The Communist Manifesto

By (author) Engels, Friedrich; By (author) Marx, Karl; Edited by Stedman Jones, Gareth
Short description/annotation:
Provides the theoretical basis of political systems in Russia, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe, affecting the lives of millions. This book continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class.
Description:

A rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt today, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels'' The Communist Manifesto is edited with an introduction by Gareth Stedman-Jones in Penguin Classics.

Marx and Engels''s revolutionary summons to the working classes, The Communist Manifesto is one of the most important political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, they produced an incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property or a state, arguing that the exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which Capitalism is overthrown. This vision provided the theoretical basis of political systems in Russia, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe, affecting the lives of millions. The Communist Manifesto still remains a landmark text: a work that continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class.

Gareth Stedman Jones''s extensive and scholarly introduction provides an unique assessment of the place of The Communist Manifesto in history, and its continuing relevance as a depiction of global capitalism. This edition reproduces Samuel Moore''s translation of 1888 and contains a guide to further reading, notes and an index.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, with two further volumes in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), as well as his collaboration with Marx, was the author of The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), based on personal observations and research.

If you enjoyed The Communist Manifesto, you might like Marx''s Capital, also available in Penguin Classics.

''The words of the Communist Manifesto flare like the fiery writing on the wall above the crumbling bastions of capitalist society: socialism or barbarism!''
Rosa Luxemburg

Biographical note:
Gareth Stedman Jones (External Editor)
Gareth Stedman Jones is currently Professor of the History of Ideas at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a Fellow of King''s College, Cambridge and taught at the university for many years, becoming Professor of Political Science in 1997. He is the author of Outcast London, Languages of Class and An End to Poverty? as well as being the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of The Communist Manifesto.


Promotional headline:
The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels''s revolutionary summons to the working classes, changed the face of the twentieth century beyond recognition.
Excerpt:
MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY



A SPECTRE is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

Two things result from this fact.

I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers to be itself a Power.