Overview

How do we make social democracy? Should we seize the unknown possibilities offered by the future, or does real change develop when we focus our attention on the immediate present? The modern tradition of social revolution suggested that the present is precisely the time that needs to be surpassed, but can society change without an intimate focus on today's experience of social injustice? In Socialism and the Experience of Time, Julian Wright asks how socialists in France from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century tried to follow a democratic commitment to the present. The debate about time that emerged in French socialism lay beneath the surface of political arguments within the left. But how did this focus on the present relate to the tradition of revolution in France? What did socialism have to say about social experience in the present, and how did this discussion shape socialism as a movement? Wright examines French socialism's fascination with modern history, through a new reading of Jean Jaurès' multi-authored project to write a 'socialist history' of France since 1789. Then, in four interlocking biographical essays, he analyses the reformist and idealist socialism of the Third Republic, long side-lined in the historical literature. With a sometimes emotional focus on the present times of Benoît Malon, Georges Renard, Marcel Sembat, and Léon Blum, a personal history unfolds that allows us to revisit the traditional narrative of French socialism. This is not so much a story of the future hope for revolution, as an intimate account of socialism, intellectual engagement, and the human present.

Full Product Details

Author:   Julian Wright (Professor of History and Head of Humanities, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Northumbria)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.610kg
ISBN:  

9780199533589

ISBN 10:   019953358
Pages:   294
Publication Date:   06 July 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introduction 1: Modern ideas of the present 2: Socialism and socialist intellectuals in French history Part 2: The present in the past: The Histoire socialiste and the socialist vision of time 3: Socialists and their history 4: Socialism and the flow of time in modernity Part 3: Intellectual biography and the socialist experience of time 5: Benoît Malon and André Léo: socialism and the harmonious present 6: Georges Renard: socialist idealism and intellectual commitment 7: Marcel Sembat and the daily life of socialism: between experience and enthusiasm 8: Léon Blum: in the present, for the future Conclusion Chronology Bibliography

Reviews

[a] rich and thought-provoking study ... Above all, in foregrounding the left's relationship with ideas of time and history, Wright makes a persuasive case for re-assessing the significance of socialist thought during the French Third Republic. * Thomas Beaumont, European History Quarterly * It is a book that anyone interested in French socialism should read. It will help, in addition, to re-center discussion of Third Republic political and social thought between the extremes. * K. Steven Vincent, H-France *

It is a book that anyone interested in French socialism should read. It will help, in addition, to re-center discussion of Third Republic political and social thought between the extremes. --K. Steven Vincent, H-France

It is a book that anyone interested in French socialism should read. It will help, in addition, to re-center discussion of Third Republic political and social thought between the extremes. * K. Steven Vincent, H-France *

Author Information

Julian Wright is Professor of History and Head of Humanities at Northumbria University, having previously taught at Durham University and held a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford. He is the author of The Regionalist Movement in France: Jean Charles-Brun and French Political Thought, also published by OUP. Julian is co-editor of the OUP journal French History and Musical Director of the Durham Singers. The completion of this book was made possible with a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2015-16.

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