Karl Marx

Recommended Beginner Works

1848: Manifesto Of The Communist Party — The Communist Manifesto, originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party, is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
1867: Capital, Chapter One — Das Kapital, also known as Capital: A Critique of Political Economy or sometimes simply Capital, is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, critique of political economy and politics by Karl Marx. The full text is not available online, but the first chapter serves as a good introduction to material.
1845: The German Ideology, Chapter One — Chapter One of The German Ideology is an exposition of Marx’s materialist conception of history.

Das Kapital

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was born in Trier, Prussia (now Germany), in 1818 and died in London, England, in 1883.

He was best known for his contributions to the theory of communism, which he developed with Friedrich Engels. He believed that capitalism, which is based on the exploitation of the working class, would inevitably lead to its own downfall and be replaced by socialism, a classless society in which the means of production would be owned and controlled by the community as a whole.

Marx's ideas have had a significant influence on political thought and the development of socialist and communist movements worldwide.