View source for The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century

{{Short description|Manifesto written in 1851 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon}}
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'''''The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century''''' ({{langx|fr|Idée générale de la révolution au XIXe siècle}}) is an influential manifesto written in 1851 by the [[anarchist]] philosopher [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]].  The book portrays a vision of an ideal society where frontiers are taken down, [[nation state]]s abolished, and where there is no [[Centralized government|central authority]] or law of government, except for power residing in [[Intentional community|communes]], and local associations, governed by contractual law.  The ideas of the book later became the basis of [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] and [[anarchist]] theory, and the work is now considered a classic of anarchist philosophy.
It was published in July 1851, its [[first edition]] of 3,000 copies soon selling out, with a second edition following in August. At the time, Proudhon was still serving the last year of a prison sentence begun in 1849, for criticizing [[Napoleon III|Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte]] as a reactionary.
The central theme of the book is the historical necessity of revolution, and the impossibility of preventing it.  Even the forces of reaction produce revolution by making the revolution more conscious of itself, as the reactionaries resort to ever more brutal methods to suppress the inevitable.  Proudhon stresses that it is the exploitative nature of [[capitalism]] that creates the need for government, and that revolutionaries must change society by changing its economic basis.  Then the authoritarian form of government will become superfluous.
He proposes that the [[Bank of France]] be turned into a 'Bank of Exchange', an autonomous democratic institution rather than a state-controlled [[monopoly]]. Railways and large industry should be given to the workers themselves. His vision of a future is a society made up of self-governing, democratic organizations, with no central authority controlling them.
==References==
* [[Robert Graham (historian)|Graham, Robert]], [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/ANARCHIST_ARCHIVES/proudhon/grahamproudhon.html "The General Idea of Proudhon's Revolution"], the [[Anarchy Archives]] at [[Pitzer College]].
==External links==
* ''[http://fair-use.org/p-j-proudhon/general-idea-of-the-revolution/ General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century]'' 1923 English translation by [[John Beverley Robinson (anarchist)|John Beverly Robinson]] at the [http://fair-use.org/ Fair Use Repository]
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[[Category:1851 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books about anarchism]]
[[Category:Works by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]]