The Paris Commune

The Paris Commune as a world revolutionary event that crossed from Paris to Algeria and then New York and was the laboratory for all the republican and socialist ideas of a century

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.