Blanc

Blanc, Jean Joseph Louis, historian and socialist, was born in 1811 at Madrid. He began his career as a journalist at Paris, and in 1839 founded the Revue du Progres, in which appeared his principal Socialistic work, De l'Organization du Travail. This gained for the author a wide popularity amongst the working classes, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he was chosen a member of the provisional government and appointed president of the commission of labour. Accused of being implicated in the disturbances of the summer in the same year, he escaped to London, where he remained until the downfall of the empire. On his return to Paris he was elected to the National Assembly in 1871, and afterwards became a member of the Chamber of Deputies. Besides the work already mentioned, his writings embrace Histoire de Dix Ans (1841-4), Histoire de la Revolution Francaise, Lettres sur l'Angleterre (1865-7), Histoire de la Revolution de 1848, 1870, etc. He died in 1882 at Cannes.