Komünist Manifesto

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