Albert Brisbane (22 August 1809-28 April 1890), social theorist, economist, and reformer, was born in Batavia, New York, and died in Richmond, Virginia. Brisbane spent his childhood in Batavia, a small village in western New York barely a decade removed from the American frontier. His father, James Brisbane, was a prominent land owner in the region with advanced views on religion and education, and his mother, Mary Brisbane, achieved local prominence as an amateur astronomer. Brisbane was educated in the grammar schools of New York City and became a student of John Monesca, the noted linguist. In 1828 Brisbane sailed to France and spent a year at the Sorbonne where he studied literature and philosophy under Francois Guizot and Victor Cousin. It was at this time that Brisbane began his study of class consciousness and class conflict.

In 1829, at the suggestion of Cousin, Brisbane enrolled at the University of Berlin in...