Leslie Derfler is Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University.

In his analysis of the final three decades of Lafargue's political life and writings, Derfler...[argues] that his subject was not only an original and creative thinker, but also an influential pedagogue who was successful in keeping the flame of Marxism alive in France in the crucial decades preceding the establishment of the Communist Party in 1920...The book is at its strongest in its sympathetic portrayal of a highly engaging figure...The book also sensitively depicts Lafargue's complex intellectual personality...[It is] a fine biography, with many evocative and touching details about the personal circumstances of Lafargue, ranging from his constant requests for money from Engels to the personal effects which accompanied the political prisoner during his imprisonment at Sainte-Pélagie (he took his own bathtub).

• * List of Illustrations * Preface * Introduction * Faults Enough and to Spare * Defending the Faith * Beyond All Possible Bounds * The Parisians Have Gone Mad * That Damned Congress * Fusillade at Fourmies * A Dangerous Dream * Peasants and Patriots * Beaten But Not Stoned * Let Us Storm the Forts * The Myth That Seems Absurd * Pleasantries or Naivetes * Absurd and Incredible Conduct * Party of Opposition * Socialism and the Intellectuals * A Force Retarding Human Progress * The Unperceived Force * One Reform on Top of Another * Simply...Logical * Afterword * Notes * Index

Leslie Derfler is Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University.

In his analysis of the final three decades of Lafargue's political life and writings, Derfler...[argues] that his subject was not only an original and creative thinker, but also an influential pedagogue who was successful in keeping the flame of Marxism alive in France in the crucial decades preceding the establishment of the Communist Party in 1920...The book is at its strongest in its sympathetic portrayal of a highly engaging figure...The book also sensitively depicts Lafargue's complex intellectual personality...[It is] a fine biography, with many evocative and touching details about the personal circumstances of Lafargue, ranging from his constant requests for money from Engels to the personal effects which accompanied the political prisoner during his imprisonment at Sainte-Pélagie (he took his own bathtub).

• * List of Illustrations * Preface * Introduction * Faults Enough and to Spare * Defending the Faith * Beyond All Possible Bounds * The Parisians Have Gone Mad * That Damned Congress * Fusillade at Fourmies * A Dangerous Dream * Peasants and Patriots * Beaten But Not Stoned * Let Us Storm the Forts * The Myth That Seems Absurd * Pleasantries or Naivetes * Absurd and Incredible Conduct * Party of Opposition * Socialism and the Intellectuals * A Force Retarding Human Progress * The Unperceived Force * One Reform on Top of Another * Simply...Logical * Afterword * Notes * Index

Leslie Derfler is Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University.

In his analysis of the final three decades of Lafargue's political life and writings, Derfler...[argues] that his subject was not only an original and creative thinker, but also an influential pedagogue who was successful in keeping the flame of Marxism alive in France in the crucial decades preceding the establishment of the Communist Party in 1920...The book is at its strongest in its sympathetic portrayal of a highly engaging figure...The book also sensitively depicts Lafargue's complex intellectual personality...[It is] a fine biography, with many evocative and touching details about the personal circumstances of Lafargue, ranging from his constant requests for money from Engels to the personal effects which accompanied the political prisoner during his imprisonment at Sainte-Pélagie (he took his own bathtub).

• * List of Illustrations * Preface * Introduction * Faults Enough and to Spare * Defending the Faith * Beyond All Possible Bounds * The Parisians Have Gone Mad * That Damned Congress * Fusillade at Fourmies * A Dangerous Dream * Peasants and Patriots * Beaten But Not Stoned * Let Us Storm the Forts * The Myth That Seems Absurd * Pleasantries or Naivetes * Absurd and Incredible Conduct * Party of Opposition * Socialism and the Intellectuals * A Force Retarding Human Progress * The Unperceived Force * One Reform on Top of Another * Simply...Logical * Afterword * Notes * Index