Abstract
Among the numerous works presented in The Marx and Engels reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker, I've decided to focus my study on that which seems to me to be the most influential text in Marx's work, the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The Manifesto was first published in 1848 in London upon solicitation by the Communist League, an association of German workers and immigrants exiled in Great Britain, in Belgium or in France. The Manifesto presents the aspirations of Communism, its position towards Socialism, and other XIXth century parties. The main idea of the Manifesto is that the whole story of humanity is the one of a perpetual class struggle. In the XIXth century, the evolution of the opposition between these the bourgeoisie and the proletariat lead to the eventual awareness among the proletariat of its status as a class and of its undeniable revolutionary potential.
