The Communist Manifesto

Reading the Manifesto serves as a key to understanding the history of mankind at the turn of the century. A specter haunts Europe: the specter of communism. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle." "All that is solid melts into air." "Let the ruling class tremble before the communist revolution." "The proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains." Written over 150 years ago, the central political text of the modern and contemporary world, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, takes on new dimensions as capitalism takes charge of reimposing the empire of mercantile relations, extending the rule of capital and, with it, class struggle to every corner of the globe.