Memorable Quotations: Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818–83) was a German social philosopher and revolutionary. With Friedrich Engels, Marx was a founder of modern socialism and communism. The son of a lawyer, he studied law and philosophy. In 1844 he met Engels in Paris, beginning a lifelong alliance. With Engels he wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848) and other works that split with the tradition of appealing to natural rights to justify social reform, evoking instead the laws of history leading predictably to the victory of the working class. Exiled from Europe after the revolutions of 1848, Marx lived in London, making some money as a correspondent for the New York Tribune but reliant on Engels's financial help while working on his epic work Das Kapital (1867–94). With Engels, Marx helped found (1864) the International Workingmen's Association, but his disagreements with the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin ultimately led to its breakup. Several scholars have considered Marx a great economic theoretician and the founder of economic history and sociology.