Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, is perhaps best known as the author of The New Christianity, published in the year of his death, 1825. Having spent many years studying the potential of science and the need for a new rationally-based leadership for society, Saint-Simon focused on theology. Religion, he said, offered the best hope for the poor. The precepts of Christianity should serve as a guide by which society works to improve as quickly and effectively as possible the lot of its less fortunate members, he argued. It was this idea that led to the subsequent movement that came to be known as Saint-Simonianism, which began soon after his death. During the 1830 "July Revolution," Saint-Simonians issued proclamations demanding common ownership of property, the abolition of inheritance, and the enfranchisement of women. Both Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Engels claimed a debt to Saint-Simon, and his ideas have indeed influenced...