1871, Paris in fever

In his column, former Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin shares a piece of reading that has left a lasting impression on him. This month, a historical essay by Michel Winock on the Commune, born of the trauma of defeat at the hands of Prussia and a lasting political rift.

The Paris Commune has always intrigued me. How and why did this brief revolutionary period come about, when the Prussians were at the gates of Paris and Gambetta had escaped in a hot-air balloon to attempt, from the provinces, to rebuild an army in order to continue the war? Michel Winock answers these questions in *La Commune: The French Civil War*. His study is published in the series «Les journées qui ont fait la France»—a guarantee of scholarly rigor without pedantry.

The story revolves around the date of March 18, 1871. In the months leading up to it, the events