Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (October 29, 1811 - December 6, 1882), was a French politician and historian. October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... An historian is someone who writes history, a written accounting of the past. ...

Early Years

He was born in Madrid, where his father held the post of inspector-general of finance under Joseph Bonaparte. Failing to receive aid from Pozzo di Borgo, his mother's uncle, Louis Blanc studied law in Paris, living in poverty, and became a contributor to various 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 essay form the key to Louis Blanc's whole political career. He attributes all the evils that afflict society to the pressure of competition, whereby the weaker are driven to the wall. He demanded the equalization of wages, and the merging of personal interests in the common good--"à chacun selon ses besoins, de chacun selon ses facultés," which is often translated as "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." This was to be effected by the establishment of "social workshops," a sort of combined co-operative society and trade-union, where the workmen in each trade were to unite their efforts for their common benefit. In 1841 he published his Histoire de dix ans 1830-1840, an attack upon the monarchy of July. It ran through four editions in four years. Motto: De Madrid al Cielo (From Madrid to Heaven) Location Coordinates: Country Spain Autonomous Community Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid Province Madrid Administrative Divisions 21 Neighborhoods 127 Founded 9th century Government  - Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón (PP) Area  - Land 607 km² (234. ... Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, King of Naples, King of Spain (January 7, 1768 – July 28, 1844) was the elder brother of the French Emperor Napoleon I, who made him King of Naples (1806–1808) and King of Spain (1808–1813). ... Carlo Andrea, count Pozzo di Borgo (March 8, 1764 _ February 15, 1842), was a Corsican politician who became a Russian diplomat. ... 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... 1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Revolution of 1848

In 1847 he published the two first volumes of his Histoire de la Revolution Française. Its publication was interrupted by the Revolution of 1848, when Louis Blanc became a member of the provisional government. It was on his motion that, on February 25, the government undertook "to guarantee the existence of the workmen by work"; and though his demand for the establishment of a ministry of labour was refused--as beyond the competence of a provisional government--he was appointed to preside over the government labour commission (Commission du Gouvernement pour les travailleurs) established at the Luxembourg to inquire into and report on the labour question. 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Panthéon, Paris|Panthéon]] behind), Paris, June 1848. ... February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

On May 10, in the National Assembly, he again proposed a ministry of labour, but the majority was hostile to socialism, and the proposal was again rejected. His responsibility for the disastrous experiment of the national workshops he himself denied in his Appel aux hommes gens (Paris, 1849), written in London after his flight, but by the insurgent mob of May 15 and by the victorious Moderates alike, he was regarded as responsible. Between the sans-culottes, who tried to force him to place himself at their head, and the national guards, who mistreated him, he was nearly killed. Rescued with difficulty, he escaped with a false passport to Belgium, and then to London; in his absence he was condemned by a special tribunal at Bourges, in contumaciam, to deportation. Against trial and sentence he alike protested, developing his protest in a series of articles in the Nouveau Monde, a review published in Paris under his direction. These he afterwards collected and published as Pages de l'histoire de la révolution de 1848 (Brussels, 1850). May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (131st in leap years). ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... Painted rendition of a sans-culottes. ... Bourges is a town and commune in central France that is located on the Yèvre river. ...

Exile

During his stay in Britain he made use of the unique collection of materials for the revolutionary period preserved at the British Museum to complete his Histoire de la Revolution Française 12 vols. (1847-1862). In 1858 he published a reply to Lord Normanby's A Year of Revolution in Paris (1858), which he developed later into his Histoire de la révolution de 1848 (2 vols., 1870-1880). He was also active in the irregular masonic organisation La Grand Loge des Philadelphes. The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, surrounding the original Reading Room. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Return to France

As far back as 1839 Louis Blanc had vehemently opposed the idea of a Napoleonic restoration, predicting that it would be "despotism without glory," "the Empire without the Emperor." He therefore remained in exile till the fall of the Second Empire in September 1870, after which he returned to Paris and served as a private in the national guard. On February 8, 1871 he was elected a member of the National Assembly, in which he maintained that the republic was "the necessary form of national sovereignty," and voted for the continuation of the war; yet, though a leftist, he did not sympathize with the Paris Commune, and exerted his influence in vain on the side of moderation. In 1878 he advocated the abolition of the presidency and the Senate. In January 1879 he introduced into the chamber a proposal for the amnesty of the Communards, which was carried. This was his last important act. His declining years were darkened by ill-health and by the death, in 1876, of his wife Christina Groh, whom he had married in 1865. He died at Cannes, and on December 12 received a state funeral in the Père Lachaise. 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Le Père Duchesne looking at the statue of Napoleon I on top of the Vendome column: Eh ben ! bougre de canaille, on va donc te foutre en bas comme ta crapule de neveu !… (Here! savage rascal, we will put you down just like your crook of a nephew!…) The... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Cannes - receding storm Cannes, as seen from a ferry speeding towards lÃŽle Saint-Honorat Cannes (pronounced ) (Provençal Occitan: Canas in classical norm or Cano in Mistralian norm) is a city and commune in southern France, located on the Riviera, in the Alpes-Maritimes département and the r... December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ... Looking down the hill at the Père-Lachaise cemetery The cimetière du Père-Lachaise (pronounced pierre la-sh-ez) is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (there are larger cemeteries in Paris suburbs). ...

His political legacy

Louis Blanc possessed a picturesque and vivid style, and considerable power of research; but the fervour with which he expressed his convictions, while placing him in the first rank of orators, tended to turn his historical writings into political pamphlets. His political and social ideas have had a great influence on the development of socialism in France. His Discours politiques (1847-1881) was published in 1882. his most important works, besides those already mentioned, are Lettres sur l'Angleterre (1866-1867), Dix années de l'Histoire de l'Angleterre (1879-1881), and Questions d'aujourd'hui et de demain (1873-1884).

Selected works

1. Louis Blanc (1841). The History of Ten Years, 1830-1840 (Vol. 1). New York: Chapman and Hall, 628. ASIN B0006BWS4Y. 

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Please update as needed. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica in turn, gives the following reference in addition to Blanc's own works: Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

• L Fiaux, Louis Blanc (1883).