Manifesto of Democracy. Victor Considerant 1847
This project evolved from my great admiration for the early 19th century socialist, Charles Fourier. As this is a rare mania among political scientists, I was sometimes called upon to perform essential scholarly services. Fourier’s leading disciple was Victor Considerant; consequently, I was asked by New Political Science to review Jonathan Beecher’s 2001 biography: Victor Considerant and the Rise and Fall of French Romantic Socialism. I had previously read Rondel V. Davidson’s 1977 article: “Reform versus Revolution: Victor Considerant and the Communist Manifesto,” comparing the two manifestos, and now learned that Considerant’s had never been translated into English. When my retirement provided an opening, I decided to do it myself.
The ground had been prepared by my pleasure in translating from French, cultivated in LeRoy Breunig’s course at Barnard College. In graduate school I was encouraged by Albert Somit, for whose course I translated selections from Henri-Claude de Saint-Simon’s writings. For general support and/or help in finding historically appropriate English terms, I thank Diana Greene, Gretchen Muller, Bertell Ollman, Darko Suvin, and Victor Wallis. I was fortunate to discover a world conclave of freelance translators, who compete among themselves in providing answers to the perplexed. They can be found at the KudoZ page of www.ProZ.com.
Credit is also due to the long-dead compilers of Spiers and Surenne’s French and English Dictionary [1852]. The Keene State College Library has a very helpful staff, and allows me access to the Oxford English Dictionary online. I received thorough, efficient, and gracious responses to an orthographical question (i.e., there is no accent in Considerant) from Carol Armbruster, French Area Specialist, Library of Congress, and Jean-Louis Pailhès, Département de recherche bibliographique, Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
My publisher and editor, Robert Merrill, has provided a pleasant and collaborative process.
Finally, for inspiration, encouragement, information, and helpful critique, I am deeply grateful to Jonathan Beecher and Gareth Stedman Jones.