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BLANC, (JEAN JOSEPH CHARLES) LOUIS (1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 39 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BLANC, (See also:JEAN See also:JOSEPH See also:CHARLES) See also:LOUIS (1811-1882) , See also:French politician and historian, was See also:born on the 29th of See also:October 1811 at See also:Madrid, where his See also:father held the See also:post of inspector-See also:general of See also:finance under Joseph See also:Bonaparte. Failing to receive aid from Pozzo di Borgo, his See also:mother's See also:uncle, Louis Blanc studied See also:law in See also:Paris, living in poverty, and became a contributor to various See also:journals. In the Revue du progres, which he founded, he published in 1839 his study on L'Organisation du travail. The principles laid down in this famous See also:essay See also:form the See also:key to Louis Blanc's whole See also:political career. He attributes all the evils that afflict society to the pressure of competition, whereby the weaker are driven to the See also:wall. He demanded the equalization of See also:wages, and the merging of See also:personal interests in the See also:common good—"d chacun selon ses besoins, de chacun selon ses facultes." This was to be effected by the See also:establishment of " social workshops," a sort of combined co-operative society and See also:trade-See also:union, where the workmen in each trade were to unite their efforts for their common benefit. In 1841 he published his Histoire de See also:dix ans 1830-1840, an attack upon the See also:monarchy of See also:July. It ran through four See also:editions in four years. In 1847 he published the two first volumes of his Histoire de la Revolution Fran4aise. Its publication was interrupted by the revolution of 1848, when Louis Blanc became a member of the provisional See also:government. It was on his See also:motion that, on the 25th of See also:February, the government undertook " to See also:guarantee the existence of the workmen by See also:work "; and though his demand for the establishment df a See also:ministry of labour was refused—as beyond the competence of a provisional government—he was appointed to preside over the government labour See also:commission (Commission du Gouvernement pour See also:les travailleurs) established at the Luxembourg to inquire into and See also:report on the labour question. On the loth of May he renewed, in the See also:National See also:Assembly, his proposal for a ministry of labour, but the See also:temper of the See also:majority was hostile to See also:socialism, and the proposal was again rejected.

His responsibility for the disastrous experiment of the national workshops he himself denied in his Appel aux honneetes gens (Paris, 1849), written in See also:

London after his See also:flight; but by the insurgent See also:mob of the 15th of May and by the victorious Moderates alike he was regarded as responsible. Between the sansculottes, who tried to force him to See also:place himself at their See also:head, and the national See also:guards, who maltreated him, he was nearly done to See also:death. Rescued with difficulty, he escaped with a false See also:passport to See also:Belgium, and thence to London; in his See also:absence he was condemned by the See also:special tribunal established at See also:Bourges, in contumaciam, to See also:deportation. Against trial and See also:sentence healike protested, developing his protest in a See also:series of articles in the Nouveau Monde, a See also:review published in Paris under his direction. These he afterwards collected and published as Pages de l'histoire de la revolution de 1848 (See also:Brussels, 185o). During his stay in See also:England he !made use of the unique collection of materials for the revolutionary See also:period preserved at the See also:British Museum to See also:complete his Histoire de la Revolution Francaise 12 vols. (1847–1862). In 1858 he published a reply to See also:Lord See also:Normanby's A See also:Year of Revolution in Paris (1858), which he See also:developed later into his Histoire de la revolution de 1848 (2 vols., 187o-188o). As far back as 1839 Louis Blanc had vehemently opposed the See also:idea of a See also:Napoleonic restoration, predicting that it would be "despotism without See also:glory," " the See also:Empire without the See also:Emperor." He therefore remained in See also:exile till the fall of the Second Empire in See also:September 1870, after which he returned to Paris and served as a private in the national guard. On the 8th of February 1871 he was elected a member of the National Assembly, in which he maintained that the See also:republic was " the necessary form of national See also:sovereignty," and voted for the continuation of the See also:war; yet, though a member of the extreme See also:Left, he was too clear-minded to sympathize with the See also:Commune, and exerted his See also:influence in vain on 'the See also:side of moderation. In 1878 he advocated the abolition of the See also:presidency and the See also:senate. In See also:January 1879 he introduced into the chamber a proposal for the See also:amnesty of the Communists, which was carried.

This was his last important See also:

act. His declining years were darkened by See also:ill-See also:health and by the death, in 1876, of his wife (See also:Christina Groh), an Englishwoman whom he had married in 1865. He died at See also:Cannes on the 6th of See also:December 1882, and on the 12th of December received a See also:state funeral in the See also:cemetery of Pere-Lachaise. Louis Blanc possessed a picturesque and vivid See also:style, and considerable See also:power of See also:research; but the fervour with which he expressed his convictions, while placing him in the firstrank of orators, tended to turn his See also:historical writings into political See also:pamphlets. His political and social ideas have had a See also:great influence on the development of socialism in See also:France. His Discours politiques (1847–1881) was published in 1882. His most important See also:works, besides those already mentioned, are Lettres sur l'Angleterre (1866–1867), Dix annees de l'histoire de 1'Angleterre (1879–1881), and Questions d'aujourd'hui et de demain (1873–1884). See L. Fiaux, Louis Blanc (1883).

End of Article: BLANC, (JEAN JOSEPH CHARLES) LOUIS (1811-1882)

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