The Spectre of Babeuf

While the Great French Revolution of 1789 served as a political compass for several generations of European radicals, for socialists in particular, Gracchus Babeuf was far and away its most important leader. Babeuf and the newspaper he edited, Le Tribun du Peuple, pushed well beyond his contemporaries in their staunch defense of democracy and demands for the abolition of private property. Going so far as to call for an insurrection against the government of the Directory as it increased its...