Marxism at Work
Ideology, Class and French Socialism during the Third Republic

Despite a century of debate and criticism, Marxism as a mass ideological practice has remained an elusive topic. This book examines Marxist socialism as a mode of understanding and self-understanding treasured and transmitted by thousands of anonymous militants. It focuses on the Parti Ouvrier Francais, the "Guesdists," an archetypal movement of Marxism's "Golden Age" before World War I, the period when Marxist socialism evolved from sect to mass movement. Thousands of French socialists adopted Marxism due to the effectiveness of vulgar Guesdist polemic rather than Marx's profound theoretical works, and entire communities were converted to an austere but messianic socialism that still affects French politics today. This book traces the doctrine's birth through conflict with liberals, proto-fascists, and anarchists; its "making" of a working class, and its attempted seduction of the middle class; and its confusion before the alternative social visions of the Catholic devout, racist nationalists, and feminists.

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"...Stuart has written a rich, subtle and lucid analusis of French Marxism in the Belle Epoque. However controversial, it is sure to become the standard work on the subject and to be of use to anyone concerned with the difficulties of Marxist political practice." Science & Society

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Product details

• Date Published: May 2002
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521893053
• length: 536 pages

• dimensions: 230 x 154 x 36 mm
• weight: 0.9kg
• availability: Available