Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune of 1871

by John M. Merriman

One of the most dramatic chapters in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, the Commune of 1871 was an eclectic revolutionary experiment that held power in Paris across eight weeks between 18 March and 28 May. Its brief rule ended in 'Bloody Week' - the brutal massacre of as many as 15,000 Parisians, and perhaps even more, who perished at the hands of the provisional government's forces. By then, the city's boulevards had been torched and its monuments toppled. More than 40,000 Parisians were investigated, imprisoned or forced into exile - a purging of Parisian society by a conservative national government whose supporters were considerably more horrified by a pile of rubble than the many deaths of the resisters.
In this gripping narrative, John Merriman explores the radical and revolutionary roots of the Commune, painting vivid portraits of the Communards - the ordinary workers, famous artists and extraordinary fire-starting women - and their daily lives behind the barricades, and examining the ramifications of the Commune on the role of the state and sovereignty in France and modern Europe. Enthralling, evocative and deeply moving, this narrative account offers a full picture of a defining moment in the evolution of state terror and popular resistance.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction, Politics, European History, 19th Century, War

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

John Mustard Merriman was Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University. He earned his B.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1972) at the University of Michigan. Merriman received Yale University’s Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize in 2000, and was awarded a Docteur Honoris Causa in France in 2002, and the “Medal of Meritorious Service to Polish Education” (Medal Kimisji Edukacji Narodowej) awarded by the Ministry of Education of Poland in 2009.

Reviews

[Mark Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard one for me to get through. I have only the vaguest concept of the topography of Paris and so the rapid fire recitation of names of various buildings, locations etc. became a blur - one almost needs a tourist guide book or map to keep some sort of focus unless you are familiar with the city and environs. I also have no knowledge of the French language which would have been a real asset in dealing with this book. Past all that, I have a very old Kindle that did not like the font of the book and in which none of the niffy Kindle reading aids really worked (which is not the fault of either the author or the book's content - just another impediment to my reading).

The book is a history of the 1871 Paris Commune revealed for the most part by quoting contemporary sources. The book clearly delineates the social, economic, political and religious bases for the spontaneous generation of the Commune; and if some of the verbiage doesn't raise the hairs on the back of your neck than you have not been following the nightly news. Than, as now, class warfare is the issue and we only have to replace the Commune with Occupy and Versailles with Wall Street and once again the lesson of not learning from, and so repeating, history is greatly impressed upon one.

Although it really does not take more pages that other portions of the book the "set point" is clearly "Bloody Week" wherein the price of opposing one's social and economic overlords was once again rained down upon the heads of virtually pre-doomed insurgents. Paris 1871 casts a very long and bloody shadow and has been historically mimicked too often. The Commune stands as a very grave warning to the political happenings of this age and to this country.

Bottom line, I had trouble reading the book but I appreciate the scholarship which is outstanding and the placing of the events of a very complex and confusing period into a manageable narrative.

[Eric Ruark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was actually looking for something that delved into the mindset of the Communards when I picked this book of the library shelf. Although not originally what I was looking for, this book provided a practical hour-by-hour, day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of the rise and fall of the Paris Commune. Merriman provides a broad, balanced, beginning-to-end, account of the Commune, its causes and the aftermath. He also documents the surreal character of the city of Paris' response to the massacre as it was happening. History buffs will be very happy with the amount of little-known details that fill this book. The Paris Commune of 1871 has achieved a certain mythic proportion. Its notoriety transcends generations and crosses political lines. Those on the "left" tend to lionize this brief-lived insurrection whilst those on the "right" cite it as an example of of all that can go wrong when an alternate socio-economic system attempts to take control. In "Massacre", John Merriman provides a comprehensive history of the insurrection giving particular emphasis to the impressions, actions and reactions of a cross-section of people on both sides of the political divide.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Merriman, in this detailed history of the rise and fall of the Paris Commune, argued that the history of the Paris Commune, which the left celebrates as a moment of possibility of direct socialist democracy, instead should be looked at for the massacres by the conquering Versailles troops. The decision of the conservative troops, composed of mainly peasant, to kill as many Communards as possible in the week of the Paris’s reconquest, Merriman puts, sets up the terrors of the 20th century, in which people could die in mass for their beliefs. The rise of the Commune was set off after the defeat of the Bonapartist army in the Franco-Prussian War, afterwhich the conservative provisional government tried to disarm the National Guard, a working class Parisian militia set up in order to prevent violence against strikers. The direct democracy of Paris was extremely liberatory, as working class people were able to freely move about and shackles of old order seemed to fall away. The true welfare of people took paramount, though in the end, the Communards were unable to stop the reconquest. Much of the book is spent detailing the Bloody Week, in which Versailles troops methodically massacred Communards or whoever they thought were Communards or looked too working class. Ostensibly in response to the execution of 70 hostages, namely an archbishop, the total dead in the massacre approaches 35,000. The massacre also cemented class hatred and deeply divided French society afterwards.

