<P> Along with Marx's contemporary writings on English politics and The Civil War in France, the Eighteenth Brumaire is a principal source for understanding Marx's theory of the capitalist state . </P> <P> Marx's interpretation of Louis Bonaparte's rise and rule is of interest to later scholars studying the nature and meaning of fascism . Many Marxist scholars regard the coup as a forerunner of the phenomenon of 20th - century fascism . </P> <P> This book is the source of one of Marx's most quoted statements, that history repeats itself, "the first as tragedy, then as farce", referring respectively to Napoleon I and to his nephew Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III): </P> <P> Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world - historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice . He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce . Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle . And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire . </P>

History repeats itself first as tragedy second as farce meaning
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