Albert Brisbane

Albert Brisbane , 1809-90, American social theorist, b. Batavia, N.Y. After studying with Charles Fourier in Paris, he returned to the United States as an enthusiastic advocate of Fourierism. His Social Destiny of Man (1840) aroused widespread interest, especially that of Horace Greeley, who gave him a column in the Tribune. Brisbane was instrumental in the founding of the phalanxes at Brook Farm and Red Bank, N.J. The failure of most of the other communal experiments was disastrous for the Fourierist cause, but Brisbane reaffirmed his convictions in his General Introduction to Social Science (1876). His wife, Redelia Brisbane, edited and wrote an introduction to his autobiography, published posthumously as Albert Brisbane: A Mental Biography (1893, repr. 1969). His son, Arthur Brisbane (1864-1936), was editor of the New York Evening Journal and other Hearst papers.

Bibliography: See biography by O. Carlson (1937).

Brisbane, Albert (1809–90), after studying under Charles Fourier in Paris, returned to the U.S. (1834) to popularize Fourierism through his column in the New York Tribune, which was also influential in the formation of more than 40 socialized communities in America. The most famous of these was Brook Farm, and the most successful the North American Phalanx. Brisbane had little to do with the organizations themselves, but defended their general theory in his books, Social Destiny of Man (1840) and General Introduction to Social Science (1876).

Spirit of the Age, The (Feb. 1849–Apr. 1850),New York weekly journal, edited by W.H. Channing with the purpose of seeking “the Peaceful Transformation of human society from isolated to associated interests.” The many reforms it advocated included antislavery, abolition of the death penalty, universal education, pacifism, and temperance. Contributors included C.A. Dana, Parke Godwin, the elder Henry James, J.S. Dwight, Albert Brisbane, and Ripley, and there were also translations from foreign socialist writers.