The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto, written in 1847-48, was at first printing an obscure pamphlet penned by and for marginal German émigré radicals. This small pamphlet has since become by far the most influential single piece of political writing since the French Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It hit the streets only a week before the outbreak of the revolutions of 1848, which spread from Paris across the continent of Europe. In its 165-plus years it has been translated into scores of languages and hundreds of editions, becoming the second best-selling book of all time. New readers will note the passionate conviction, brevity, the intellectual and stylistic force, of this astonishing pamphlet. Some of the phrases of the standard 1888 Samuel Moore English translation have become iconic. *"A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of communism." *"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." *"All that is solid melts into air." ''Working men of all countries, unite!" *"The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." This edition contains a Foreword by historian Stephen J. Mills, the Preface to the 1988 edition written by Frederick Engels, and the 1937 centenary Introduction by Leon Trotsky. The Communist Manifesto is a must addition to the bookshelf of any serious student of political philosophy.