Revolution and Counter-Revolution

Revolution and Counter Revolution is the famous chain of articles and letters that Marx wrote for the New York Tribune between 1851 and 1852. Although Marx had only been in England some 18 months and was living in conditions of poverty and bitter suffering, these articles are among the most lucid and readable of his writings and were described by Engels as “excellent specimens of that marvelous gift of apprehending clearly the character, the significance and the necessary consequences of great historical events at a time when these events are actually in the course of taking place, or are only just completed.” They are among the finest examples we have of Marx’s keen analytic abilities applied to recent historical events and, as such, have a place beside such works as “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” (source of the famous quote that historical events “occur, as it were, twice ... the first time as tragedy, the second as farce") and “The Civil War in France” (which includes his account of the Paris Commune). At the time, the series created such a sensation that, before it had been completed, Marx was appointed the Tribune’s London correspondent. Forty-five years later Marx’s daughter, Elaeanor Marx Aveling, published them in their present form.