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Abstract
Marx's account of the rise of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte is one of his most important texts. Written after the defeat of the 1848 revolution in France and Bonaparte's subsequent coup, it is a concrete analysis that raises enduring theoretical questions about the state, class conflict and ideology.
Unlike his earlier analyses, Marx develops a nuanced argument concerning the independence of the state from class interests, the different types of classes, and the determining power of ideas and imagery in politics. In the Eighteenth Brumaire he applies his 'materialist conception of history' to an actual historical event with extraordinary subtlety and an impressive, powerful command of language.
This volume contains the most recent and widely acclaimed translation of the Eighteenth Brumaire by Terrell Carver, together with a series of specially commissioned essays on the importance of the Brumaire in Marx's canon. Contributors discuss its continuing significance and interest, the historical background and its contemporary relevance for political philosophy and history.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | v | ||
| Acknowledgements | vii | ||
| 1 Introduction | 1 | ||
| Notes | 14 | ||
| Part 1: The Text | 17 | ||
| 2 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte | 19 | ||
| Part 2: The Eighteenth Brumaire as Discourse | 111 | ||
| 3 Imagery/ Writing, Imagination/ Politics: Reading Marx through the Eighteenth Brumaire | 113 | ||
| Notes | 127 | ||
| 4 Performing Politics: Class, Ideology and Discourse in Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire | 129 | ||
| Notes | 141 | ||
| Part 3: The Eighteenth Brumaire as History | 143 | ||
| 5 Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: 'Hero' or 'Grotesque Mediocrity'? | 145 | ||
| Notes | 161 | ||
| 6 The Appeal of Bonapartism | 163 | ||
| Notes | 174 | ||
| Part 4: The Autonomy of the State? | 177 | ||
| 7 The Political Scene and the Politics of Representation: Periodising Class Struggle and the State in the Eighteenth Brumaire | 179 | ||
| Notes | 191 | ||
| 8 Making Sense of the 'Relative Autonomy' of the State | 195 | ||
| Notes | 207 | ||
| Part 5: The Eighteenth Brumaire, Classes and Class Struggle, Then and Now | 209 | ||
| 9 The Eighteenth Brumaire and Thatcherism | 211 | ||
| Notes | 224 | ||
| 10 Marx's Lumpenproletariat and Murray's Underclass: Concepts Best Abandoned? | 228 | ||
| Notes | 240 | ||
| 11 Here Content Transcends Phrase: The Eighteenth Brumaire as the Key to Understanding Marx's Critique of Utopian Socialism | 243 | ||
| Notes | 256 | ||
| Notes on the Contributors | 258 | ||
| Index | 260 | ||
| A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy [Marx, K., 1859] | 117 |