R. R. Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161280
- eISBN:
- 9781400850228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161280.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian ...
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This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian birth, and their Conspiracy of Equals of 1796. The Conspiracy of Equals has always been looked back on with respectful interest by partisans of the modern Left, as the first manifestation of the revolutionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How far the Conspiracy was “communistic” remains uncertain. But even the inner leadership had diverse aims, and the whole movement was so secret and so short-lived that the secondary organizers, not to mention the ordinary followers, never knew who the leaders were or what their purposes might be.Less
This chapter considers the extreme Left of the French Revolution led by an obscure journalist who called himself “Gracchus” Babeuf and his co-worker Philippe Buonarroti, a French citizen of Italian birth, and their Conspiracy of Equals of 1796. The Conspiracy of Equals has always been looked back on with respectful interest by partisans of the modern Left, as the first manifestation of the revolutionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How far the Conspiracy was “communistic” remains uncertain. But even the inner leadership had diverse aims, and the whole movement was so secret and so short-lived that the secondary organizers, not to mention the ordinary followers, never knew who the leaders were or what their purposes might be.
Richard Landes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199753598
- eISBN:
- 9780199897445
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753598.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Beginning with a discussion of Babeuf's Communist variant on the (failed) French Revolution, the chapter analyzes Marx as a “rooster” (a secular Joachite) whose prophecies of a world revolution in ...
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Beginning with a discussion of Babeuf's Communist variant on the (failed) French Revolution, the chapter analyzes Marx as a “rooster” (a secular Joachite) whose prophecies of a world revolution in 1848 proved wrong (compared with Meyerbeer's response), but who spent the rest of his life trying to explain—as roosters so often do—how he was right about the scenario, but wrong about the timing. The chapter addresses the issue of Marx's denial of any millennial component to his thinking, his adoption of the politique du pire, and the broader problem of “secular millennialism,” including the problem of “envy” in the appeal of Communist promises.Less
Beginning with a discussion of Babeuf's Communist variant on the (failed) French Revolution, the chapter analyzes Marx as a “rooster” (a secular Joachite) whose prophecies of a world revolution in 1848 proved wrong (compared with Meyerbeer's response), but who spent the rest of his life trying to explain—as roosters so often do—how he was right about the scenario, but wrong about the timing. The chapter addresses the issue of Marx's denial of any millennial component to his thinking, his adoption of the politique du pire, and the broader problem of “secular millennialism,” including the problem of “envy” in the appeal of Communist promises.
Jeremy Jennings
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203131
- eISBN:
- 9780191728587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203131.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the ...
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The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the condition of the workers, it next looks at the insurrectionary tradition associated with Jacobinism and Babeuf. It continues this discussion with an examination of the utopianism of Cabet, the state socialism of Louis Blanc, and the introduction of Marxism in France. The chapter then analyses the writings of socialists who tended to be hostile to reliance upon the State as a mechanism of working-class emancipation. This discussion looks at the work of Fourier and those of his disciples such as Considérant, Proudhon, and the later anarcho-syndicalist movement associated with the ideas of Georges Sorel. It concludes by assessing the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and the ‘Soviet myth’ upon socialism in FranceLess
The subject matter of this chapter is socialist thought in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism. Beginning with a discussion of the Comtean concerns with the condition of the workers, it next looks at the insurrectionary tradition associated with Jacobinism and Babeuf. It continues this discussion with an examination of the utopianism of Cabet, the state socialism of Louis Blanc, and the introduction of Marxism in France. The chapter then analyses the writings of socialists who tended to be hostile to reliance upon the State as a mechanism of working-class emancipation. This discussion looks at the work of Fourier and those of his disciples such as Considérant, Proudhon, and the later anarcho-syndicalist movement associated with the ideas of Georges Sorel. It concludes by assessing the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and the ‘Soviet myth’ upon socialism in France
Christopher Pierson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199673292
- eISBN:
- 9780191840067
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199673292.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Chapter 4 provides a critical guide to key innovations in property thinking in the immediate context of the French Revolution. In the experience of the revolution itself, it focuses upon the key ...
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Chapter 4 provides a critical guide to key innovations in property thinking in the immediate context of the French Revolution. In the experience of the revolution itself, it focuses upon the key contributions of the Abbé de Sieyès and Robespierre, as well as of critics such as Rivarol, Roederer, and Babeuf. It follows in some detail disputes over property in the various legislative assemblies which governed between 1789 and 1795. It then traces the impact of these events on the debate in Britain. In the latter case, it considers the quite different positions adopted by Burke, Wollstonecraft, Paine, Thelwall, and Spencer. With some very notable exceptions on the fringes, for the most part both admirers and detractors of the revolutionary experience were happy to endorse a broadly ‘liberal’ view of private property.Less
Chapter 4 provides a critical guide to key innovations in property thinking in the immediate context of the French Revolution. In the experience of the revolution itself, it focuses upon the key contributions of the Abbé de Sieyès and Robespierre, as well as of critics such as Rivarol, Roederer, and Babeuf. It follows in some detail disputes over property in the various legislative assemblies which governed between 1789 and 1795. It then traces the impact of these events on the debate in Britain. In the latter case, it considers the quite different positions adopted by Burke, Wollstonecraft, Paine, Thelwall, and Spencer. With some very notable exceptions on the fringes, for the most part both admirers and detractors of the revolutionary experience were happy to endorse a broadly ‘liberal’ view of private property.