WI: Karl Marx born 100 years earlier?

I quite agree - but the idea that there's no difference between Marxism and peasant agitation is absurd, and I just grabbed the cheekiest example to the contrary.

There is certainly a difference, although the degree of difference depends on which group of peasant agitators you are talking about. I am no expert on peasant egalitarian movements, but I do know that there is a significant difference between the Levellers and the Diggers (to consider only the 17th century British movements, some of the few I know anything about). The Levellers had a platform rather similar to republican Liberalism (and in fact were a probable inspiration to the framers of the American constitution), while the Diggers were definite proto-Socialists from what I know.
 
Marxism was a response to the rise of the bourgeoisie in Europe; the French Revolution was the beginning of the rise of the bourgeoisie in Europe. Marxism could hardly predate it.
 
There is certainly a difference, although the degree of difference depends on which group of peasant agitators you are talking about. I am no expert on peasant egalitarian movements, but I do know that there is a significant difference between the Levellers and the Diggers (to consider only the 17th century British movements, some of the few I know anything about). The Levellers had a platform rather similar to republican Liberalism (and in fact were a probable inspiration to the framers of the American constitution), while the Diggers were definite proto-Socialists from what I know.

Quite. The Levellers were a broad church, but they were basically the ancestors of the Radicals; the Diggers were the when-Adam-delved-and-Eve-span sorts.
 
Probably already said, but bears repeating: Marx in a pre-industrial world that still worked on mercantilism wouldn't have the same life experiences and influences on his thought that he would have 100 years later because the world that shaped those thoughts didn't exist yet.
 
Hardly. It's just semantics.
I never know Joe McCarthy was a member of the board. Tell us more about how Communist subversion saps the purity of our precious bodily fluids.
Quite. The Levellers were a broad church, but they were basically the ancestors of the Radicals; the Diggers were the when-Adam-delved-and-Eve-span sorts.
Of course, it does bear mentioning that the Levellers and Diggers were hardly typical of peasant movements; the British Commonwealth period as a whole was pretty atypical.
 
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