'''The Civil War in France''' was a book written by
Karl Marx as an address to the General Council of the International, with the aim of distributing to workers of all countries a clear understanding of the character and world-wide significance of the heroic struggle of the Parisian Communards and their historical experience to learn from. The book was widely circulated by 1872, being translated into several languages and published throughout Europe and the United States.
Publication
''The Civil War in France'' was originally published by Marx as only a third address to the General Council of the International, separated into four chapters. In 1891, on the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune,
Friedrich Engels put together a new collection of the work. Engels decided to include the first two addresses that Marx made to the International--in this way providing additional historical background to the Civil War from Marx's account of the Franco-Prussian (July to September, 1870).
Theoretical Consequences
For Marx, the history of the
Paris Commune caused him to reassess the significance of some of his own earlier writings. In a later preface to the
Communist Manifesto, Marx would write that "no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today."
[1] It is this earlier passage which sought to show the process of worker seizure of state power. Following the publication of ''The Civil War in France'', "One thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz., that 'the working class cannot simply lay hold of ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.'"
References
1. Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, ''Communist Manifesto (Preface)'' http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/preface.htm
External links
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The Civil War in France
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Preface to the 1872 publication of the Communist Manifesto
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