The development of the concept of communism in France from the French Revolution to 1848

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the development of French communist movements from the late eighteenth century to 1848, when the Communist Manifesto appeared. Major emphasis is placed upon the revolutionaries themselves and the ideas that motivated them. They were linked to each other by a common goal: the radical trans­formation of society through revolutionary means. Their efforts were directed towards the establishment of a new king of social order--one which would be based on economic and social equality. Although the ideal of economic equality is as old as history itself, only with the French Revolution did it emerge as an attainable goal. The successful uprisings of that period provided a model of how power could be seized from below and paved the way for Babeuf's Conspiracy of Equals . Although a failure at the time, it served as an inspiration for later revolutionaries. The work of Babeuf's successors, Buonarroti, Blanqui, Cabet and a number of lesser figures is discussed in such a way as to distinguish their beliefs from those of the utopian socialists. Finally, an attempt is made to show that pre-1848 communism had already developed a set of ideas and tactics very similar to those adopted by Lenin when he reintroduced the word in the twentieth century.

Author dc:creator

• Whaley, Leigh Ann

Statement dc:rights

• Available to the World Wide Web

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1828/20080

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/20080