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Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844/The Communist Manifesto

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Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential Communist Manifesto (1848), enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with "socialism," "capitalism," "the working class," "the bourgeoisie," "labor theory of value," "alienation," "economic determinism," "dialectical materialism," and "historical materialism." Marx's economic analysis of history has been a powerful legacy, the effects of which continue to be felt world-wide.

Serving as the foundation for Marx's indictment of capitalism is his extraordinary work titled Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, written in 1844 but published nearly a century later. Here Marx offers his theory of human nature and an analysis of emerging capitalism's degenerative impact on man's sense of self and his creative potential. What is man's true nature? How did capitalism gain such a foothold on Western society? What is alienation and how does it threaten to undermine the proletariat?

These and other vital questions are addressed as the youthful Marx sets forth his first detailed assessment of the human condition.

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 25, 2009

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143 people want to read

About the author

Karl Marx

3,269 books6,599 followers
With the help of Friedrich Engels, German philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867-1894), works, which explain historical development in terms of the interaction of contradictory economic forces, form many regimes, and profoundly influenced the social sciences.

German social theorist Friedrich Engels collaborated with Karl Marx on The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and on numerous other works.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin in London opposed Communism of Karl Marx with his antithetical anarchy.

Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).

The Prussian kingdom introduced a prohibition on Jews, practicing law; in response, a man converted to Protestantism and shortly afterward fathered Karl Marx.

Marx began co-operating with Bruno Bauer on editing Philosophy of Religion of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (see Democritus and Epicurus), doctoral thesis, also engaged Marx, who completed it in 1841. People described the controversial essay as "a daring and original piece... in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom." Marx decided to submit his thesis not to the particularly conservative professors at the University of Berlin but instead to the more liberal faculty of University of Jena, which for his contributed key theory awarded his Philosophiae Doctor in April 1841. Marx and Bauer, both atheists, in March 1841 began plans for a journal, entitled Archiv des Atheismus (Atheistic Archives), which never came to fruition.

Marx edited the newspaper Vorwärts! in 1844 in Paris. The urging of the Prussian government from France banished and expelled Marx in absentia; he then studied in Brussels. He joined the league in 1847 and published.

Marx participated the failure of 1848 and afterward eventually wound in London. Marx, a foreigner, corresponded for several publications of United States.
He came in three volumes. Marx organized the International and the social democratic party.

Marx in a letter to C. Schmidt once quipped, "All I know is that I am not a Marxist," as Warren Allen Smith related in Who's Who in Hell .

People describe Marx, who most figured among humans. They typically cite Marx with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, the principal modern architects.

Bertrand Russell later remarked of non-religious Marx, "His belief that there is a cosmic ... called dialectical materialism, which governs ... independently of human volitions, is mere mythology" ( Portraits from Memory , 1956).

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bi...
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/...
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for Casey.
67 reviews16 followers
March 25, 2024
guys im soooo close to finishing all the books i was assigned in college but never read. Let’s see just… Ulysses, the Wealth of Nations aanndd the entire Shakespeare’s first folio left!
Profile Image for Paul Richardson.
30 reviews1 follower
June 4, 2017
Who knew so much philosophy was present

In my studies during college (engineering) I was only aware of Marx (and Engels for that matter) in the context of the Communist Manifesto. It is now interesting to me how relevant this work is to anyone who is an engineer. Talk about being the ultimate commodity...
Profile Image for Heinrich.
31 reviews
September 9, 2023
"Manifesto Comunista," escrito por Karl Marx e Friedrich Engels em 1848, é uma obra seminal que delineia os princípios fundamentais do comunismo. O "Manifesto Comunista" é um tratado político que expõe as análises de Marx e Engels sobre a história das lutas de classes e a inevitável ascensão do proletariado. Eles argumentam que a sociedade capitalista é caracterizada pela exploração da classe trabalhadora pela classe capitalista, destacando a alienação do trabalho e a concentração de riqueza nas mãos de poucos. Os autores também apresentam a visão de que o comunismo representa a superação das contradições do capitalismo, com a abolição da propriedade privada dos meios de produção e a criação de uma sociedade sem classes, na qual os meios de produção são propriedade comum e a riqueza é distribuída de maneira mais equitativa. Portanto, o "Manifesto Comunista" é uma obra de relevância histórica que continua a influenciar o pensamento político e econômico, sendo estudado e debatido até os dias atuais por sua análise crítica do capitalismo e sua visão de uma sociedade mais igualitária e justa.
Profile Image for Hannie Ismail.
27 reviews3 followers
September 17, 2023
Very difficult to read! (The Manuscripts not the Manifesto)
But If you're looking to somewhat try to understand Marx like I did, then it's worth a read. I later understood that the manuscripts were somewhat like Marx' personal diary filled with ideas.
However it was tedious, I enjoyed the Manifesto.


WORKERS OF ALL NATIONS UNITE!!!
Profile Image for Matthew Rodriguez.
53 reviews
December 19, 2025
I found 1844 rather incomprehensible. I think you’d need to fully understand Hegel to piece it together, but Engel’s Outline of a Critique and the Manifesto were generally easy to read and interesting to reflect on!

I think an introduction in the beginning that gave some background on Hegel would have been very helpful. The book only had a translator’s intro in the beginning.
Profile Image for mbarshall.
20 reviews
January 28, 2026
Really easy to see how people are turned off by the Manifesto, which is probably why the publishers put it after all of the theory stuff. Marx is a genius and every single chapter is absolutely exemplary of that so when you read the manifesto it really does read as “scary communism bad” when it really is not that at all. Can’t wait to learn more!
Profile Image for tre.
4 reviews
February 4, 2026
i read the manifesto roughly a year ago for a history class and i've been meaning to read more of marx so this was a good culmination of his essays and ideas. i recommend this book to anyone who feels extremely bogged down by current events- change is possible through education and action
Profile Image for KC.
51 reviews153 followers
August 13, 2024
guys im soooo close to finishing all the books i was assigned in college but never read. Let’s see just… Ulysses, the Wealth of Nations aanndd the entire Shakespeare’s first folio left!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews

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