The Communist Manifesto: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) - Softcover

Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143106260 ISBN 13: 9780143106265

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2011

Synopsis

Marx and Engel's landmark treatise - in a graphic deluxe edition

One of the most important and influential political theories ever formulated, The Communist Manifesto is a revolutionary summons to the working class-an incisive account of a new theory of communism that would be brought about by a proletarian revolution. Arguing that increasing exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a rebellion in which capitalism will be overthrown, Marx and Engels propose a vision of a society without classes, private property, or a state. The theoretical basis of political systems in Russia, China, Cuba, and Eastern Europe, The Communist Manifesto continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

Review:

"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.

From the Inside Flap:

"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism." So begins one of history's most important documents, a work of such magnitude that it has forever changed not only the scope of world politics, but indeed the course of human civilization. The Communist Manifesto was written in Friedrich Engels's clear, striking prose and declared the earth-shaking ideas of Karl Marx. Upon publication in 1848, it quickly became the credo of the poor and oppressed who longed for a society "in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."
The Communist Manifesto contains the seeds of Marx's more comprehensive philosophy, which continues to inspire influential economic, political, social, and literary theories. But the Manifesto is most valuable as an historical document, one that led to the greatest political upheaveals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to the establishment of the Communist governments that until recently ruled half the globe.
This Bantam Classic edition of The Communist Manifesto includes Marx and Engels's historic 1872 and 1882 prefaces, and Engels's notes and prefaces to the 1883 and 1888 editions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0143106260
• ISBN 13: 9780143106265
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112
• Illustrator: Killoffer