How Did Babouf Look Back to the 18th Century Philosophers?

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

scholarship on the French Revolution has not paid sufficient attention to Babouf and the equals or to the directory. Where my book fits in to the scholarship is by turning the conversation away from what kind of communist was Babouf. What I have done is restore attention to who Babouf was during the French Revolution, not how did he look forward to Marx? And that leads me to the second part of your question, which is what does this have to do with the directory?

Featuring Laura Mason on her book The Last Revolutionaries: The Conspiracy Trial of Gracchus Babeuf and the Equals. Mason discusses Babeuf's call to abolish property, his radically egalitarian conspiracy against the Directory government, and the end of the French Revolution. How a centrist government turned its back on popular democracy, presided over growing inequality and working-class poverty, and abetted the rise of the reactionary right that would ultimately overthrow it. Check out the newsletter and our vast archives at thedigradio.com Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig