Brisbane, Albert (brĭz`bān), 1809–90, American social theorist, b. Batavia, N.Y. After studying with Charles Fourier Fourierism obtained a number of converts in France, and several newspapers spread the doctrines, but followers failed to establish any lasting colony there. After Fourier's death his principal disciple, Victor Prosper Considérant , tried to found a colony in Texas.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 Brook Farm, 1841–47, an experimental farm at West Roxbury, Mass., based on cooperative living. Founded by George Ripley , a Unitarian minister, the farm was initially financed by a joint-stock company with 24 shares of stock at $500 per share.
..... Click the link for more information. 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

(born Aug. 22, 1809, Batavia, N.Y., U.S.—died May 1, 1890, Richmond, Va.) U.S. social reformer. The son of wealthy landowners, he went to Europe in 1828 to study social reform with great thinkers of his age. Disappointed with François Guizot in Paris and G.W.F. Hegel in Berlin, he later discovered the works of Charles Fourier, under whom he studied for two years. In 1834 he returned to the U.S. and later established a Fourier community in New Jersey. His book Social Destiny of Man (1840) attracted widespread attention. In his newspaper column in the New York Tribune he explained the Fourier system of self-sustaining communities, which he called Associationism. His son Arthur (1864–1936) was editor of the New York Evening Journal (1897–1921) and the Chicago Herald and Examiner (from 1918).

Brisbane, Albert (1809–90) social reformer; born in Batavia, N.Y. Son of a wealthy landowner, he had little formal schooling but in 1828 went off to Europe "to solve the mystery of man's destiny." For six years he studied at various universities and met or studied with several great thinkers—Goethe, Hegel, Jules Michelet, and Charles Fourier. It was Fourier's social philosophy, essentially a socialism that called for establishing small cooperative communities, that Brisbane adopted, and after his return to the U.S.A. (1834) he embarked on a phase of writing about and promoting "Fourierism" (which he tended to rename "associationism") through books, articles, and journals that he edited (such as The Phalanx, 1843–45). When it came to operating actual utopian communities based on Fourierism, however, Brisbane took little action, and by 1851—after two other trips to Europe—he had effectively withdrawn from social activism. He concentrated on managing his family's business and on publishing his various ideas on everything from psychology to Fourier's theories (including his major work, the General Introduction to Social Theory, 1876); he even suggested new systems for transportation and burials and became an advocate of drinking wine. Although admired in his day, he was generally described as a propagandist, not as an effective leader.