Key Themes and Concepts:
-The terror of reaction against the revolutionaries forshadows the state terror of the 20th century.
-Liberatory forces would not be tolerated and reestablishing class order was to be accomplished by killing all the Communards.
-The Communards targeted their wrath towards monarchist and clerical power, but in general thought of themselves as waging a class war against privilege. Most of the wealthy fled the city and cheered the destruction of the working class in the reconquest.
-Paris’s population had doubled in the previous 2 decades, as migrants came into the city to work factory jobs. The Imperial regime swelled the pockets of the wealthy, which fueled class antagonism.

[Norbert S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sobering chronicle of the working class Paris Commune uprising and brutal crackdown by bourgeois state violence. The focus on the violent demise makes this book a hard read. My blood was boiling, I had no idea how gruesome the crackdown of the commune had been. If there is any shortfall to the book, it is perhaps the lack of context how the collective actions of the Commune, which was neither socialist nor proletarian, has formed. Lacking a detailed topography of Paris, I would also have liked to see more street maps in the book - or perhaps an internet link to maps. Modern technology, like Google Earth, should have made this easily possible. Nonetheless, an extra-ordinary insightful chronicle of class struggle that resonates with more recent political events for more equality and justice.

[Bruce MacBain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardly a dispassionate history, but it shouldn't be--not with a subject like this. Merriman's pro-Communard bias is obvious, but since I share it, I can't complain. It is a gripping read. My only criticisms are that the book is full of typos and it needed more and better illustration.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merriman's succinct history focuses on the defence of Paris during the fateful weeks. Mini-biographies of participants, both working class and the bourgeoisie, breathe life into the narrative. The commune that emerges from the account is much less the ideal that some socialists have made it in hindsight. Yet, I'd recommend Donny Gluckstein's book for those interested in the running of the commune's democracy. Although it is not clear whether there is much original research in the book, the emphasis is commendable. Merriman shows clearly what the struggle was about: 'The conservative National Assembly revolted against Paris, and not the other way around (50), and 'Increasingly, one of the tropes of "the war on Paris" and its insurgent plebeians was that of battle against an inferior people' (130). The book is first and foremost a testament to the fear and cruelty of the bourgeoisie that rarely gets mentioned in mainstream history. Enjoyable and compassionate.

[William Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots and lots and lots of leaves but weak on the trees and a harndkly any discussion of the forest. The author assuming the reader has memorized the street map of Paris (which is not provided in the book) ... "the troops proceeded from Rue A to Rue B, across Rue C and down Rue D." Way to much meaningless detail that is never tied together. Unspeakable attrocities were committed but very little on the "why" ... I want to know more about what caused the hatred beyond simple class differences.

[Vicent Flor Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenia pendent de feia temps llegir algun llibre sobre la Comuna de París. Tot aprofitant que aquesta primavera feia cent cinquanta anys d'aquest moment cabdal, un amic historiador em recomanà “Masacre” de John Merriman.

La Comuna s'instaurà aprofitant el buit de poder que havia deixat la guerra franco-prussiana, una derrota sense pal·liatius de la França, que dugué a la caiguda del Segon Imperi Francés i la proclamació de la Tercera República.

