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Overview
At the end of the "Bloody Week" in May 1871, which saw the defeat of the Paris Commune, more people were killed at Paris than were executed throughout France during the French Revolution's ten-month Reign of Terror. Situating the Commune within the political culture and traditions bequeathed to the nineteenth century by the French Revolution, this survey of the Commune is designed to familiarize students with its historical antecedents, its narrative history, and those topics which have rendered the Commune so critical to an understanding of revolutions.
Synopsis
After a brief discussion of the antecedents of the failed 1871 revolutionary uprising in Paris and its political, economic, and social contexts, Shafer (modern European history, California State U. at Long Beach) presents a traditional political and narrative of the events leading up the establishment of the commune, its actions and its bloody repression by the French central government. Following the narrative, he examines a number of historiographic questions in themed chapters, including the relative strength and influence of the various ideological strands of the Commune, women's roles and gender constructs in the Commune, and the relationship between revolution and culture. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR