The doctors of revolution : 19th-century thinkers who changed the world / Shlomo Barer.

Includes index

Includes bibliographical references (p. 1206-1211)

"Nineteenth-century Europe was the scene of extraordinary upheaval. It was in this period that a number of philosophers, poets and artists sought to regain the revolutionary momentum - and it was their efforts that lay behind the establishment of socialism, anarchism and communism. The best-known of these thinkers was Karl Marx, self-appointed leader of the socialist movement that led in the next century to the Russian Revolution, Lenin and Stalin. But Shlomo Barer, the author of this study of obsessed agitators, also brings into the picture the greatest of German lyric poets and political commentator, Heinrich Heine; the hitherto obscure personality of Moses Hess, who may rank as the first communist of all; two Russians of aristocratic background who were prepared to throw over all their wealth and privilege to fight for social and economic change, Alexander Herzen and Michael Bakunin; and Ferdinand Lasalle, the young German firebrand who might have outclassed all the others had he not died young in a ridiculous duel." "Barer explores the childhood, education and young adulthood of these remarkable men, and presents in lively detail their families, their loves, their mistresses and wives, their friends, and the way their lives all crisscrossed. He also paints in the political and cultural background so that the Russian tsars and French kings are brought to life, not to mention such illustrious personalities as George Sand and her circle, Meyerbeer the opera composer, Ivan Turgenev, Balzac, Georg Herwegh and a host of others."--Jacket.