La Comuna, un govern revolucionari, durà poc més de dos mesos. Fou aixafada militarment per l'exèrcit de Versalles i ho fou d'una manera cruel, genocida. El títol, “Masacre”, no és una casualitat o una exageració. S'executaren entre 15.000 i 35.000 persones. Fou la matança més gran a Europa del segle XIX, una "repressió estatal assassina". Els soldats i oficials versallesos torturaren i afusellaren sense pietat no sols combatents que s'havien rendit. També ho feren amb dones, xiquets i ancians. De fet, hi hagué una repressió destacada contra les dones, que havien participat en els debats i fins i tot en els combats per defensar la Comuna.

La Comuna també cometé crims però d'una dimensió molt menor. Entre 66 i 68 ostatges foren assassinats. La història no és una relació entre bons i roïns, però no tots són iguals.

Certament, fou un odi de classe burgés contra gent humil (al París de 1870 una quarta part de la població, quasi mig milió de persones, era indigent. Quatre quintes parts dels edificis no tenien aigua corrent). Els pobres eren vistos com “escòria”. Als “communards” la propaganda versallesa els deshumanitzà. "Le Figaro" escrigué "Què és un republicà? Un animal salvatge". Eren vistos doncs, com animals o com no europeus (la colonització fou brutal i acabà aplicant-se la “lògica” deshumanitzadora contra els "bàrbars" contra europeus pobres o “inferiors”. Salvant totes les distàncies, s'aplicà contra els eslaus per banda dels nazis i contra els republicans durant la Guerra Civil per banda dels franquistes). De fet, la sagnia fou vista com una "purificació" d'indesitjables.

És un llibre molt ben escrit que pot llegir qualsevol (no és només per a especialistes, tot i el rigor). És molt recomanable per a entendre els segles XIX i XX i la “lògica” de les matances de poblacions civils. Però, si esteu una miqueta “deprimits”, ajorneu la lectura. És dur el que narra.

#elsmeusllibres

[ERIC PECHINOT · Rating 1 out of 5]

Books about the events known as the "Commune of Paris", the upheaval in the wake of the fall of the French Second Empire in 1871 are rather scarce. Merriman's starts off very well and promising with a thorough painting of the broader background and all the reasons why.
Unfortunately he has a bee in his bonnet about forensic accuracy up to the point of keeping writing what happened, what street, what time exactly, who got wounded to what part of their bodies, what shot was fired from what balcony and so forth. Talk about a blow by blow account! As if this did not make reading unpleasant enough, Merriman is always keen to show us how good his command of the French language is and so he finds it clever to have his sentences sprinkled with a flurry of old-fashionned French words, their translation into English in brackets. It was such an ordeal that I will never ever pick up this book again.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A world-changing event almost unknown in the US, the brief life of the Paris Commune is a demarcation line in global ideologies. Merriman is probably the best guy to tell the story succinctly, with his deep understanding of radical politics in France before the first World War. The emphasis here is largely on the last days of the Commune, a cataclysm of horrors as the forces of capitalism, Catholicism, and class slaughter the upstarts who tried -- imperfectly -- to make an Earthly paradise out of a beleaguered city. I wouldn't have minded more detail on the efforts and communal life before the massacre but what's here is a world of wonders.

Being in Texas, I sometimes think that we are headed for an inevitable future wherein the rural parts of our state engage in actual conflict with the cities. I sincerely hope that the history lesson in this book is one that our leaders on the left and right pay attention to. When you stop talking and start besieging, no one wins.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if Occupy Wall Street had taken over all of Manhattan and half of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens, and been supported by the National Guard? And passed laws guaranteeing justice and equality for all? And a couple of months later, the US Army surrounds the city, bombs it, and slaughters 20,000 New Yorkers, including women and children? That was the Paris Commune, the first socialist revolution and the largest massacre of civilians in European history until World War 2. But this major chapter in people's history is rarely taught. This incredible book introduces us to all the brilliant and brave characters who took up arms in the battle for working class power. There are many sobering, profound lessons to be learned from the Paris Commune - especially as the right once again raises its ugly head around the world.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sympathetic to the Communards

Thorough coverage marred by a one-sided view. Gave good background of Napoleon III and the Franco-Prussian War. I would have like more info about the 1848 risings and their relevance to the Commune

[Renata Lessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really know how to rate non-fiction books.

