The Three Marx Brothers: Karl, his brother, Karl, and his other brother, Karl
I. Early (philosophical) Marx: critique Hegel and German Idealism
A. General points
- material rather than ideal (Tucker pp. 4, 155)
- reject religious origin of alienation
- focus on “estranged labor” (pp. 70-81)
B. Origin of Alienation or estranged labor
- not private property, which is the effect (p. 79)
- relations of production (pp. 150-155)
- “tribal ownership” and “ancient communal” ownership (p.151)
- slavery "latent in the family" (pp. 151, 159)
- peasant and feudal relations (pp. 152-3)
C. Relationship between ideology and material life (pp. 172-3)
D. Utopian communism (pp. 160 and 531—from Middle Marx)
II. Late (structural political economy) Marx
A. General points
- labor theory of value (distinct from physiocratic/agricultural base)
- price of labor (pp. 206, 240, 339)
- capital as accumulated labor (pp. 207, 248) dead labor (pp. 362-3)
- commodities (pp. 302-319) fetishism of (p. 321) exchange value dominates (pp.
321-329), exchange/circulation/money (pp. 329-336)
- labor as commodity (pp. 336-357) exceptional value of labor (p. 357)
- crisis theory: distinct from Smith and Malthaus (pp. 217-219)
- like Durkheim, against reductionism: micro economic/Robinson Crusoe (p.
326)
B. Production is social (pp. 222-223, 326)
- mode of production: slave, feudal, capitalist (p. 234-236)
- relations of production: labor and capital (pp. 203-217) appropriation (pp.
260-269)
- exploitation (pp. 251-261) unproductive labor (p. 258)
- alienation (pp. 292-293)
- revolution (pp. 218-9)
- relations of appropriation (p. 260)
C. Capitalism develops (p. 274)
- from feudalism (p. 270-276)
- “rural secondary occupations” (p. 274)
- “draw the land in all its expanse into production”
- by creating dependency
D. Capitalism self-destructs (pp. 291-293)
- economic crises (pp. 419-431; 443-465)
- political struggle (469-652)
III. Middle Marx: Political Writings
A. General points
- relationship between economic and political development: capacity, crisis and
struggle: theoretical (hypothetical: pp. 472, 481, 522-4, 543-4) and practical
(observed: pp. 497, 500, 502, 567-71; 601)
- class: in and for itself (French peasants; p. 608, proletarians: 578)
- the state: lord’s monarchy, bourgeois republic, proletarian communism
B. Doing social history
- class fractions: finance aristocracy, etc. (pp. 603-7)
- mixed political forms: peasant’s empire, bourgeois monarchy (pp. 599-603)
C. Notes on French history
- 18th Brumaire (9 Nov.) is the date on the revolutionary calenday (established in
1792) when Napoleon I took power in 1799. Marx uses the title to draw a
parallel in the coup of Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon
I)
- 1789 was "the" French revolution: 14 July storming of the Bastille to seize
weapons (much the Southern/Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, which began
the U.S. Civil War)
- rise of the "third estate" (bourgeoisie) who formed the Constituent
Assembly and claimed sole legislative power (in opposition to 1st estate
[clergy] and 2nd estate [nobility])
- two parties in Assembly: Gironde (liberal/conservative) and Montagne
(mountain: radical/popular)
- 1792: Louis XVI (Bourbon King) guillotined; reign of terror: Danton, Marat,
Desmoulins, Corday, Robbespierre were leaders in Committee of Safety
- 1794: opposition to reign of terror: leaders executed
- 1795: Royalist revival: constitution of Year III: two houses plus three executives
in directory; General Bonaparte supported the constitution and opposed the
Royalists; fought war against Prussia, Spain, Holland, England, and Austraia—
all crowned heads of Europe opposed the French Revolution
- 1799: Napoleon elected consul
- 1802: Napoleon declared emperor for life
- 1804: Napoleon declared patriarch for hereditary empire
- 1815: Napoleon exiled after defeat at Waterloo; Louis XVIII (Louis XVI's
brother) named King (Bourbon dynasty restored); granted charter with
guarantees to subjects
- July 1830: Charles X (Bourbon King—Louis' brother and successor) obliged to
abdicate; Louis Phillipe (Duke of Orleans) named as King (beginning of shortlived Orleanist dynasty); This is the July Monarchy
- July monarchy was established by appointment of Louis Phillipe by
Chamber of Deputies
- choice was acceptable to bourgeoisie
- despite outbursts of republican sentiments the July monarchy lasted until
1848; This was the bourgeois monarch that could only be followed
by a bourgeois republic.
- 1848: political demonstration in favor of parliamentary reform led to a
revolution, in which Lamartine played a crtitical role; republic declared in
February
- June 1848:; Constituent Assembly frightened by socialist movements and civil
strife became hostile to the government; This is the June Insurrgency
- Dec 1848: Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon I) was elected
president of the republic (ran against General Cavaignac, who had crushed the
June insurgency)—term of 4 years
- Nov 1852: senate proposed (and people vote for) re-establishing the empire—
Napoleon III assumes the throne
- 1859: Crimean War and War with Austria: French victories
- 1860: Savoy and Nice ceded to France
- 1866-69: failure in Prussian-austrian War
- 1870: popular unrest and new constitution; war with German (Franco-Prussian
War)
- 1871: German Empire emerges victorious; France defeated and provisional
government/republic declared: Third Republic; Thiers chosen as chief
executive, signed peace treaty with Germany, ceding money plus Alsace and
Lorraine
- March 1871: Germans occupy Paris for two days
- March-May 1871: withdrawal of German troops is followed by a popular
uprising in Paris: This is the Commune and the subject of "Civil War
in France." People/workers/communards ruled Paris and by
extension France for 90 days before they were massacred by Thiers
and his troops (once the Germans allowed him to reclaim his army
in order to suppress the popular rebellion)
- May 1871: Thiers became president of the French republic, with
appointed ministry, ministry and president must answer to assembly
- 1873: Napoleon III dies
- 1875: union of moderate Orleanists and republicans prevail over Legitimists
(Bourbons), Bonapartists, and radicals; fundamental laws of modern republic
adopted
- 1876: formation of senate and chamber of deputies and continuation of
republican government (until German occupations during WWI and WWII)