Bernard E. Harcourt introduces the Marx 12/13 seminar on Marx’s The Civil War in France, in conversation with Voltairine de Cleyre’s “The Commune is Risen” and Plotino Rhodakanaty’s “The American Commune,” with Bruno Bosteels @Columbia. Read more here: https://marx1313.law.columbia.edu/12-13/

The full text of this introduction to Marx 11/13 is here: https://tinyurl.com/IntroMarx1213

The video recording of the seminar Marx 12/13 with Bruno Bosteels is here: https://www.youtube.com/live/crkWG1wzGAU?si=H3Bq-SOxc75pZkMP

Information about Marx 13/13: https://marx1313.law.columbia.edu/

Information on the 13/13 series: https://cccct.law.columbia.edu/content/13-13

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This is the full length introduction to the seminar, Marx 12/13, where we read and discuss Marx’s The Civil War in France, in conversation with Voltairine de Cleyre’s “The Commune is Risen” and Plotino Rhodakanaty’s “The American Commune,” with Bruno Bosteels.

Few historical events or great defeats have inspired as much hope and inspiration, against all odds, as the Paris Commune of 1871. Voltairine de Cleyre's “The Commune is Risen” (1912) and Plotino Rhodakanaty's “The American Commune" (1877) are two brilliant illustrations of the lasting spirit of the Commune in the Americas. Marx's address "The Civil War in France" is of course another standard-bearer. With Bruno Bosteels, we will be exploring these texts and their interrelations.

In this seminar we turn to the penultimate historical period of Marx’s life: the creation of the International Workingmen’s Association (1864–1876), the rise and fall of the Paris Commune (March-May 1871), Marx’s addresses to the IWA on the situation in Paris, and his famous essay The Civil War in France read to the General Council of the IWA just a few days after the collapse of the Paris Commune.

We are delighted to welcome to the seminar Columbia University Professor Bruno Bosteels, one of the world’s leading experts on Marx, to discuss The Civil War in France. Bruno Bosteels will put Marx’s writings on the Commune in conversation with Voltairine de Cleyre’s “The Commune is Risen” and Plotino Rhodakanaty’s “The American Commune,” as well as in relation to the second part of his book La comuna mexicana (The Mexican Commune).

Welcome to Marx 12/13!