Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels – The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Political – 260 pages – my copy (Penguin Classics paperback; 2002) bought for £5.99 from Drake’s Circus Waterstones, Plymouth
- 5 nods out of 5 -
‘A spectre is haunting Europe’… so begins The Communist Manifesto. And not just Europe, but the world all over throughout the twentieth century, Communism was a domineering presence. At one point, in the 1950s, it appeared Soviet Russia was to overtake the USA and become the world’s only superpower. The origins of this assault upon capitalism can be traced back to Marx and Engels’ combined work.
Written whilst the 1848 European revolutions were breaking out, the Manifesto was the initial key guide for Marxist understanding: for years it became the centrepiece in Soviet classrooms. Its final words were repeated, chanted and believed: ‘Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE!’ (p.258). But alas, the communist giant of Russia fell twenty years ago; China has metamorphosed into a hybrid capitalist-Marxist state; the Manifesto is no longer gospel, but rather, historical.
This edition – edited as a Penguin Classic – comes with an extended and delightful introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones. The reader is given a run-through of the history of the Manifesto, from its origins through to its inception. Not a blade of grass is missed: from the early Communist writings, the Young Hegelians, the impact of writers such as Adam Smith, including all the prefaces to various editions of the manifesto in the nineteenth century (Preface to the Polish Edition of 1892 anyone?). All of which makes it both comprehensive and welcomed.
The manifesto itself remains a strong seller, used in political, historical and philosophical classrooms. Reading it now, here in the confines of the twenty first century, much of what was promised is clearly incorrect. No, Engels was wrong when he believed Marxism was ‘destine to do for history what Darwin’s theory has done for biology’ (p.203); while its radical elements – abolishment of private property and the centralisation of media and communication – is frowned upon by the rise of individual freedoms in the past century.
But despite this, it remains a riveting read. Not just because we now know what came to pass, but because so much it holds common sense: equality between men and women, universal and free education for children, a graduated income tax, as well as the end of national friction and wars. Much of it is voiced in John Lennon’s Imagine: 'Imagine there's no countries…no religion too…’
If the question is open for debate upon all wars being those of class struggles, Marx and Engels were clear upon their critique of capitalism’s consuming desire to conquer all. It remains all the more valid in today’s economic climate, when a realisation is slowly dawning that live on a planet of finite resources and therefore cannot continue expanding. As the socialist duo pointed out, there is an ‘epidemic of overproduction’ (p.226), which will need a revision of our social and economic ties.
The future for Communism looks bleak. But a certainty remains, that Marx and Engels’ thrilling and enlightening read will long continue to sell in far and wide places, from Beijing to San Francisco, from Paris to Cairo; and even Plymouth Waterstones.
Political – 260 pages – my copy (Penguin Classics paperback; 2002) bought for £5.99 from Drake’s Circus Waterstones, Plymouth
- 5 nods out of 5 -
‘A spectre is haunting Europe’… so begins The Communist Manifesto. And not just Europe, but the world all over throughout the twentieth century, Communism was a domineering presence. At one point, in the 1950s, it appeared Soviet Russia was to overtake the USA and become the world’s only superpower. The origins of this assault upon capitalism can be traced back to Marx and Engels’ combined work.
Written whilst the 1848 European revolutions were breaking out, the Manifesto was the initial key guide for Marxist understanding: for years it became the centrepiece in Soviet classrooms. Its final words were repeated, chanted and believed: ‘Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE!’ (p.258). But alas, the communist giant of Russia fell twenty years ago; China has metamorphosed into a hybrid capitalist-Marxist state; the Manifesto is no longer gospel, but rather, historical.
This edition – edited as a Penguin Classic – comes with an extended and delightful introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones. The reader is given a run-through of the history of the Manifesto, from its origins through to its inception. Not a blade of grass is missed: from the early Communist writings, the Young Hegelians, the impact of writers such as Adam Smith, including all the prefaces to various editions of the manifesto in the nineteenth century (Preface to the Polish Edition of 1892 anyone?). All of which makes it both comprehensive and welcomed.
The manifesto itself remains a strong seller, used in political, historical and philosophical classrooms. Reading it now, here in the confines of the twenty first century, much of what was promised is clearly incorrect. No, Engels was wrong when he believed Marxism was ‘destine to do for history what Darwin’s theory has done for biology’ (p.203); while its radical elements – abolishment of private property and the centralisation of media and communication – is frowned upon by the rise of individual freedoms in the past century.
But despite this, it remains a riveting read. Not just because we now know what came to pass, but because so much it holds common sense: equality between men and women, universal and free education for children, a graduated income tax, as well as the end of national friction and wars. Much of it is voiced in John Lennon’s Imagine: 'Imagine there's no countries…no religion too…’
If the question is open for debate upon all wars being those of class struggles, Marx and Engels were clear upon their critique of capitalism’s consuming desire to conquer all. It remains all the more valid in today’s economic climate, when a realisation is slowly dawning that live on a planet of finite resources and therefore cannot continue expanding. As the socialist duo pointed out, there is an ‘epidemic of overproduction’ (p.226), which will need a revision of our social and economic ties.
The future for Communism looks bleak. But a certainty remains, that Marx and Engels’ thrilling and enlightening read will long continue to sell in far and wide places, from Beijing to San Francisco, from Paris to Cairo; and even Plymouth Waterstones.
