Focusing on the key period between the late 18th century and 1914, this book provides the first comprehensive narrative account of radical and socialist texts and organised movements for reform to land planning and housing policies in Britain. Beginning with the early colonial settlements in the puritan and enlightenment eras, it also covers Benthamite utilitarian planning, Owenite and utopian communitarianism, the Chartists, late Chartists and the First International, Christian socialists and positivists, working class and radical land reform campaigns in the late 19th century, Garden City pioneers and the institutionalisation of the planning profession. The book, in effect, presents a prehistory of land, planning and housing reform in the UK in contrast with most historiography which focuses on the immediate pre-World War I period. Providing an analysis of different intellectual traditions and contrasting middle class-led reform initiatives with those based on working class organisations, the book seeks to relate historical debates to contemporary themes, including utopianism and pragmatism, the role of the state, the balance between local initiatives and centrally driven reforms and the interdependence of land, housing and planning.

1. Introduction: Radicalism, Socialism, Planning and Planning History, 2. Radicals and Planning in Britain and the Colonies: From the Puritans to the Restoration, 3. Enlightenment Planning, 4. The Benthamites and Utilitarian Planning, 5. Owenite Co-operation and Plans for New Communities, 6. The Influence of the French Utopian Socialists in England, 7. Working Class Radicals and the Land, 8. Social Reform and Social Science, 9. The Socialist Revival, Land and Housing Reform, 10. Visions and Politics of the Garden City Pioneers, 11. The Institutionalisation of Planning and Housing, 12. Radical and Socialist Influences on Land, Planning and Housing Reform