Louis Blanc (1811-82) was a French historian and politician whose writings had a considerable influence on the development of French socialism. In his famous Organisation du travail (1839) he called for social reform by action of the State, an unusual position at the time. As a member of the provisional government established after the 1848 Revolution, he campaigned for workers' rights, advocating the creation of cooperative workshops. His twelve-volume Histoire de la Révolution Française (1847-62), most of which he wrote while in exile in England, combines years of thorough research with Blanc's characteristic socialist and republican enthusiasm. Volume 9, first published in 1857, opens with the Constitution of 1793. It focuses on the counter-revolutionary movements that arose in the Vendée and in Lyon during that year, as well as on the war with Europe. It also covers the trial and death of Marie-Antoinette in October 1793.
