The Age of Napoleon Podcast Episode 53: Marx and the Coup with Matt Christman
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Jul 7, 2019 Matt Christman, writer and political commentator, discusses the significance of the Coup of 18 Brumaire and its impact on modern political history. Topics include Bonapartism, the French Revolution, centralized states, Napoleon's rule, challenges in historical analysis, understanding Napoleon's personality, industrialization, and potential alternate history.
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Marx's Coup As A Political Model
- Marx treated the Coup of 18 Brumaire as a model showing how revolutions can be reabsorbed by a single strongman.
- His concept of Bonapartism became an analytical tool beyond the specific French event.
What Bonapartism Means
- Bonapartism describes a revolution's collapse into rule by one military leader who subsumes the movement.
- Marxists use Napoleon as the exemplar of that pattern rather than focusing on his personal biography.
Napoleon's Syncretic Political Role
- Napoleon satisfied both right-wing desire for hierarchy and left-wing demand for meritocratic authority.
- That syncretic fusion made him uniquely able to stabilize post-revolutionary France.