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Actually, "French Socialists in the US, 1840-1880", would be a splendid research project. Of course, everybody immediately thinks of Joseph Dejacque (the coiner of the term "libertarian" by the way, which he saw as more "positive" than "anarchist") who published "le libertaire, newspaper of the social movement" a famous Socialist French language newspaper while in New Orleans (1858-1862). According to Wikipedia (yes, I love that free online encyclopedia) : "Le Libertaire was the first anarcho-communist journal published in America. As well as many articles on revolution and current political events both in France and the USA he attacked the hanging of John Brown after the raid on Harpers Ferry and propagandised for the abolitionist cause." But Joseph Dejacque was not the only French socialist in the US at the time. A few French Communards had spent some time in the States. As I said, many of them were followers of Blanqui. They seem to have maintained their own Blanquist (highly secretive and conspiratorial) form of organization while in the US, which means a detailed survey of their activity would have to rely on letters, which I am quite certain exist in the French national archives. The Blanquists were riddled with police informers. There is nothing preventing one from accessing 19th century French police archives on Blanquists, only sheer mass of documentation which would immediately drown the amateur historian. Napoleon III's police was nothing if not meticulate. Anyway, come to think of it, I could venture into the realm of academia again and start work on the French 1848 emigrés in the US. Nobody else seems really interested. I could even keep my teaching job and get a grant to come to the US to go through thousands of reels of micro-filmed 19th century documents. Lots and lots of work though ... And would the end produce be really that interesting ? ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
