Soldiers of Revolution: The Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune

by Mark A. Lause

How War Gave Birth to Revolution in the 19th century

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organization of armies, and upset the continental balance of power, promulgating new regimented ideas of nationhood and conflict resolution more widely. However, the mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilization and the arming of working people, who exercised a new power through both a German social democracy and popular insurgent French movements.

As in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune of 1871 grew directly from the discontent among radicalized soldiers and civilians pressed into armed service on behalf of institutions they learned to mistrust. If this militarized class conflict, the brutality of the Commune's subsequent repression not only butchered the tens of thousands of Parisians but slaughtered an old utopian faith that appeals to reason and morality could resolve social tensions. War among nations became linked to revolution and revolution to armed struggle.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did, as I thought this might be a more granular discussion of the soldiers fighting the Franco-Prussian war, but it's not. While there are glimpses into that, and a decent enough discussion on the various attempts at establishing Communes in other cities besides Paris, The Paris Commune, or rather its destruction, feels like the point of this book.

I feel like there were a bunch of missed opportunities here; Lause explores the revolutionary adventurism that helped sustain Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily, and the rather wide web of what were basically networks of revolutionaries across Europe and even North America. A close examination of that could probably be a book in itself.

Lause makes the effort to track almost blow by blow the events of "Bloody week" when the government retook Paris, and destroyed the Commune, but includes no maps, and other than noting that the Government made use of released prisoners of war, makes no attempt at discussing *how* the government managed to take an unorganized mass of defeated soldiers and make a fighting force of them.

Lause notes that some notable German socialists (seemed to me) rather obediently reported for duty when called up for service in the Prussian Army. What's going on there?

Lause's conclusion that the Franco-Prussian War led straight to the modern world is, well, it is a theory.

All in all, I really think this book was too brief.

[Jack Frogameni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to like this book. If you’re a Franco-Prussian war historian, this is for you. If you are like me and just looking to learn some case-studies from the time period that can be applied to today’s landscape, don’t read it. I unfortunately really struggled to find any overarching takeaways in the first 100 pages. Just lots of minute detail.