Books By Karl Marx, Martin E. Malia, Friedrich Engels, Stephen Kotkin - Author

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier to a German Jewish family that had converted to Christianity. As a student he was influenced by Hegel's dialectical philosophy but later reacted against his mentor's idealism and turned instead to the then new socialist movement. The Communist Manifesto (utilizing drafts by his friend Friedrich Engels) was written in a creative burst in Brussels for a German emigré society, the Communist League. After taking part in the failed revolutions of 1848, Marx fled to London, where he and his family lived in poverty alleviated only by Engels' financial help. For some years, Marx was a London correspondent for a New York newspaper. He spent most of his time, however, researching in the British Museum to document his theories of class struggle and the "internal contradictions" undermining capitalism. His works include: The Poverty of Philosophy, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The German Ideology, and A Contribution to the Critiqu