The Communist Manifesto with Selections from the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and Capital

by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Samuel H. Beer (Editor)

Edited by Samuel H. Beer, with key selections from Capital and The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, this volume features an especially helpful introduction that serves as a guide to Marxist political and economic theory and to placing the specific writings in their contemporary setting. Included are a bibliography and list of important dates in the life of Karl Marx.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, History, Classics

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1955

About the author

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...

Reviews

[Megan]

I’m not sure that I’m prepared to “rate” the Communist Manifesto. I’m not even sure how I would do that. On grounds of writerly ability? Craft? Theory? Level of agreement? Historical value? General enjoyment?

At the end of the day, I agree and disagree with much written here. But I think it’s an important read and definitely puts pressure on the perspectives of its readers. Definitely worth the read, particularly for politically-, philosophically-, historically-, or economically-minded readers.

(Random added thought: I also thought the introduction was a helpful breakdown, but it’s VERY anti-communist and quite outspoken about it. If you’re going to have a deeply opinionated intro to a book, I prefer the book to name an attributed author. Otherwise, it’s just posed as too much of an “objective” critique rather than being clearly attributed to the perspectives of a person or persons.)

[P · Rating 2 out of 5]

My two stars are partly due to this being an audiobook, when frankly the topic requires (for me) the ability to cogitate and re-read different parts in order to fully understand Marx/Engel's abstruse thinking. Also, this particular edition includes many excerpts of both Marx and Engel's writings from Das Capital, and w/o having a written copy before me it was difficult to distinguish between what was from the Manifesto and, on the other hand, from Das Capital.

My goal was to reacquaint myself with the Manifesto, which I had originally read several years ago. I recall at the time being struck by the delusional conclusions that Marx/Engels put forth, a revolution that would lead to an inexorable proletarian (communist) utopia, wherein "evil ... is independent of human will and can only be abolished when ... the laws of history bring into existence the perfect human community where the free development of each is the free development of all." Fat chance.

My goal unfulfilled, I'll have to dig up a hard copy now. My only wish would be that all these naive
Millennials would read for themselves what they think they wish for. Going to the actual source, instead of allowing themselves to be indoctrinated would, I'm sure, be jaw-dropping to many.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

First for the introduction - the author is explicitly anti-Communist, and yet DESPITE that I think the introduction is very good. The author explains that their purpose is that it is important to understand the worldviews and positions of other people, especially those with whom you disagree. I respect that principle and I think the author is clear and fair as they explain the basics of Marxism.

The Communist Manifesto is of course brilliant and clear - which makes sense, since this was intended to be read by ordinary working class people. Everyone knows about this so I will say no more except READ IT - you will not regret it. I read this twice just because the writing was so good and the analysis so insightful.

The 18th Brumaire was a little hard for me to grasp at first because I know nothing about 19th century French history between 1821 and 1871, so I read this twice. I would recommend that you check out Wikipedia first to get some background info. That being said, once I understood the context I thought Marx's analysis was very insightful, especially because he was applying his Communist analysis to a particular real-life situation.

The selections from Capital were the most challenging even though I read them twice in a row. This combines abstract economic theory with paragraph-length explanations of mathematical formulae. I have an abridged version of Capital, and I am slightly dreading it based on this - I wish the 19th century used more algebraic formulas and graphs! I didn't understand half of it, but the half I did get made sense - sort of - to me.

Overall, I highly recommend.

[Mathona Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regardless of your political persuasions, many things discussed, ring true to this day. We still have an unfair, distribution of wealth and the rich and educated citizens, still get to decide matters of state and are in other positions of power. The authors also make good points about the differences, in culture, between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In an ideal society, the workers would earn more money, simply because they provide the actual labour on the front lines but it is the company owners and bosses that, earn the most from company profits. Another interesting point made was, when people express horror at the Communist idea of taking private property away from people, they argue that, it is only the 1 % who own the vast majority of it anyway because the other 99 % are essentially, landless peasants. All in all, it is an interesting read that doesn't just push Communism but rather, discusses various elements in society such as the family, religion, the role of women and children in it etc. If you are too tired to read it, just go to Librivox, where Jon Ingram does a superb job at narrating it. Naturally, I'd heard about Karl Marx and Engels but for years, I've wanted to read this and especially after one of my college subjects was sociology. The narration is only 1 hr 36 minutes long, so if you have some time to wile away, why not go and listen to it!

[Richard Wylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was actually a re-read with my original highlighter marks in place. This goes back to an era where university professors demanded an understanding of both sides of an argument. An archaic concept, it now seems. The two stars are exclusively for its surprisingly broad and long-lasting influence, and clearly ignores the worldwide “excess mortality” suffered as a result of the pseudo-religious zeal of the manifesto’s proponents. The initial 1848 delineation of “oppressor/oppressed” in simplistic black and white terms clearly resonates during today’s ongoing Oppression Olympics. Far better analysts than I have revealed the internal inconsistencies, misunderstandings of incentives, and the requirement to suppress individual rights contained within. Marx’s well know disdain for data and facts also resonates today. Still it is never a mistake to go back to source documents for a refresher.

[Ciaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you hear something is bad in a moral sense for a good chunk of your childhood, there's a part of you that wants to check it out even more. So it was for me with The Communist Manifesto. Having read it? It's not nearly as bad as I was led to believe. In fact, a lot of what Marx and Engels write about here hasn't changed. Hell, the excerpts from chapter 25 of Capital regarding the replacement of skilled workers with less experienced laborers are literally happening at most software companies right now.

That said, it's very dry. For such a comparatively short piece of literature, it took a while to work through. I'm glad I did though, I feel like I understand a few things about myself better than before and I'll be parsing what I've read.

We have nothing to lose but our chains. Workers of the world, unite!

[Darryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the dogma for the cult that murdered 100,000,000+ people over the last century. It's badly written (although it does contain a few zingers here and there). It contradicts itself frequently. The key of the book is in the final paragraph, without any historical, scientific, political, or economic evidence anywhere in the book to support its claims: "They [Communists] openly declare that their ends can by attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." I hope people read this and see it for what it is.

[Clément Labry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirant ...

[Andres · Rating 5 out of 5]

A staple to communist/activist interests. Also read Lenin & other works by Marx/Engels

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great historical text I love going back and listening to these historical texts.

[Dan Tibbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition has a very solid introduction that goes in-depth into the context of Marx's writing and philosophy.

[Amber Hardisty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the Communist Manifesto, great political and historical importance, but also just a rant. My yearly read for A Level Politics ticked though.

[Logan Quiring · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short sighted.