PDP4 - Communist Manifesto
Author Bios: Karl Marx was a Prussian-born philosopher, journalist, and social reformer. He intensively studied capitalism and had some rather revolutionary ideas about the system. He worked with Friedrich Engels to write and publish the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Friedrich Engels was from Germany, and was also a philosopher and journalist. He founded Marxism with Marx and helped finance some of Marx's work. Both of these men, in the Manifesto, clearly show their bias with how they generalize the conflicts of history and people who support capitalism.
Date/Context: As I stated before, the Manifesto was published in the mid-1800s. What probably most influenced this document was the thriving Industrial Revolution. The Revolution produced more jobs in factories and on farms, as well as more slaves, with more power and money going to the people controlling these workers. In addition, with this being post-Enlightenment, people were more likely to think critically about what they encountered. In this context it seems plausible that people like Marx and Engels would perceive there to be flaws in the system.
Summary: The Manifesto essentially talks about the main ideas and theories of Communism, and the reasoning behind them. The most stressed point is the elimination of private property. Marx and Engels argue that the private property system allowed the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat (the lower working class) and take away their individuality. They point out that, because of this, private property already seems almost nonexistent for the vast majority of the population. They emphasize restoring power and meaning to the proletariat, which meant doing away with the middle class. They also talk about women and how their role in bourgeois society is little more than a means of production. Marx and Engels say that Communism would create a more open, legalized community for women, which would also eliminate prostitution and the like.
Key Quotation: "The immediate aim of the Communists is the...formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat."
Friedrich Engels was from Germany, and was also a philosopher and journalist. He founded Marxism with Marx and helped finance some of Marx's work. Both of these men, in the Manifesto, clearly show their bias with how they generalize the conflicts of history and people who support capitalism.
Date/Context: As I stated before, the Manifesto was published in the mid-1800s. What probably most influenced this document was the thriving Industrial Revolution. The Revolution produced more jobs in factories and on farms, as well as more slaves, with more power and money going to the people controlling these workers. In addition, with this being post-Enlightenment, people were more likely to think critically about what they encountered. In this context it seems plausible that people like Marx and Engels would perceive there to be flaws in the system.
Summary: The Manifesto essentially talks about the main ideas and theories of Communism, and the reasoning behind them. The most stressed point is the elimination of private property. Marx and Engels argue that the private property system allowed the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat (the lower working class) and take away their individuality. They point out that, because of this, private property already seems almost nonexistent for the vast majority of the population. They emphasize restoring power and meaning to the proletariat, which meant doing away with the middle class. They also talk about women and how their role in bourgeois society is little more than a means of production. Marx and Engels say that Communism would create a more open, legalized community for women, which would also eliminate prostitution and the like.
Key Quotation: "The immediate aim of the Communists is the...formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat."
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