# Étienne Cabet — The Story of Utopias character guide

> Étienne Cabet in The Story of Utopias by Lewis Mumford.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cabet

**First appearance:** 0003-the-story-of-utopias

## Who they are

French dreamer whose Icaria, imagined in exile, became a real community of believers trying to live the book.

## Relationships

### [Charles Fourier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/characters/charles_fourier)

_rivalry_

Fourier and Cabet were competing French utopian socialists whose different systems (phalanxes vs. Icarian communities) attracted separate followings.

### [Edward Bellamy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/characters/edward_bellamy)

_professional_

Bellamy's nationalist utopianism is often compared to Cabet's earlier Icarian communism, though Bellamy's was more state-centered.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/v)

Cited as the creator of the imaginary Icarians, who lived only in his mind.

### [The Eighteenth Century: Industrialism and the Birth of Modern Utopias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/vi)

Cabet's Icaria is discussed as a nationalized state utopia born from this period.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/viii)

Dreamed of a new Napoleon called Icar and a new France called Icaria.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/i)

Born in 1788, died under Napoleon III; author of Voyage en Icarie; his utopian vision was shaped by Napoleonic nationalization and bureaucracy; led a failed communist colony in Missouri.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/ii)

Author of the Icarian utopia; his detailed, rigid planning of Icaria is the focus of the chapter.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/iii)

Cabet is the creator of Icaria, whose system is critiqued for its centralized, dictatorial structure and regimentation of daily life.

### [How we reckon up accounts with the one-sided utopias of the partisans.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/xi)

Cabet's Icaria is examined as a nationalized state utopia that prioritizes state control over individual freedom.

### [The Eutopian Challenge: From Idola to Action](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/x)

Mentioned alongside Fourier and Hertzka as a utopian whose efforts ended in bitter frustration.

### [Utopias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/chapters/utopias)

Author of Voyage en Icarie (1845), a utopian novel about a nationalized state.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/characters/etienne_cabet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_utopias_se/characters