Manifesto of the Communist Party - Softcover

Karl Marx; Friedrick Engels

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1596057882 ISBN 13: 9781596057883

Publisher: Cosimo Classics, 2006

Synopsis

"With the clarity and brilliance of genius, this work outlines the new world outlook, consistent materialism, which also embraces the real of social life, dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doctrine of development, the theory of the class struggle and of the world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat-the creator of a new, communist society." -Lenin Ironically, The Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848 for the Communist League, had little influence in its own day. Only after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' other writings had made their views on socialism widely known did it become a standard text. For nearly century it was one of the most widely read - some would argue misread - texts in the world. Manifested in vivid prose, the Manifesto continues to irk the capitalist world, lingering as an eerie specter even after the collapse of those governments, which claimed to be enacting its principles. Certainly, the aim here is not create converts. Instead it is to help readers probe the writing with its distinct point of view, so that we might understand the political and historical significance of the text while still maintaining a stance that allows us to think critically about the subject and form our own opinions. KARL MARX (1818-1883) was a philosopher, social scientist, historian and political revolutionary. He is indisputably the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. Although scholars largely ignored him in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement only after his death. Born to a bourgeois family, FREDERICK ENGELS (1820-1895) devoted his life to struggling for the poor and oppressed. As a man of principle, he spent much of his time developing theoretical ideas and to his 50-year commitment to revolutionary socialism. Engels sustained an equally strong personal commitment to Karl Marx, who he supported politically, financially and with a deep friendship for 40 years, until the relationship was broken by Marx's death in 1883.

About this title

Review:

"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.

From the Inside Flap:

"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism." So begins one of history's most important documents, a work of such magnitude that it has forever changed not only the scope of world politics, but indeed the course of human civilization. The Communist Manifesto was written in Friedrich Engels's clear, striking prose and declared the earth-shaking ideas of Karl Marx. Upon publication in 1848, it quickly became the credo of the poor and oppressed who longed for a society "in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."
The Communist Manifesto contains the seeds of Marx's more comprehensive philosophy, which continues to inspire influential economic, political, social, and literary theories. But the Manifesto is most valuable as an historical document, one that led to the greatest political upheaveals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to the establishment of the Communist governments that until recently ruled half the globe.
This Bantam Classic edition of The Communist Manifesto includes Marx and Engels's historic 1872 and 1882 prefaces, and Engels's notes and prefaces to the 1883 and 1888 editions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cosimo Classics
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1596057882
• ISBN 13: 9781596057883
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96