The Communist Manifesto / Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels / 1848

The Communist Manifesto / Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels / 1848

I picked up the Penguin edition, which was front loaded with a ton of critical material that was useful to understanding the reception of the text, the history of its ideas, and Marx and Engels as figures. I skipped the last half of these essays, as I wanted to get to the legendary manifesto already, although after listening to the manifesto, I realized the essays would have served me better and proved more informative. While I can appreciate the manifesto, especially as it lays out its principles, and its biting humor about false socialisms and the bourgeoisie, a lot of its key revolutionary ideas I’ve already encountered updated in other texts. I don’t know if I’m ever going to read Das Kapital, but for now, I’m moving onto Lenin and others in my quest to better understand Marxism. 3 out of 5.