ABSTRACT
Louis Blanc's ideas shaped early-nineteenth-century socialist thought and anticipated the European democratic socialism of the twentieth century. In July 1830, while France was undergoing the revolution that deposed the Bourbon King Charles X in favor of the more liberal King Louis-Philippe, Blanc moved to Paris. There he faced unemployment and poverty, an experience that possibly radicalized his view of society. In 1839 Blanc founded the republican Revue du Progres, which also advocated socialist reforms. A number of publications established Blanc as a leader of the French socialist movement, which many, but not all, republicans supported. While in exile in Great Britain, Blanc completed his work on the revolution of 1789, The History of the French Revolution, which rehabilitated his reputation. Blanc was the first socialist to take part in a French government—or in any government—in the nineteenth century. He was not an extremist; he argued that people must be prepared by ideas before taking action for social progress.
