Despite its somewhat infamous reputation, The Communist Manifesto has fairly mundane origins. The result of a group of working-class parties who formed the Communist League, the Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels as a statement of the group's overall principles. Since its publication in 1848, the Manifesto has outlived its initial purpose and continues to be a rousing call to action and historical analysis for modern workers.
As a combination of statement of beliefs and a recruitment tool, The Communist Manifesto consists of four parts. In the first two, the authors explain the development of the bourgeois class and explain why communism will benefit the...