There Was No Revolution

In her new book, There Was No Revolution, Catherine Malabou argues that the French Revolution existed in name only, not in reality. Privileges disappeared only on the surface, and the old forms of domination persisted in structuring everyday life. French citizens soon came to ask: "How is it that we are falling back into the same patterns of privilege and servitude?"

In developing this argument, Malabou echoes the conclusion drawn by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his work, What is Property?, written in 1840, which claimed that there was no revolution. Proudhon witnessed how, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, feudal relations persisted and monarchy was restored. He connected the persistence of feudalism and servitude to his critique of property. For Proudhon, property is but another name for domination: "Property is theft," he famously declared, meaning that private property begins with a theft of memory and meaning that transforms continuous bondage into a promise of emancipation. This marks the specificity of the anarchist critique of property and led Proudhon to conclude, "I am an anarchist."

Malabou connects her re-reading of Proudhon's masterpiece with our own political situation today, more than two hundred years after the French Revolution. She examines how the enduring domination that is central to private property infiltrates various aspects of the modern world, from the legacies of colonialism and slavery to work and politics. This timely re-assessment of the relation between property and domination will interest students of philosophy and politics, and anyone concerned with today's key political questions.