The Paris Commune/Publisher's Note
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
The two manifestoes on the Franco-Prussian War and the essay on the Civil War in France, which form the bulk of this volume, were originally issued in 1870 and 1871 by the General Council of the International Workingmen's Association, as will be seen by the dates affixed to the documents. The Twentieth Century Press, of London, England, reprinted them a few years ago in a pamphlet entitled The Commune of Paris, the pamphlet including an abridgment of Frederick Engels' introduction to the standard German edition of The Civil War in France, which was published in Berlin in 1891.
In an edition recently issued by a New York publisher, the two manifestoes on the Franco-Prussian War are omitted, and the English abridgment of Engels' introduction is still further abridged to make it conform to the absence of the omitted documents.
Deeming it but just to both Marx and Engels that their work should be given to the public in an unabridged form, we present in this volume the first complete edition of the essays by Marx and the introduction by Engels published in the English language.
The only liberty we have taken with the text is the addition of chapter titles to The Civil War in France.
In the Appendix will be found (1) a translation of the anti-plebiscite manifesto, referred to on pages 23 and 24; (2) further details regarding "Bloody Week," consisting of a compilation of testimony from capitalist sources, with brief comments on the same by Lucien Sanial; (3) the reply of the Secretary of the General Council of the International to Jules Favre's circular letter of June 6, 1871; (4) the personnel of the General Council of the International when the manifestoes on the Franco-Prussian War and the Civil War in France were issued. These documents throw additional light on the events of 1870 and the tragedy of 1871.