Outdated. | The Communist Manifesto | Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

Fantastic | The Communist Manifesto | Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

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	• The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels CreateSpace, 2010 - 70 pages average customer review:based on 293 reviews view larger image
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Just What I Expected

With the things going on in our coutry today everyone should read the Manifesto. No one can deny its influence on centuries of political and econonmic thought and everyone should be familiar with its precepts. With that said, as I read it the thought that kept coming to my mind was what happens after the revolution? It's very general and is meant to be so as even in the 1800's there were many Socialist sects with their own individual needs which communism was attempting to unite. However, a lot of the logic didn't follow for me. For example,

"When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby transformed into social property. It is only the social character of the property that is changed. It loses its class character."

These ideas and many others along this same line make me question how viable communist ideas are in the real world. And the most telling of all was the introduction to this edition and the notes from Friedrich Engels. The preface to this edition was written in 1888 and Engels admits that some of his suppositions about history are wrong and that some applications of his principles have been unsucessful. However, the excuse as always is they (whatever socialist group) didn't do it right.

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Outdated.

This review is for The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition.

The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, is from the start an outdated work. The principles and ideas presented are either concerned with the conditions of the working class in the 19th century, where child labor, the absence of worker's rights and the terrible living and working conditions were a miserable reality for the people of Europe, and with the predictions of Marx that the capitalist system is doomed to fail because of its own contradictions. The Manifesto presents many ideas of Marx, such as the materialistic conception of history, or the criticism of the Utopian socialists and the concept of the class struggle, but does not explain or analyze on them. Therefore, reading the Manifesto to understand Marx's thought is hardly enough, although it is a decent foundation.
The Communism presented in the Manifesto has little to do with the Communism that the world came to know in the 20th century. Therefore, reading the Manifesto to understand political and economic systems such as the Soviet Union and today's Cuba, again, is hardly enough. In this case, you would be interested in reading the works of Lenin, who was the thinker who influenced these political and economic systems.
So, is there any significance left in the Communist Manifesto? Certainly, its historical significance cannot be denied. In addition, it offers an alternative perspective and will make the reader agree, or disagree, but above all think for him/herself. It is however, a difficult read, with outdated terminology and passionate language which could also be described as propaganda.

Read the Manifesto, understand it, but also criticize it.

The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition is an excellent edition of the work of Marx and Engels. I give this work 5 stars, for the great edition of a historically significant text.

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Fantastic

Best book I have ever read. Marx and Engels lay bare the historical development of capitalism and with it, its grave-digger... the modern proletariat. WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS!!!

The complete The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the 1888 English version edited by Engels himself. One of the most influential political treatises of all time, The Communist Manifesto is essential reading for every student of politics and history.