The Communist Manifesto

Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.The Communist Manifesto is one of the most monumental works in history. It charted the course of the twentieth century and inspired millions to revolution, forming the world as we know it today. Ever since the document’s publication, it has been used as a guide for the oppressed who seeks a fairer society.While being a call to arms, the Manifesto also contains the main themes of Marx’s materialist conception of history which continues to be influential. But most of all, the Manifesto is now a valuable historical document that signifies the political upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth century. This historical document still draws intense debates to this day.This edition of the Manifesto contains two translations of the text. The authorized Samuel Moore translation and the first English translation by Helen Macfarlane. Also included in this volume is Marx’s Address on the Question of Free Trade with an introduction by Engels and Section I of The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."[T]he first great work in which Marx and Engels gave expression to their philosophy of life was the Communist Manifesto, produced at the request of an International Communist Congress held in London in 1847. This work, which is almost unsurpassed in literary merit, gives the main points, with the exception of the theory of surplus value, in Marx’s political and historical creed, without the tedious economico-Hegelian pedantry of Das Kapital. For terse eloquence, for biting wit, and for historical insight, it is, to my mind, one of the best pieces of political literature ever produced."—Bertrand Russell, German Social Democracy