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Touche! Mark, point taken; i am usually more sensitive to our need to 'live and learn', Dayne On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 1:45 PM, Mark Lause <[email protected]> wrote: > Dayne wrote, "I read John Merriman's new book on the commune, Massacre: The > Life and Death of the Paris Commune of 1871. I don't recommend it to > socialists who already know about the commune." > > The problem is, of course, that very few people who actually wants to know > about the Commune ever seem to get to the point where they decide that they > "already know about the commune"--or, at least, enough to forego reading > something new on it . . . particularly if it takes a very different approach > than they've read so far. And if you don't want a book that focuses on > bloodshed, you probably shouldn't have picked up one with the title > "Massacre." . > > Those of us who are still reading on the subject are surely aware that > Robert Tombs has begun promoting a new understanding of the Commune, > deemphasizing the bloodiness of its repression, going so far as to argue > that the Left has historically exaggerated the numbers to portray capitalism > as a particularly bloody and repressive system. In that context, Merriman's > book is a real contribution. > > The Commune was anything but a simple affair. Like everything in the real > world, it was terribly confused, contradictory, and worthy of more reading . > . . . _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
