Archive of History
-
Insurrection as Art: the Legacy of Blanqui
The recently released Communist Insurgent tells the life story of French revolutionary Louis-Auguste Blanqui, and with it the history of a period of extraordinary social and political upheaval. Haymarket Books interviewed the author, Doug Enaa Greene, to understand the relevance of an often maligned or neglected figure. We publish this interview to mark the anniversary of Blanqui's death on 1 January 1881.
-
The Death Agony of the Monarchy: Russia on the Eve of Revolution
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated a hundred years ago today, bringing to an end three centuries of Romanov rule. In this extract from his History of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky describes the final days of Imperial Russia. Incompetent, vain, and almost comically ignorant of the historic events unfolding around it, the Tsarist regime fell, in Trotsky's words, "like rotten fruit."
-
Zombie-labor and the 'Monstrous Outrages' of Capital
In this extract from Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism, David McNally explains how Marx's frequent summoning of monstrous figures dramatizes the processes whereby capital dehumanizes and sucks the blood from living labor. Happy Halloween!