French Revolution/Napoleonic to mid-19th century writers

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon by Karl Marx.

>>2462455
I've already read some Marx but he sounds like such an autist, is he as petty in this essay as in the others? I'm willing to give him a shot if he can prove to write a single non-retarded piece

>>2462526
I don't know about his other writing, this is the first Marx I've read outside of the Communist Manifesto (which was pretty mediocre imo).

But The 18th is an amazing essay. He analyses the various fractions of revolutionary France and the way they interact with eachother, as well as their goals, aspirations, insecurities, etc. then examines how Napoleon was able to utilize them. It's loaded with witticisms and quotable lines, makes several very brilliant criticisms towards liberal democracy, republicanism, the various social classes, etc.

If for nothing else, the shear amount of readily quotable quips (man makes his own history, but doesn't choose the cloth from which its cut; first as a tragedy, then as a farce; etc.) make it worth reading.

>>2462582
If Karl Marx was alive today, he'd be a scriptwriter for House of Cards, I think. As a historical-political drama it manages to be gripping, philosophical, witty, and suspenseful at the same time.

“The tradition of past generations weighs like the Alps on the brains of the living.”

>>2462582
sounds very interesting, not sure why the manifesto is regarded today as such a good piece when this already sounds 1000x better (it really doesn't make Marx justice imo that i didn't know about this before and knew him only by his autism)

thx anon i'll give Marx a second shot

>>2462604
except house of cards is shit

what do y'all think of Clauswitz? I found him very dry and abstract from the realities of what he's talking about. A novelty but hardly relevant in today's world

>>2462941
Do you mean the Prussian Karl von Clausevitz? if so then i'm going to take a look at 'On War', sounds interesting