Context
In 1847, a group of radical workers called the "Communist League" met in London.
They commissioned Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who had recently become
members, to write a manifesto on their behalf, soon known as the Communist
Manifesto. Marx was the principle author, with Engels editing and assisting.
The Communist Manifesto was originally published in London in 1848. Of all the
documents of modern socialism, it is the most widely read and the most
influential. It is the systematic statement of the philosophy that has come to
be known as Marxism.
Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher, economist and sociologist, as well as
a political revolutionary. He met Engels (1820-1895) when he moved to Paris
after 1843, and they worked together on several essays. Marx and Engels are
best known for their revolutionary writings about Communism. One of Marx's
primary intellectual influences was the work of G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel's theory
presents history as a process in which the world becomes conscious of itself as
spirit. Marx took this idea and furthered it, arguing that as man becomes
conscious of himself as spirit, the material world causes him to feel
increasingly alienated from himself. Escape from this alienation requires a
revolution.
Marx and Engels were not simply content with theorizing about revolution in the
abstract, however. They thought that theory was only useful insofar as it
promotes social change, clarifying the proper means and ends of revolution; they
were thus not only authors, but activists, and believed that by theorizing they
were actively influencing history. The Communist Manifesto can be understood as
one attempt to influence history by spreading information about the communist
movement.
Marx's theory should be understood in the context of the hardships suffered by
19th-century workers in England, France and Germany. The Industrial Revolution
of the 18th and 19th centuries created a seemingly permanent underclass of
workers, many of whom lived in poverty under terrible working conditions and
with little political representation. The Communist Manifesto was written on
the eve of the Revolution of 1848 in Germany. The failure of this worker and
student-led revolution caused Marx to later revise some of the arguments and
predictions that appear in the Communist Manifesto. However, the general
structure of Marx's original arguments, as well as its revolutionary tone,
remained unchanged.
