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"Karl Marx" by John Jabez Edwin Mayall is in the public domain.

The Rise and Fall of Karl MarxBy Mike Kubic

2016

Mike Kubic is a former correspondent for Newsweek Magazine. In this informational text, Kubic discussesthe life and contributions of Karl Marx, a German philosopher, economist, and revolutionary socialist.Marx’s theories regarding society, economics, and politics became known as “Marxism,” and continue to beinfluential today. As you read, take note of how Karl Marx’s beliefs compare to his actions.

Karl Marx was one the most fascinating men youcould meet in the 19th Century. Born in 1818 toan affluent1 family, he was the grandson andgreat-grandson of German rabbis, and an atheist2

who despised the Jews.

He was an angry adversary and scathing3 critic ofthe bourgeoisie,4 but he lived the life of a modelbourgeois: he married a German baroness5 and –according to Karl Marx, his biography by JonathanSperber – “was patriarchal, prudish, industrious,independent (or trying to be), cultured, (and)respectable.”

Marx pretended to be a dignified, devotedhusband and father to seven children, butsecretly had a son with the family’s housekeeper.To keep up appearances while being perpetually6

in debt, he pleaded for loans from affluentrelatives and friends with such persistence thathe antagonized not only Friedrich Engels, hisfinancial supporter and close collaborator, buteven his own mother, who eventually refused togive her “Karell” a penny until she died.

Marx was combative and arrogant, and his letterswere full of anti-Semitic7 slurs, nasty remarks about fellow socialists8 and comments deprecating9 – asunintelligent and uncultured – the very factory workers whose political and economic demands he wasadvancing. But he had one quality that made all of his failings look petty:

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1. Affluent (adjective): having a great deal of money; wealthy2. Atheist (noun): a person who believes that God does not exist3. Scathing (adjective): severely critical4. the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialist values5. a woman who is a member of foreign nobility6. Perpetual (adjective): happening all the time or very often7. “Anti-Semitic” refers to hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews.8. A “Socialist” is someone who supports the social system or theory in which the government owns and controls the

means of production and distribution of goods.

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He was a brilliant economist, philosopher and social scientist whose profound insights and prolific10

writings made him one of the most influential thinkers in human history.

A rebel at heart, Marx first won prominence among Young Hegelians, his leftist, freethinking, andatheistic fellow students at the University of Bonn, and their allies, the early trade unions of Germanindustrial workers.

As a 24 year-old editor and writer of regional newspapers, he argued for the freedom of the press, fairtreatment of labor, and against government oppression. Marx did it with such vehemence,11 sarcasmand persuasiveness that the German security police had him down as a “dangerous revolutionary”whose writing required special attention.

In 1847, Marx added to police suspicion by joining Engels, a German philosopher and journalist, inorganizing his Hegelian supporters and factory workers into a group called the Communist12 League. Itwas the first Marxist political party, and Marx was elected its president.

The same year, Marx and Engels wrote (and delivered two weeks after the deadline, as was Marx’unbreakable habit) a 23-page pamphlet titled the Communist Manifesto that informed the world that“a specter13 is haunting Europe—the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe haveentered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter.”

Later recognized as one of world’s most influential political manuscripts, the Manifesto declared that“the history of all hitherto14 existing society is the history of class struggles” in which the bourgeoisie –the entrepreneurs and an educated middle class – have emerged as the supreme class, primarily byexploiting the proletariat – the workers – and accumulating capital.

The Manifesto went on to predict that in doing so, the bourgeoisie “produces its own grave-diggers,”because the proletariat inevitably will become conscious of their own potential. The workers then willrise to power through revolution, and overthrow the bourgeoisie.

The pamphlet, whose original German language version Sperber described as “compact, pithy,15

elegant, powerful and sarcastically amusing,” denounced the “idiocy of rural life,” expressed disdain for“lumpenproletariat” (the underclass of criminals and vagrants),16 and outlined a ten-point program forthe future communist government.

