Summary Of Roger Spalding's 'The Communist Manifesto'
The Communist Manifesto
By Roger Spalding, History Review 2000
Roger Spalding introduces one of the most important publications in modern world history.
The Communist Manifesto was a product of the social, economic and political turmoil that characterised Europe before 1850. Both of its authors, Marx and Engels, were touched by elements of this turmoil. Karl Marx, born in 1818, came from the Rhineland, an area occupied by the French during the Napoleonic Wars. During this period the French abolished feudal restrictions, introduced religious toleration and secularised the state. Many, like Marx’s father, benefited from this liberal regime. When, after Napoleon’s defeat, the Rhineland passed under Prussian control, Hirschel Marx, Karl’s father, abandoned Judaism for Christianity to retain the right to practise as a lawyer. Friedrich Engels, born in 1820, came from a family of German industrialists: he had, therefore, first-hand knowledge of the effects of rapid industrialisation. In 1842 Engels moved to Manchester to work at the family cotton mill. This took him to the heart of the world’s first industrial nation.
Origins of the Manifesto …show more content…
The SPD did not formally renounce Marxism until 1959. Even a non-Marxist body like the British Labour Party owes a debt to Marx and Engels. Clause 4 of its 1918 constitution talked about securing ‘for producers by hand or brain the full fruits of their industry … upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production’. [The Labour Party Constitution (The Labour Party, 1918) p.4] This is clearly very close to Marx’s call for Capital to be ‘converted into common property, into the property of all members of society’. [K.Marx and F. Engels op.cit.
By Roger Spalding, History Review 2000
Roger Spalding introduces one of the most important publications in modern world history.
The Communist Manifesto was a product of the social, economic and political turmoil that characterised Europe before 1850. Both of its authors, Marx and Engels, were touched by elements of this turmoil. Karl Marx, born in 1818, came from the Rhineland, an area occupied by the French during the Napoleonic Wars. During this period the French abolished feudal restrictions, introduced religious toleration and secularised the state. Many, like Marx’s father, benefited from this liberal regime. When, after Napoleon’s defeat, the Rhineland passed under Prussian control, Hirschel Marx, Karl’s father, abandoned Judaism for Christianity to retain the right to practise as a lawyer. Friedrich Engels, born in 1820, came from a family of German industrialists: he had, therefore, first-hand knowledge of the effects of rapid industrialisation. In 1842 Engels moved to Manchester to work at the family cotton mill. This took him to the heart of the world’s first industrial nation.
Origins of the Manifesto …show more content…
The SPD did not formally renounce Marxism until 1959. Even a non-Marxist body like the British Labour Party owes a debt to Marx and Engels. Clause 4 of its 1918 constitution talked about securing ‘for producers by hand or brain the full fruits of their industry … upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production’. [The Labour Party Constitution (The Labour Party, 1918) p.4] This is clearly very close to Marx’s call for Capital to be ‘converted into common property, into the property of all members of society’. [K.Marx and F. Engels op.cit.