The Communist Manifesto: words that changed the world (The Manifesto Series)

From the final decades of the eighteenth century to the present day, a relatively few social and political documents have been written and circulated, then have gone on to change the course of human history. The Manifesto Series surveys some of those documents, presents an account of each manifesto's immediate impact, then explains how and why its influence spread to a wider audience. Brief and concisely written, each title in this series makes engrossing reading and provides readers with insights into the dynamics of modern history. Each title in this series is enhanced with approximately 70 color illustrations. In 1848, The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, proclaimed: "Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains." Thus began a worldwide social sea-change marked by protests and revolutions. The Communist Manifesto presented in its entirety in this book and supplemented with extensive commentary and analysis, brought about many needed social and economic reforms while also fomenting political abuses of historic proportions. The most infamous of the latter was the Soviet dictatorship that dominated Russia in the name of communism throughout most of the twentieth century. The document's full text is included in this book.