The Duties of Man

Introduction

“The Duties of Man” grew out of addresses to Italian workers that Mazzini began publishing in exile in London in the early 1840s; the complete text appeared in 1860, on the eve of Italian unification. Mazzini argues that the doctrine of rights of the French Revolution, taken alone, leads to selfishness and leaves the poor without means to use their rights. Duties come first, rooted in a religious law of progress: duties to humanity, to one’s country, to the family and to oneself. The nation is the workshop through which each people serves humanity; it must be united, republican and founded on the equality of its members, women included. The emancipation of labour is to come not through class struggle but through association, cooperatives, education and universal suffrage. The book was widely read in Italian workers’ associations, translated into many languages and read by nationalists in India and elsewhere.