The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

<p>Marx stated that the purpose of this essay was to demonstrate how the class struggle in France created circumstances and relationships that made it possible for a grotesque mediocrity to play a hero's part.<sup> </sup>In doing so he applies the method of Historical Materialism and besides it's many other points of interest and importance it can serve readers as a practical instance of this particular method of historical analysis</p><p><br></p><p>In this essay one finds Marx's famous formulation of the role of the individual in history Men make their own history but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances but under circumstances existing already given and transmitted from the past. </p><p><br></p><p>Marx's interpretation of Louis Bonaparte's rise and rule is also of interest to later scholars studying the nature and meaning of fascism among whom the coup is regarded as a forerunner of the phenomenon of 20th-century fascism. </p>