The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.8

Word count: 248K words
Chapters: 25

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl MarxAuthor: Marx, Karl, 1818-1883,Language: English, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Feb 19, 2006

Editor's review

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte is Marx's political-historical study of French politics from 1848 to 1851. Rather than merely chronicling events, it dissects how republicans, the Party of Order, and Bonapartists exhausted one another through repeated constitutional and electoral struggles, ultimately allowing Louis Bonaparte to close the scene with a coup. Its analysis of class representation, the state machine, and mass psychology has long been regarded as a key text for understanding modern political mobilization and the rise of authoritarianism. The prose is dense, interweaving satire and assertion, and suits readers interested in political theory, modern French history, or historical sociology. While reading, keep hold of the timeline and factional relations rather than being thrown off by the rhetoric; comparing it with the French historical record of 1848–1851 will yield more solid gains.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and researchers of political theory and historical sociology
Historically minded readers interested in French politics from 1848 to 1851
Advanced readers seeking to understand class analysis and the theory of the state machine
Humanities students who need classic texts to train close-reading skills

Not a good fit for

Readers with little basic knowledge of modern French history who want an easy introduction
General history lovers who prefer fluent narrative and character-driven plots
Fragmented readers unwilling to face dense argumentation and long sentences

Reading tips

First draw up a timeline of major French events from 1848 to 1851, then enter the main text.
Draw a diagram of the political factions as you read to avoid confusing people and positions.
After each chapter, restate the core thesis in one paragraph to check whether you have grasped the argument.
Read alongside a brief history of the French Second Republic to reduce background obstacles.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What does the Eighteenth Brumaire in the title refer to?

The Eighteenth Brumaire is a date in the French Republican calendar, referring to the day Napoleon I launched his coup. Marx borrows this date to name Louis Bonaparte's coup, aiming to highlight the sense of history repeating itself and of political imitation; readers need to understand it in the context of French history.

Can I read it without a foundation in Marxism?

You can, but it will be difficult. The book makes extensive use of concepts such as class, the state machine, and representation, and is closely tied to the factional struggles in France at the time. It is advisable to first read a brief history of the French Second Republic and to use an introduction or annotated edition, which will make understanding much smoother.

Is this edition suitable for academic citation?

The information shows that this is a public-domain English e-book released by Project Gutenberg, a free reading edition. For academic citation, it is advisable to check a translation or critical edition from an authoritative publisher and note the edition information, rather than citing page numbers from the e-book directly.

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About the author

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883 Author

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German thinker and revolutionary theorist whose writings had a profound influence on later political economy and social thought. The library holds eight of his works, spanning political polemic, historical analysis and economic study. Among them, The Communist Manifesto sets out ideas about class and historical change in a vivid and forceful argumentative style and has circulated very widely, while A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy and Capital (Το κεφάλαιον) show his approach of analyzing the social and economic structure through the relations among commodities, labor and capital. Works such as The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and The Civil War in France address contemporary events in a concise, sharply critical manner. Because public information is limited, biographical details are omitted, and this introduction focuses on the subjects and influence of his works.