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From 1871, this book shows, the Paris Commune (March-May 1871) was a global event. The Parisian revolution was quickly appropriated in Europe and beyond, from Mexico City to Algiers, bringing together the many voices of 'global radicalism' of the time. Combining history, anthropology and the sociology of crises and revolutions, Quentin Deluermoz also follows the revolution in the making, on the Parisian street corner, from the perspective of ordinary men and women. And it takes up the old and terribly delicate question, in the century of 'modernity', of its temporalities, both short and long, continuous and discontinuous.
References to the Paris Commune (March-May 1871) have resurfaced over the last twenty years in a number of social and political struggles in France, the United States, Spain, Mexico and in Rojava. This resurgence has its roots in the long imperial and global history of the twentieth century, particularly anarchist and communist history. But it also comes from further back and refers to sometimes forgotten meanings of socialism, federalism and republicanism . Continuing the immense work carried out over more than 150 years, this book restores in a new way the intensity of the 'Commune moment', and provides tools for understanding its enduring relevance in today's world.
About the author
Quentin Deluermoz is Professor of contemporary History at University Paris Cité (France). He is the author and editor of more than 15 books, translated in Spanish and English, including (with P. Singaravelou),
A Past of Possibilities: a History of what it could have been, Yale UP, 2021;
Le Crépuscule des révolutions, 1848-1871 (Seuil, 2014);
Histoires globales des révolutions (with L. Bantigny, L. Jeanpierre, B. Gobille, E. Palieraki, La Découverte, 2023), With other colleagues he also created the interdisciplinary and artistic review Sensibilités, Histoire, Sciences Sociale et critique.
Report
Deluermoz's exploration of the Commune - in its Parisian core and in its national, European, and global reverberations - expands our knowledge of a history we thought we knew. Based on meticulous and widespread archival research, above all in French national and provincial archives, but also in Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, the book is both empirically rich and theoretically alert. Original in conception, generous in spirit, written with care and passion, this is an important contribution to French and transnational history. William Sewell Jr Journal of Modern History
