this 20 years before the writings of Marx and Engels. The book covers Thompsons writings on wealth, exploitation, population, unions and religion, his practical directives in the formation of cooperative communities and his feelings about the position of women in early 19th century society.