| The French engineer, economist, and publicist Michel Chevalier (1806--1879) was one of the most original and influential intellectuals to have participated in the Saint-Simonian social movement of the 1820s and 1830s. This dissertation situates this largely misunderstood man within the historical context of a changing European world---a world of religious social movements, political upheavals, changing economies, scientific and technological advancements, and Romantic thought. In situating his work in a broader discourse, it examines the connections between the interior logic of Chevalier's writings and deeds and his influence on the political, social, and cultural processes of the nineteenth century. This study argues that Chevalier's intellectual contributions concerning global networks, the Mediterranean world, and the nature of work, industry, and pacifism, were all original and had a real lasting historical influence on France and Europe. As an intellectual biography of his formative years, it draws upon his own manuscript sources, published journals from the period, and it makes extensive use of secondary sources concerning the Saint-Simonians and the world that they inhabited. |
