What explains France's unique Left? Many works have reflected upon the importance of Marxism in France, yet few studies have been devoted to the man who did most to introduce Marxism into its political culture: the today near-forgotten figure of Jules Guesde. It was with Guesde that Karl Marx drafted the world's first Marxist program, and Guesde who aroused the enthusiasm of countless worker-militants who saw him as their most important leader. Jules Guesde represents the first book-length study of the French socialist leader translated into the English language. For the radical Left today, Guesde is often considered a dogmatist who supported the Union sacrée during World War I and rejected the Bolshevik revolution; for the governmental Left, he embodies an intransigent ideologue who held back the modernization of the French Left. Throughout Jules Guesde, Jean-Numa Ducange argues that it is impossible to study the history of the French socialist movement without a close look at this singular figure and offers a fuller picture of the deep transformations of the Left and Marxism in France from the late 19th century up to the present. Jean-Numa Ducange is Assistant Professor at Rouen-Normandie University, France.

Autorentext

Jean-Numa Ducange is Assistant Professor at Rouen-Normandie University, France. He is the co-director of the French journal Actuel Marx (PUF) and Austriaca (PURH), and one of the best scholars about the history of socialism (France, Germany, Austria).

Inhalt
Chapter One: The Apostle of the Fourth Estate (1845-1880)Chapter Two: The Genius of Simplification: Guesde, Founder of the First Socialist Party (1880-1893)Chapter Three: The Icy Frisson of the Irreconcilable": Guesde in Parliament (1893-1898)Chapter Four: Finally, We've Cut Ties: The Intransigent (1898-1905)Chapter Five: I Have Remained an Insurgent: Guesde in the Unified Party (1905-1914)Chapter Six: Without him, it's no longer the same thing": Guesde the Minister and Guardian of Unity (1914-22)Chapter Seven: Eternal Guesdism": The Prophet's Legacies