German political theorists and co-authors of nineteenth-century socialist and communist writings
About Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were nineteenth-century theorists of capitalism, class struggle, revolution, and historical materialism. Their collaboration joined philosophy, political economy, journalism, and revolutionary organization in a body of work with global consequences.
Frequently Cited
“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles”
The Communist Manifesto presents modern history as the history of class struggle and casts the bourgeoisie as both revolutionary and exploitative. Marx and Engels argue that capitalism has dissolved feudal relations, expanded world markets, concentrated production, remade family and nation, and subjected older loyalties to cash exchange.