[Seth Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the current political climate when two parts of my country’s (USA) political spectrum totally despise each other, this book is chilling specter of what people are capable of doing to each other over social issues. This period in time, around the Franco-Prussian war, is interesting because it was when Europe’s leaders decided to build up militarily to fortify themselves instead of tackling thorny social problems. In this way they thought they could expand their empires and territory while also being able to suppress any potential internal uprisings. It goes without saying that this massive military buildup would lead to two world wars that would leave them with no other option than to address their massive issues with class and wealth inequality.

Therefore, this book is like the negative of the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20th US. It’s like if the dogs the police used to attack schoolchildren in Alabama had eaten them, their moms and the preachers and society just moved on with things as usual. It’s stunning to know that these people who had just had their ass handed to them by the Germans would then turn their ire on their own capital city for refusing to capitulate to their mutual enemy. Then the actions against the Communards by the Versailles/National forces were so brutal AND systematic to be both a chilling foreshadowing of approaching European history while being reminiscent of Viking invasions or medieval carnage.

I would recommend this book because it shows you this is not the first time that people inside a country got so divided politically that they literally lived in two different realities where they both saw the other as demons whose sole goal was to put the other side into bondage to fulfill incorrect and evil desires. The Communards thought the bourgeoisie, church and old nobility would only continue to extract more value from the masses while degrading their quality of life in order to improve their bottom line. Their opponents saw them as trying to destroy a social order that, the last time people with similar politics as the leaders in the commune tried to do the same, resulted in the Great Terror in the French Revolution that saw even the King and Queen not above being victimized by mob justice. Say what you will, both sides had facts in their favor.

The larger lesson seems to be that it makes sense to solve the underlying social issues proactively if you want your country to be stable. Repression and even large scale murder won’t really stabilize the society but just builds up an internal pressure that will have to be let off at some point. We live in a world where even the most closed societies are aware of their relative lot in life versus other countries and as people see the benefits available to foreigners and not to them, they’ll want them more and more. Governments that give them proactively will most likely succeed and those who try to suppress them are planting the seeds of their future downfall.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much to be learned from this work even though the author is an unabashed admirer of what to me is the sometimes infantile, sometimes inchoate, anticlericalism and class envy of the Communards. Merriman emphasizes that the national army murdered exponentially many more Communards than the other way around, but the reason is largely that the Commune was short (72 days) and its leaders almost pathetically incompetent. When Communards had opportunity to express their ideology at the point of gun, they did so with single-minded gusto.

The whole two-month episode seems to have been composed of equal parts Marxist theory, romantic folly, dimly remembered episodes of the French Revolution, and the Keystone Cops. A colonel in the national army who had been going in and out of Paris—in the early days, people seem to have traveled between sides with near impunity—watched Communard troops move toward Versailles in near total disorder, each carrying a sausage, some bread and a liter of wine. (47)

I am well practiced in triangulating my way through historical works. (Paraphrasing Barzun & Graff: I stand here, to my left is the author, and beyond us both are the events he recounts. “Knowing his position in relation to mine, I can work out a perspective upon events as I could not if I saw them exclusively through his eyes—or mine.” [Modern Researcher, 5th, 189].) So, my biggest problem with Merriman is not his politics but his writing style, which is acceptable but undistinguished. Much of the book is little more than strung together anecdotes, many of which might have been profitably paraphrased and condensed.

