Examines the theoretical bases and the social fabric that spawned French neo-impressionism, best represented by Seurat, Signac, Pissarro, Angrand, and Luce. Shows how they rejected the spontaneity of the impressionists to embrace scientific theories promulgated by anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave, and how the movement broke up when their concern for social justice was supplanted by demands for more militant, didactic art. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.