Summary
Summary of The Communist Manifesto
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A public statement of communist aims
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto after the Communist League asked them for a public statement of its aims. Their pamphlet brings together a story of history, an argument about society and a call to political action. It asks how the modern world came into being, why it is divided by conflict and where it might go next.
At its centre are owners and wage earners, two classes whose relationship shapes the authors’ account of modern life.
Key idea 2
Communists bring their views into public
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Key idea 3
Class conflict drives historical change
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Key idea 4
Capitalism creates power and instability
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Key idea 5
Shared work becomes organised resistance
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Key idea 6
Communism targets ownership built on labour
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Key idea 7
Rival socialisms reveal a central difference
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Key idea 8
Ownership connects work ideas and power
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who want to know what Marx and Engels actually wrote, and for students of politics, history and economics interested in class struggle, capitalism and communist aims.
What this book is
The Communist Manifesto is a pamphlet of a few dozen pages, written in German by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and published in London in February 1848. A small group of working men and exiles, the Communist League, had asked the two young writers for a public statement of their aims. The result is part history, part argument, part battle cry. It claims to explain how modern society came to be, why it is torn by conflict, and where it is heading.
In about fifteen minutes you will hear its main ideas in the order the authors give them. You will meet the two great classes they say divide the modern world, the owners and the wage earners. You will hear why they praise capitalism for its power and also say it prepares its own downfall. You will learn what they mean by communism, how they answer their critics, and how they dismiss rival socialists. Let us begin with the pamphlet's own story, and with the first claim that sets everything else going.
In this summary
- 1A pamphlet written for a secret leagueFree
- 2All history is a history of class struggle
- 3Capitalism is both mighty and unstable
- 4Workers will organise and challenge their rulers
- 5What communists want and how they answer critics
- 6Rival socialists, later history and lasting debate
Key point 1 of 6
A pamphlet written for a secret league
The Manifesto began as a task given to two men in their twenties. Marx, a German journalist and philosopher, and Engels, the son of a German textile manufacturer who had seen English factories at close range, joined the Communist League in 1847. The League was a small society of workers and exiles with branches in several European cities. At a congress in London it asked them to write its programme.
Engels had already drafted a question and answer statement of beliefs, called Principles of Communism. He and Marx agreed that a question and answer form did not suit what they wanted to say. Marx wrote the final text, and the two men put their names to it together. It appeared just as revolutions broke out across Europe in 1848, though the pamphlet did not cause them.
The book opens with an image meant to startle. A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism, and the old powers have joined in a holy hunt to drive it out. Marx and Engels say that communism is already treated as a power by every government that fears it. It is time, they write, for communists to state their views openly and meet this nursery tale of the spectre with a manifesto of the party itself.
The pamphlet is short, fast and written to persuade. It has four sections, covering the two classes, the place of communists among workers, the rival socialist schools, and the attitude of communists to other opposition parties. Its tone is that of an argument in a crowded hall, and that explains much of its force.
That opening sets up the first big claim, which is a claim about all of human history.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Check yourself
What divides modern society into two main classes in the authors’ account?
Right. “On the other stands the proletariat, the class of wage workers who own nothing but their ability to work and must sell it to live.”Not quite. “On the other stands the proletariat, the class of wage workers who own nothing but their ability to work and must sell it to live.”
Why does capitalism create its own opponents, according to Marx and Engels?
Right. “Marx and Engels note that the victories are often brief, and that the real fruit of the struggle lies in the growing union of the workers.”Not quite. “Marx and Engels note that the victories are often brief, and that the real fruit of the struggle lies in the growing union of the workers.”
What kind of property do Marx and Engels want to abolish?
Right. “Marx and Engels make clear they mean bourgeois property, the kind that lets a few live from the labour of many.”Not quite. “Marx and Engels make clear they mean bourgeois property, the kind that lets a few live from the labour of many.”
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 12,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about The Communist Manifesto
What is The Communist Manifesto about?
It argues that history is a story of class conflict, that capitalism has split modern society into owners and wage workers, and that workers will eventually take power and end class divisions. It also sets out communist aims.
When was The Communist Manifesto written and why?
It was written in late 1847 and early 1848 for the Communist League, a small group of workers and exiles. It was first published in London in February 1848, in German.
What is the difference between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat?
In the Manifesto the bourgeoisie are the capitalists who own factories, land and tools. The proletariat are the wage workers who own nothing but their labour and must sell it to live.
Is The Communist Manifesto hard to read?
It is a short pamphlet of a few dozen pages, written with force and in a clear order. You can follow its main ideas in about fifteen minutes, one step after another.
Did Marx and Engels both write the Manifesto?
Both put their names to it. They shared the ideas and Engels had drafted an earlier statement of beliefs, but Marx wrote most of the final text. Later editions carried prefaces by both men.
