The Communist Manifesto

Publisher Marketing: The Communist Manifesto is in several respects a paradoxical document. A product of the Western European political struggles that culminated in the pan-European Revolutions of 1848, its greatest historical impact was nevertheless not felt until the following century, in countries far from Western Europe (Russia and China) that Marx and Engels would never have viewed as ripe for revolutionary activity. The Manifesto was written as a diagnosis of the ills of what is often called high industrial capitalism, yet in many ways the world it describes, in which "all that is solid melts into air," sounds more like a prediction of a globalized capitalist world of political flux, virtual life, and accelerated time than a description of Marx's era, in which monarchies and established churches still wielded immense power across Europe. Moreover, although the best-known attempts to put Marx's and Engels's program into practice failed and are now in almost universal disrepute, the fundamental contradictions and deadlocks of capitalist society they present so vividly are still awaiting adequate remedies. While Marx laid out the ideological groundwork, many put it into action, leading to the formation of socialist powers in the Soviet Union and China during the first half of the 20th century. Marx's writings and philosophy had an impact on the social sciences and economic theories, but one of his biographers could comfortably and accurately assert that the political history of the 20th century was "Marx's legacy." Whether fairly or not, in the West Marx has become inextricably linked with some of the totalitarian excesses of the regimes that claimed to espouse his ideology, and for that reason Marx is often associated with some of the negative connotations that come with the Soviets. Nevertheless, few would deny the very decisive impact Marxism had on the global landscape, and the ramifications continue to have a political influence today. Review Citations: Library Journal 05/15/1998 pg. 121 (EAN 9781859848982, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9781859848982, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9780891905493, Paperback) Library Journal 07/01/2006 pg. 122 (EAN 9780143037514, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 235 (EAN 9780140447576, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 259 (EAN 9780140447576, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9780140444780, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9780671678814, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9780553214062, Mass Market Paperbound) Choice 12/01/2012 (EAN 9780300123012, Hardcover) Choice 12/01/2012 (EAN 9780300123029, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 164 (EAN 9780451527103, Mass Market Paperbound) Contributor Bio:  Marx, Karl Described as one of the most influential figures in human history, Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist who wrote extensively on the benefits of socialism and the flaws of free-market capitalism. His most notable works, Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto (the latter of which was co-authored by his collaborator Friedrich Engels), have since become two of history's most important political and economic works. Marxism--the term that has come to define the philosophical school of thought encompassing Marx's ideas about society, politics and economics--was the foundation for the socialist movements of the twentieth century, including Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, and Maoism. Despite the negative reputation associated with some of these movements and with Communism in general, Marx's view of a classless socialist society was a utopian one which did not include the possibility of dictatorship. Greatly influenced by the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, Marx wrote in radical newspapers from his young adulthood, and can also be credited with founding the philosophy of dialectical materialism. Marx died in London in 1883 at the age of 64. Contributor Bio:  Engels, Friedrich Friedrich Engels was born in 1820, in the German city of Barmen. He died in London in 1895 while editing the fourth volume of Capital.