Josiah Warren

He is regarded as the first American philosophical anarchist; he took an active part in Robert Owen's experimental community at New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825–1826. Later, Warren rejected Owenism, giving birth to the Time Store Cooperative Movement (historically known as "Equity Movement"). His ideas were partly implemented through the establishment of the Cincinnati Time Store, followed by the founding of the Utopian Community of Modern Times. In his 1863 work titled True Civilization, Warren outlines his philosophy founded on the "sovereignty of every individual." In his subsequent development, Practical Applications of the Elementary Principles of True Civilization (1873), he proposes a decentralized hexagonal ideal city, drawing inspiration from J. Madison Allen of Ancora design. The city was supposed to be the antithesis of communism, being owned by cellular units while promoting equitable distribution and a system of time chits.

A pioneer in printing technology, he invented America's first continuous-feed rotary press, that was capable of producing 60 copies per minute, in contrast to the 5 copies produced by standard presses of that time. This invention was exhibited in New York City in 1832, and, according to the 19th-century newspaper The Engraver and Electrotyper, "one of the crowds that went to see the new machine was Robert Hoe," the founder of the R. Hoe & Company. A few years later, Hoe & Company began producing a press based on the same principle, which would revolutionize printing by the late nineteenth century.

Warren is also recognized for his contributions to the development of coal-oil stoves and for being one of the first to establish a trade school in the United States. His philosophical work has been appreciated across the political spectrum, influencing prominent intellectuals such as Herbert Spencer, Benjamin Tucker, Émile Armand, and John Stuart Mill. By the 20th century, he was cited by Robert Nozick in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), where Nozick explores the concept of a meta-utopia – a collection of coexisting utopias.