The Communist Manifesto [Paperback]

Featuring an extensive, provocative introduction by historian Martin Malia, this authorized English translation of The Communist Manifesto, edited and annotated by Engels, with prefaces to editions published between 1872 and 1888, provides a new opportunity to examine the document that shook the world.

In 1848, two young men published what would become one of the defining documents of modern history,The Communist Manifesto. It rapidly realigned political faultlines all over the world and its aftershock resonates to this day. In the many years since its publication, no other social program has inspired such divisive and violent debate. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world’s first regime to adopt theManifesto’stenets, historians have debated its intent and its impact. In the current era of market democracy in Russia and Eastern Europe, nationalism on every continent, and an ever tightening global economy, does the specter of Communism still haunt the world? Were the seeds of Communism’s ultimate destruction already planted in 1848? Is there anything to be learned from Marx’s envisioned utopia?
 
With an Introduction by Martin Malia
and an Afterword by Stephen Kotkin Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier to a German Jewish family that had converted to Christianity. As a student he was influenced by Hegel’s dialectical philosophy but later reacted against his mentor’s idealism and turned instead to the then new socialist movement.The Communist Manifesto(utilizing drafts by his friend Friedrich Engels) was written in a creative burst in Brussels for a German emigré society, the Communist League. After taking part in the failed revolutions of 1848, Marx fled to London, where he and his family lived in poverty alleviated only by Engels’ financial help. For some years, Marx was a London correspondent for a New YorklĂ