English_102

Kathleen Ahlgrim HST 142-001 March 15, 2010 Communist Manifesto 1. Two things gave the manifesto its force: first its vision and second its recognition of the necessary long term historical tendencies of capitalist development. 2. Karl Marx (1818-1883) Born in Trier, Prussia, Marx was a German philosopher, economist and sociologist. Marx was the principle author of the Communist Manifesto and also his ideas created the foundation of modern communism. Frederick Engels (1820-1895) Born in Barmen, Prussia, Engels was social scientist, author, political theorist and philosopher. Engels edited and assisted Marx on the Communist Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto was written in 1847 as a commissioned piece on the behalf of a group of radical workers call the “Communist League”, who met in London. The content was meant to spread information about the communist movement. It was a piece written for a particular moment in history, but became less useful because of the change in language and the historical point of which is written. 3. 3. Bourgeoisie is the upper middle class of society. They also tended to be the business owners. “the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possess, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms”. (pg 35) the bourgeoisie historically played a most revolutionary part. (pg37) Proletariats were the workers; The Industrial Revolution created a group of workers who were living in poverty and under terrible working conditions. They had little or no political representation. ‘Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class’ (pg 21) ‘it is coming into being in Germany only as a result of the rising industrial development’ (pg 23) 4. 5. New methods of production diminishes the worth of handicraft because of the new means of production (44) The bourgeoiese unfit any longer to b a ruling class because incompetent to assure existence to it slave ( 50) 6. Communism is already acknowledge by all European powers to be itself a power ( pg33)