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

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. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organisation of armies, and upset the continental balance of power, popularising new ideas of nationhood and conflict resolution more widely. However, the mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilisation 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 radicalised soldiers and civilians pressed into armed service on behalf of institutions they learned to mistrust. This militarised class conflict, while the brutality of the Commune's subsequent repression not only butchered tens of thousands of Parisians but slaughtered an old utopian faith that reason and morality could resolve social tensions. War among nations became linked to revolution and revolution became enmeshed in armed struggle Part I REPUBLIC AND NATION -- Civilization and Its Old Mole: Visions of Republican Revolution -- New Peoples, New Visions: Industrialization, Workers, and Internationalist Revolution -- The Health of the State: War and Secular Faith in the Nation -- Part II WAR FOR THE EMPIRE -- The Guns of August: Civilization Asserts Itself -- This High Road to Verdun: Turning Points in Lorraine -- Blood and Irony: Paris, Metz, and the Salvation of the War -- Part III WAR FOR THE REPUBLIC -- The Specter Haunting Europe: The Emergence of the People and the Levée en masse -- Shaping a Republic: From the South to the Capital -- The Coming of Winter: Despair, Starvation, and Exposure -- Part IV WAR FOR THE PEOPLE: THE REVOLUTION -- The Springtime of Peoples Revisited: The Specter of a Social Republic -- Actors versus Reenactors: April 28-May 21, 1871 -- La Semaine Sanglante: The Foundations of Modern Western Civilization, May 21-28, 1871 -- Conclusion: The Final Conflict "A study of the momentous military developments during the Franco-Prussian War, which shaped the nature of civilian insurrection as well as presaging the events of the Great War that would follow in the next century"-- Provided by publisher