Then too, Merriman often seems unable to point his prose. For instance, on page 94 he writes:

“In another church a man bathed a dog in the holy water vessel, and a few Communards relieved themselves in such places. Such acts shocked practicing Catholics. The Commune and most Communards defiantly rejected organized religion.” (36 words)

A better order would be

“Most Communards defiantly rejected all religion, and their sacrilege shocked committed Catholics. One man bathed a dog in a holy water font; other Communards used those basins to relieve themselves.” (30 words)

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had an interest in the Commune for quite a while, and this popular history of the Parisian working class's assertion of independence at the end of the Franco-Prussian War has pretty much satisfied my thirst. Marx's history is on my list, coming up.

This volume is extensively researched, clearly written without sentiment, building an irrefutable case against the untrammeled violence used against the Communards to whom no quarter was given, figuratively and literally. Merriman himself does not editorialize, letting the facts develop and pile up, like the bodies in the bloody week of 21-28 May 1871.

The Commune itself seems to have been an idealistic attempt to deal with the radical inequality, economic and social, that has been a constant in French society, the Revolution not withstanding. There are lessons here for controlling class, the middle class, and the poor and laboring class that might well be applied today, within and outside France. Certainly, the bourgeoisie in 1871 behaved much like the US white middle class has responded to some of the same inequities a hundred and fifty
years later.

For many years, Paris has been my favorite city, despite the sometimes condescending treatment in shops and so on. The museums! The Cinematique! The cuisine! The wine! Les femmes! Ah, well, having read of this history, I'll have to reimagine France and the French when I return. Paris, a charnel house in 1871, has a different odor today; it's not Chanel No 5, and it doesn't emanate from the banlieus.

A worthy volume to stir the conscience of the unconscious.

[La Central · Rating 3 out of 5]

En el París de los 70 del siglo XIX, la revolución estaba en el ambiente. Los esfuerzos de Napoleón III y del Barón Haussman en construir una ciudad inmune a las revueltas fueron en balde. La excusa que utilizaron fue embellecer la ciudad y alentar los negocios. Lo que se tradujo en la expulsión del populacho a la periferia, y la construcción de amplias avenidas para el movimiento de tropas, así como impedir la formación de barricadas. El antídoto se convirtió en virus. La humillación de la derrota ante Prusia, sumada a la pobreza de los parisinos, crearon el caldo de cultivo para la insurrección. La gota que colmó el vaso fue la tentativa de Thiers de arrebatar los cañones a la Guardia Nacional, provocando el levantamiento de la Comuna. El París popular que tanto temían desde Versalles, estaba lleno de pasadizos y tabernas donde conspirar. Por ahí habitaban personajes dignos de novela como Blanqui, Louise Mitchel, Rigault... La descripción de los protagonistas de la Comuna es una de las grandezas del libro de Merriman. El sueño de la primera dictadura del proletariado, en palabras de Engels, acabó en Masacre. El ejército francés acabó con la Comuna a sangre y fuego. Pero el eco de la Comuna continúa 146 años después.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent study of the events leading to and during the Paris Commune of 1871. As I did my PhD thesis on this era (via the Trilogy of novels by Jules Valles who participated in the Commune and fled to England afterward), I expected a lot of review, but am delighted to have been greatly pleased to see how much Merriman researched and reveals clearly here, notably the events leading to the outbreak of the Commune in March 1871, the unfolding and unraveling of the Commune government and defenses, and especially the details of the state terrorism inflicted on the Communards by the Versailles government led by Adolphe Thiers, during the weeks in May and afterward in the "cleansing" period following the defeat of the Commune. I feel justified in my eternal loathing of the Sacre Coeur church as an act of "atonement" by conservative Catholics against the Commune, not atonement for the savage annihilation of between 17,000 and 30,000 French citizens, some merely in the wrong place and the wrong time.

[Lorraine]

This very detailed academic study discusses anincident in French history which does not get a lot of coverage in history texts. It follows the events leading up to and during the period when the working people of Paris rose up against their poor living and working conditions after the Franco-Prussian War. In fact, the Prussian army was still encamped outside Paris.The French bourgeoisie and royalist s feared that their government might be overthrown. The Communards organized committees in each arrondisement to set up organizations for education, health, safety and other civic needs. The book also covers the brutal put down of the insurrection by the government forces. Merriman used the abundant research material available - letters, minutes of meetings, newspaper accounts, official documents to create an interesting readable account. the one drawback of the book is that he made many references to specific streets or sites. The book should have included a more detailed map so the reader could follow the movements of the different groups.

