1 h 17 minAudiobook3 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesAbout this book
What if the system that creates wealth also creates the forces that challenge it?
In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels place class struggle at the centre of history. Writing for the Communist League, they set out an argument about owners and wage earners: how modern society takes shape, why it divides people, and why workers may organise against those who rule.
This 1848 pamphlet is part history, part argument, part battle cry. Marx and Engels praise capitalism’s power to transform society while arguing that it prepares its own downfall. They explain what communists want, answer objections, and challenge rival socialists. Read it to encounter their claims directly, rather than through what others say about them.
What you’ll discover
- History through class struggle Explore Bourgeois and Proletarians, where conflict between classes becomes the authors’ key to understanding society.
- Capitalism’s power and tensions Follow an argument that admires capitalism’s force while questioning how long its order can last.
- Workers as a political force See why Marx and Engels argue that growing industry creates opponents among its wage earners.
- The aims of communists Read Proletarians and Communists for the authors’ proposals and their answers to critics.
- Socialists in sharp disagreement Discover why the authors reject rival socialisms, including nobles’ longing for their lost power.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A pamphlet written for a secret league
- All history is a history of class struggle
- Capitalism is both mighty and unstable
- Workers will organise and challenge their rulers
- What communists want and how they answer critics
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The Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels · 1848
Marx and Engels confront capitalism with a call for workers of the world to unite.
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In short
A spectre is haunting Europe, and its name is communism. With that startling line, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels open a pamphlet of a few dozen pages, published in London in February 1848.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A pamphlet written for a secret league
The Manifesto begins as a task given to two men in their twenties. Marx is a German journalist and philosopher. Engels is the son of a textile manufacturer who has seen English factories up close.
The Communist League asks them to write its programme. Marx writes the final text, and both men sign it. It appears just as revolutions break out across Europe, though it does not cause them.
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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.
The author
Karl Marx
1818–1883 · German philosopher and political economist
Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818 and died in London in 1883. He lived in Paris, Brussels, and London. He wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte in 1852, and A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859.
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