Marxism and National Identity

Robert Stuart

Description

Post-Marxists argue that nationalism is the black hole into which Marxism has collapsed at today's "end of history." Robert Stuart analyzes the origins of this implosion, revealing a shattering collision between Marxist socialism and national identity in France at the close of the nineteenth century. During the time of the Boulanger crisis and the Dreyfus affair, nationalist mobs roamed the streets chanting "France for the French!" while socialist militants marshaled proletarians for world revolution. This is the first study to focus on those militants as they struggled to reconcile Marxism's two national agendas: the cosmopolitan conviction that "workingmen have no country," on the one hand, and the patriotic assumption that the working class alone represents national authenticity, on the other. Anti-Semitism posed a particular problem for such socialists, not least because so many workers had succumbed to racist temptation. In analyzing the resultant encounter between France's anti-Semites and the Marxist Left, Stuart addresses the vexed issue of Marxism's involvement with political anti-Semitism.

Preface
Introduction

1. “For Us the World!”: The Guesdists against the Nation

2. “Dupes of Patriotism”: Nationalism as Bourgeois Hegemony

3. “National Economics”: Protection, Migrant Labor, and French Marxism

4. “Proletarian Patriotism”: The Guesdists and the Nationalist Temptation

5. “Savage, Brutal, and Bestial Mentalities”: The Guesdists and Racism

6. “A Class of Madmen”: Marxists Confront National Socialism

Conclusion

Appendix A: Ideology and Terminology
Appendix B: Bibliographical Note

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Western Europe
• History of Europe
• France

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791482278
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

MARXISM AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

Socialism, Nationalism, and National Socialism during the French Fin de Siècle

ROBERT STUART

M A R X I S M A N D N A T I O N A L I D E N T I T Y

SUNY series in National Identities Thomas M. Wilson, editor

M A R X I S M A N D N A T I O N A L I D E N T I T Y

Socialism, Nationalism, and National Socialism during the French Fin de Siècle

Robert Stuart

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Cover cartoon entitled Vive l’Armee! by Jules Hérault.

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Stuart, Robert, 1947– Marxism and national identity : socialism, nationalism, and national socialism during the French fin de siècle / Robert Stuart. p. cm. — (SUNY series in national identities) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780791466698 (hardcopy : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0791466698 (hardcopy : alk. paper) 1. Socialism—France—History. 2. Nationalism—France—History. 3. National socialism—France—History. I. Title. II. Series. HX263.S775 2005 320.53'15'0944—dc22 2005005677

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Max, and in memory of Alice (1917–1998)

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Preface

Introduction

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Contents

“For Us the World!”: The Guesdists against the Nation

“Dupes of Patriotism”: Nationalism as Bourgeois Hegemony

“National Economics”: Protection, Migrant Labor, and French Marxism

“Proletarian Patriotism”: The Guesdists and the Nationalist Temptation

“Savage, Brutal, and Bestial Mentalities”: The Guesdists and Racism

“A Class of Madmen”: Marxists Confront National Socialism

Conclusion

Appendix A: Ideology and Terminology

Appendix B: Bibliographical Note

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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Preface

This study was begun some years ago when I decided to explore “French Marxism and the National Question.” Within weeks of commencing the pro- ject I discovered the richness of the relevant conceptual debates, and soon after that I began to understand the mammoth dimensions of the literature on French nationalism. Even more dauntingly, once I reengaged with the Marx- ists of the fin de siècle, I realized that nationhood suffused their textual legacy—even where I had least suspected it. Their angry dialogue with French nationalism suddenly loomed as an important, even decisive, determinant in the “meaning of Marxism.” At the same time, the convoluted heritage that I was beginning to unravel amplified and sometimes challenged the insights of today’s scholarship. My experience powerfully confirmed E. P. Thompson’s belief that conceptual analysis and empirical history live healthily only when in harmony. Suffice it to say that a project planned for a semester’s writing has extended over a decade—as I have read and reread the Parti Ouvrier’s corpus, battled to master the literature on nationhood, and studied work on French nationalism. In the process, my present, no less than the Marxist past, has acquired new meaning. Fin de siècle socialists, after all, struggled to make sense of a world governed both by parochial nationalism and global capitalism—a world, in fact, very like our own. Their insights (and their errors!) have proven uncannily apropos while reading my weeklyEconomistor watching Fox News. Here I must make known my sympathies, since true objectivity, as con- temporary historiography teaches, lies only in being critically aware of one’s biases, and making others aware of them. So (deep breath) . . . The militants of the Parti Ouvrier are, at a century’s distance, “my people.” Despite Marx- ism’s failures since their “time of hope,” I still sympathize with the dream that capital’s world-spanning imperium might someday, somehow, empower working people to construct something better. That dream has faded. Nonetheless, despite the “End of History” (aka “the end of Marxism”), I con- tinue to reject postmodern legerity and neoliberal triumphalism. Sometimes dreams, however spectral, are better than reality, however crushing. As for nationalism, I am proud to confess myself a “rootless cosmopolitan,” while sometimes yearning for the roots that ground others so comfortably. Having been born into a Canada that I now hardly know, having been raised in a

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