The most important document in the history of socialism, The Communist Manifesto synthesized socialist theory of its time and anticipated the revolutions that were about to sweep Europe.
On the eve of a period of revolutionary activity in Europe, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published a short tract that would become the most famous document in the history of the socialist movement. First published in late February, 1848, and originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party, the 11,500-word pamphlet drew on political, economic, historical, and philosophical studies to depict capitalism’s rise and projected fall. Whereas most of the economists of that period failed to understand how a capitalist system worked, Marx was able to show the significance of the role of capitalism after the power of bourgeois owners was centralized during the 1830’s. Marx and Engels used their pamphlet to call for workers to unite in overthrowing the capitalist system in revolution. The themes of their manifesto blended together to produce a dramatic and logical document that was easy to comprehend.
Communist Manifesto[2580]
Prior to the sixteenth century, the concept of socialism as a coherent political doctrine was unknown. It was not until Thomas More
Marx had helped to organize the Communist League after he was expelled from Paris in 1845. In 1847, the league authorized him to draft a party program. Marx had studied law and was a scholar and a specialist in philosophy but asked Engels to assist him in writing the document. Marx’s wife, Jenny
The manifesto contained a ten-point program of communism and was divided into four parts, into which were woven historical, prophetic, moralistic, and revolutionary elements. The first part was historical and told of the rise of the ruling bourgeois class and of the creation of the proletariat, or the working class. Arguing that economics played the most important role in history, the manifesto divided history into three stages: slavery, feudalism, and capitalism. Although the word “capitalism” itself was not used, Marx and Engels traced the rise of the capitalist economy. Class struggles between those groups that owned and those that worked had always been a part of postliterate history, and these struggles would continue until the working class seized power and overthrew the capitalist system.
Karl Marx.
The Communist Manifesto described the dire situation and explained that the ruling classes were turning the lives of proletariats into ordeals of poverty and alienation. Capitalists had turned workers into merchandise. Workers had no value if they could not find work, and their labor only made profits for the bourgeois owners. Industrialization and a need to keep increasing production in order to make money would further alienate workers as the class in power expanded its interests worldwide. New mechanization would be put in place to speed this production, and workers would be displaced in the social order. Workers therefore needed to prepare themselves for the inevitable class struggle of revolution. The role of revolutionary leaders would go to the communist workers because they were the most advanced of the proletariat.
Marx and Engels also refuted the existing ideas of socialist thought and moved from the utopian to scientific socialism. The scientific method, Marx and Engels wrote, explained the implications of capitalism. The formulation of this transition to scientific socialism had begun for the pair during the early 1840’s, and they had spent many intense sessions working out their theories. The Communist Manifesto also clarified the meaning of communism and its relationship to other radical democratic movements.
The Communist Manifesto predicted that revolution would begin in the most civilized countries of western and central Europe and argued that Germany was most likely to set the initial stage of this drama. The coming revolution was likely to be a national movement at first, and they called for “united action” on the part of civilized countries to crush the counterrevolutionary forces. As the countries gained force, they would be prepared to join together in an international organization. Marx and Engels’s predictions of coming revolution proved partly true. During the same year that their manifesto was published, working men staged revolts in countries throughout Europe.
On February 22, 1848, French students and laborers began demonstrating in Paris. Their actions prompted other such revolutions
After 1848, Marx spent most of his time clarifying his theories on capitalism. In 1867, he again collaborated with Engels in writing Das Kapital
Marx saw society not in religious or metaphysical terms but realistically. The world was a place that humankind could improve. He devoted his life to putting his thoughts and philosophies onto paper, but his writing never earned him enough money to live on easily. Most of the time he and his family lived in relative poverty and had to rely on the generosity of others, especially Engels, a successful textile manufacturer, to support them.
In 1864, the first communist party was formed as the International Working Men’s Association
Meanwhile, The Communist Manifesto appeared to lose much of its importance until the Paris Commune
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Bender, Frederic L., ed. Karl Marx: “The Communist Manifesto.” New York: W. W. Norton, 1988. Concise edition of The Communist Manifesto includes the various prefaces and complete text of the manifesto and offers interpretive accounts of the work by historians. -
Carver, Terrell. Engels: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Concise overview of Engels’s life and thought that explores the roots of Engels’s materialistic interpretation of history and explains how that interpretation influenced Marxist theory and practice. -
Lee, Wendy Lynn. On Marx. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001. Brief overview of Marx’s philosophy for students. Covers Marx’s thoughts on human nature, labor and alienation, dialectics, and other subjects. -
Rockmore, Tom. Marx After Marxism: The Philosophy of Karl Marx. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002. Attempt to interpret Marx’s philosophy from an apolitical perspective, without the ideology that dominated many previous analyses. -
Schmitt, Richard. Introduction to Marx and Engels: A Critical Reconstruction. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987. Broad study of the philosophies of the authors of The Communist Manifesto. -
Steger, Manfred B., and Terrell Carver, eds. Engels After Marx. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. Collection of essays examining Engels’s legacy after the death of Marx and after the decline of Marxism. Essayists define the significance of Engels’s contributions to philosophy, science, political economy, history, and socialist politics. -
Struik, Dirk J., ed. Birth of “The Communist Manifesto.” New York: International Publishers, 1971. In addition to the prefaces and full text of the manifesto, the book provides a good view into the work’s historical significance. -
Wood, Allen W. Karl Marx. 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2004. New edition of an extended essay that explores Marx’s ideas from a philosophical perspective.
Hegel Publishes The Phenomenology of Spirit
Ricardo Identifies Seven Key Economic Principles
Schopenhauer Publishes The World as Will and Idea
Young Germany Movement
Blanc Publishes The Organization of Labour
Prussian Revolution of 1848
First International Is Founded
Marx Publishes Das Kapital
Bakunin Founds the Social Democratic Alliance
Fabian Society Is Founded
Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party Is Formed
Mikhail Bakunin; Friedrich Engels; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; Ferdinand Lassalle; Karl Marx.