
(• required readings / + supplemental readings)
Liberal and socialist reading on late liberalism and early socialism:
Louis Blanc, History of the Ten Years 1830-1840 (1842)
Benjamin Constant, Liberty of the Ancients and Moderns Compared (1819)
Émile Durkheim, Saint-Simon and Socialism (1895-96)
Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England (Labour Movement) [1845]
Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Utopian Socialism) [1880]*
G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1822-31)
Georgi Plekhanov, “Utopian Socialism in the Nineteenth Century” (1913)*
Plekhanov, The Initial Phases of the Theory of the Class Struggle — An Introduction to the Second Edition of the Russian translation of the Communist Manifesto (1898)
Background (secondary) reading on late liberalism and early socialism:
Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (1962)
George Lichtheim, Origins of Socialism (1969)
Joseph Seymour (Spartacist), “Marxism and the Jacobin Socialist Tradition” (1976)
Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station (1940)
Week 1 6/7/25: Babeuf and Jacobin socialism
• Sylvain Maréchal, (1796) "Manifesto of the Equals"
• Philippe Buonarroti, History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality (1828/36) selections: "Biographical Sketch of Buonarroti", "To the Reader", "Author's Preface", Part I pp. 88-232
Supplemental:
+ French Republic Constitution of 1793
+ Buonarroti, History of Babeuf's Conspiracy for Equality (1828/1836), Part I pp. 1-87, Part II
+ Gracchus Babeuf, (1797) The Defense of Gracchus Babeuf before the High Court of VendĂ´me
+ Auguste Blanqui, (1832) “Speech before the Society of the Friends of the People”
+ Blanqui, (1849) "To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!"
Week 2 6/14/25: Henri de Saint-Simon
- Henri Saint-Simon, Social Organisation, the Science of Man, and Other Writings (1803-25)
Week 3 6/21/25: Charles Fourier
- Charles Fourier, Selections TBD
Week 4 6/28/25: Robert Owen
- Robert Owen, A New View of Society and Other Writings (“A New View,” “Address to the Inhabitants,” “Observations on the Effects,” “To the British Manufacturer,” “Address to the Working Class,” and “Catechism”)
- Declaration of Mental Independence
Secondary reading:
+ William Benbow, Grand National Holiday (1832)
Week 5 7/5/25: Left Ricardian socialism and Chartism
- Thomas Hodgskin, Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital (1825)
- Chartist Writings, Selection (1833-55)
Supplemental:
+ Charles Wentworth Dilke, The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties
+ Bronterre O’Brien, Progress of Human Slavery (1849-50) (Chapter I, VII, and XV to end)
+ Thomas Carlyle, Chartism (Chapters 1 & 9)
Week 6 7/12/25: Young Hegelian communism and Chartism
- August von Cjezkowski, Arnold Ruge, and Edgar Bauer (1841-44)
- Moses Hess, “Socialism and Communism,” “A Communist Credo,” and “Consequences of a Revolution of the Proletariat” (1843-47)
Week 7 7/19/25: Democracy and socialism
- Victor Considerant, The Principles of Socialism: Manifesto of 19th Century Democracy (1847) [selection TBD]
Supplemental:
+ Louis Blanc, Organization of Labor [Selection TBD]