[Bob Schmitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating stories from the Paris Commune. A lot of detail, it's crammed full of individual stories of participants in the events of the rebellion. It helps if you have a general background of the events of the Franco-Prussian war that preceeded it, and understand the impact of the Thermodorian reaction to the ideas of the Commune and how it affected European history and the lead up to WWI.

I purchased the book after a trip to Paris, and had finished prior to another trip back to Paris and loved how I could recall stories of individuals, where they fought, where they died as I walked the streets of central Paris. Further, the stories of infighting among principals and members of the Commune had parallels to the conflicts among the DNC and Democratic progressives against the Thermodorian reaction of the Republican Party in 2016. Highly recommended.

[emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kindly lent this book by my 78 year old friend Gordon as he both knows the author and knew I loved my French classes and French history.

As for my review, Merriman does what he needs to do with the overall structure and teaching of the text. However, there were multiple times that the overflow of foreign French cities, dates, and names were too much. This book needed at least an extra first two chapters of context to add to the novel.

This book was already quite dense to read and luckily for me my French classes allowed me to comprehend the dialogue included but it would be quite hard to read this without Google right next to you.

Overall, I learned something new and furthered my knowledge of French history but it was a very dry read. More like a textbook with cheeky commentary.

[Book Grocer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Paris Commune lasted for only 64 days in 1871, but during that short time it gave rise to some of the grandest political dreams of the nineteenth century—before culminating in horrific violence. A stirring evocation of the spring when Paris was ablaze with cannon fire and its citizens were their own masters.
Paul - The Book Grocer.

Purchase here for just $12.00

[Hussam Nabil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterfully written account of the events leading up to the Paris Commune and the events of the short-lived Commune itself.
My feelings towards the Commune are perplexed and uncertain.
It is a story of revolution, heroism, public involvement and revolutionary consciousness.
It is also a story of great foolishness.
A story of people who realized their agency and tried to grasp their fate in their hands.
It is also a cautionary tale about what the lack of realism could lead to, what not getting your priorities straight could lead to.
It is an amazing story.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merriman's book, though quite obviously sympathizing with the communards ( can anyone seriously sympathize with that "monstrous gnome" (Marx) Theirs?), is a thorough look at a key event in world history. More info on the effect of the commune on subsequent French history would have been welcome though.

[Blaze-Pascal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Merriman offers readers a valuable, very descriptive and detailed reading of the events of the Paris Commune. Very good historian work, without any critical views about the Paris Commune. It would be good to read this besides other works as it is pretty biased in the author's views and perhaps amor for the Paris Commune.

[Mark Latchford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good balance between chronically what happened and the causes. The big issue is the absence of maps. If you are going to describe street by street fighting then more than a single map is required. I have lived in Paris so had the advantage of knowing some but not all the numerous locations cited. Good use of primary sources from both sides

[C H · Rating 4 out of 5]

If it were any ever question who capitalist society is run for, the Paris Commune and the events the follow prove that. Compelling and detailed read. In particular I am inspired by the working class women of Paris, most nameless, who would rather die for the memory of what life could be, than a continued life of repression, exploitation and humiliation.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth look at 6 weeks that shook the world. The reverberations from the French Army's massacre of the Parisian communards may be seen thruout modern Europe. I would have appreciated more depictions of the leaders, but the photo of the executed communards in their coffins speaks to all. A well-researched look at a violent spring.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the communard uprising of 1871 in Paris, and it's brutal repression. Decent serious history, but not ideal for an inexpert reader like me; I could have used a lot more background and explanation. It's all set in Paris, so if you love that city it's kind of interesting.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merriman is very much on the side of the ordinary Parisians who were swept up in the violence and of the Communards. So am I.

I’m not expert enough to assess whether his argument is too partial, but there’s plenty of detail and the sourcing looks secure, so I can recommend it as a place to start.