Early work on behaviorism, by an American utopian
Elements of Materialism: Inculcating the idea of a future state, in which all will be more happy, under whatever circumstances they may be placed than if they experienced no misery in this life.
Adams, Mass: for the Author, by A. Oakey, 1829.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
First edition. viii, [9]-448 pp. 8vo. Early work on behaviorism, by an American utopian. Contemporary calf. Foxing throughout, head of spine chipped, some rubbing and wear to boards. Egbert II p 195; Shoemaker 39237. Provenance: Samuel B[ancroft]. Barlow (contemporary ink signature to f.f.e.p.); Chas. C. Holcombe, W. Grenville (ownership signature penciled to f.f.e.p.).
Item #309240
First and only edition of this utopian mediation on materialism which explores the physiological, social, psychological, and spiritual effects of environmental conditions and the laws of physics on individual behavior–– an early foray into what would come to be known as behavoirism. "The book did not sell, and the cost of its publication left Knowlton heavily in debt. Robert Dale Owen invited him, nevertheless, to address other freethinkers in Manhattan, and it was probably through Owen that Knowlton conceived the work that would gain him international fame, Fruits of Philosophy ... the first popular manual on contraception by an American physician" (ANB). This copy bears the ownership signature of another well-known Massachusetts physician of the era, the homeopath Samuel Bancroft Barlow (1798-1876).
