The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon) is an essay
written by Karl Marx. This essay discusses the French coup of 1851 in which Louis-Napoléon
Bonaparte assumed dictatorial powers but refers to the Coup of 18 Brumaire in which Napoleon
Bonaparte seized power in revolutionary France (9 November 1799 or 18 Brumaire Year VIII in
the French Republican Calendar) in order to contrast it with the coup of 1851. It shows Marx
in his form as a social and political historian treating actual historical events from the
viewpoint of his materialist conception of history.
