‎(BUCHEZ, P.J.B.)‎
‎Introduction à la Science de l'Histoire, ou Science du développement de l'Humanité.‎

‎Paris, Paulin, Libraire-Éditeur, 1833. (4), 568, (4, Table des Matières, errata) pp. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, corners, marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, label with gilt lettering. Walch 683; Stammhammer, i, p. 40; Dolléans & Crozier, p. 38; DBMOF, i, pp. 318-321. First edition. Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin Buchez (1796-1865), philosopher, historian and social reformer who from the early 1830s on attempted to draw together in a new synthesis apparently disparate traditions: the Catholic, the democratic, and the Saint-Simonian. Most historians (with the notable exception of François-André Isambert) have underestimated the originality and the importance of Philippe Buchez. Although his works are difficult to penetrate and little read, his writings contain much more than the proposal for worker's producer cooperatives and the idealistic Christian socialism for which Buchez is usually remembered. They contain, above all, his brave attempt to create a science of society -the most elaborate after that of Comte- and to understand society in a historical perspective. What sets him apart from the other socialist theorists who flourished in the Paris of the July Monarchy, is less the evolution of his thought than the synthesis he attempted. During the early years of the July Monarchy, Buchez quickly developed and propagated his ideas. He gave a series of lectures, he founded a newspaper, the Européen, and he began to publish philosophical and historical studies. He is best remembered by his concern to improve the worker's lot and his proposal for the establishment of workers' producer cooperatives. (See the elaborate article by Barrie M. Ratcliffe in the Historical Dictionary of France from the 1815 Restoration to the Second Empire). - Some scattered spotting, somewhat heavier in the first few pages of the book, small stamp in blank portion of title-page, a good copy. ‎

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