Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1851)

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte is a seminal work by Karl Marx that analyzes the 1851 coup d'état by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in France, drawing broader lessons about the relationship between class struggles, political leadership, and state power.

Marx dissects how historical conditions and class dynamics allowed a demagogue to exploit the fractured working class and reactionary bourgeoisie, crystallizing his theory of the state as a tool of class domination.