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The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto

Summary

'An astonishing masterpiece ... a political classic ... has an almost biblical force' Eric Hobsbawm

The Communist Manifesto
, Marx and Engels' revolutionary 1848 summons to the working classes, is one of the most influential political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, the authors produced this incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property or a state. They argue that increasing exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which capitalism is overthrown. Their vision transformed the world irrevocably, and remains relevant as a depiction of global capitalism today.

Edited with an Introduction by GARETH STEDMAN JONES

About the authors

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels (1820-95) was the son of a Manchester factory owner. He wrote several groundbreaking essays on contemporary social and political conditions in Britain, including The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), in which he criticised the working conditions and treatment of the urban poor. After Karl Marx' death, Engels completed and published the last two volumes of Das Kapital (1884, 1894) from his friend's surviving papers.
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Karl Marx

KARL MARX was a German philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist, and revolutionary, whose ideas played a significant role in the development of modern communism. Born in Trier, Germany, Marx Studied law and philosophy at University. Due to his political writings, he was forced to live in exile in London, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels and publish his writings. His best-known titles are the 1848?pamphlet?The Communist Manifesto?and the three-volume?Das Kapital?(1867-1883). Marx's political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history
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