Surprisingly – considering Marx’s pugnacious17 attacks on the authorities – the Manifesto showed totalfaith in the competence and integrity of the proposed Communist regime, and made it practically all-powerful. It called for ten principal measures:

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9. Deprecate (verb): to express disapproval of10. Prolific (adjective): marked by abundant inventiveness or productivity11. Vehemence (noun): the display of strong feeling; passion12. “Communism” is a political theory that advocates for class war and leading to a society in which all property is

publicly owned.13. a ghost14. “Hitherto” means “until now or until the point in time under discussion.”15. Pithy (adjective): concise and forcefully expressive16. Vagrant (noun): a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by

begging17. Pugnacious (adjective): eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight

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1. Abolition of privately owned land

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state

8. Equal obligation of all to work

9. Gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distributionof the population over the country

10. Free education for all children in government schools and abolition of children's factory labor

In retrospect,18 the Manifesto included two astonishing planks19 – the confiscation of the property ofemigrants and rebels (two groups to which Marx belonged his entire adult life), and the downgradingof the abolition of child labor, a demand that has been at or near the top of the agenda of most (if notall) socialist parties.

A country whose citizens are told where they may live, are heavily taxed, and must obey numerousgovernment restrictions and orders would not be a country where Marx, Engels and the YoungHegelians were likely to want to live.

But published as it was in 1848, when Europe’s political atmosphere was overheated from attemptedoverthrows of Italian, French, German, and Austro-Hungarian monarchies, the Manifesto’s daring,“scientifically proven” forecast of a proletarian triumph had the force of an explosion. It made thepamphlet a 19th Century best-seller.

The Manifesto first came out only in the German, Polish, and Danish languages, but within a few yearsit was translated into all European – and eventually, all major Asian – languages and was avidly read allover the world.

By the end of the 1800s, it had inspired in (mostly Eastern and Central) Europe the founding ofnineteen socialist and labor parties and national labor federations that had millions of members andsupporters. Following the Russian Revolution in October 1918, the Manifesto was printed in scores oflanguages and millions of copies, and became the guiding document of the Soviet Union’s 15 “socialist”republics, Communist China, and – during the Cold War – it was a required reading for all Communistfunctionaries20 in Moscow’s sphere of influence.

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18. Retrospect (noun): a survey or review of past course of events or period of time19. a fundamental point of a political, or other, program20. a person who works for a government or political party

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Marx After the Manifesto

Marx didn’t fare nearly as well. The first copy of the Manifesto was barely off the press when the secretpolice showed up in his home to inform him that he had lost his citizenship and was being expelledfrom Germany. At the age of 30, Marx became a homeless exile searching for a country that wouldtolerate his revolutionary views.

He had three main goals, which he pursued for the rest of his life by penning innumerable newspaperarticles and serious scientific studies: organizing European workers for “class struggle”; opposing theauthoritarian21 regime of William II;22 and advocating Communist revolution in Russia.

The French and Belgian governments didn’t agree with his agenda and expelled him from bothcountries before he found a permanent home for himself and his family in the more permissive andliberal England. Based in London, Marx got his first steady job when he was hired by the greatAmerican editor Charles Dana as the European correspondent of The New York Herald. The pay checkskept his large family from going hungry until the start of the American Civil War.

But when Dana had let him go to save money for the war coverage, Marx and his household wereutterly without income. At the age of 57, he depended on small handouts from Engels, who by themwas a well-paid partner in a British textile manufacturing firm.

It was during the early 1860s that Marx, who by then suffered from painful and untreatable fist-sizeboils, spent weeks in the London public library engrossed in the colossal research for Capital, his majorwork in which he sought to provide the intellectual, historical and scientific foundation of Marxism.

His unpublished draft of the first of the eventual three volumes ran 800 hand-written pages; includedthe history of the world’s economic thought; and developed Marx’s central concept of politicaleconomy: the theory of “surplus value.” ;

A shorthand for the excess of value produced by the labor of workers over the wages they are paid, thepioneering idea was interpreted and enlarged by Marx to make two key points: it was the basis fordiagnosing as “inevitable” the collapse of capitalism,23 and for positing24 the establishment of aperfectly just society where everyone would be equal and work would cease to be a burden.

In Sperber’s summing up of Marx’s lengthy, arcane,25 and jargon26-filled explanation of his economicprognosis, “[o]nly in this later phase of communism, when [according to Marx] ‘labor is not just ameans of life, but the first necessity of life,’ … could ‘society write in its flag: from each according to hisabilities, to each according to his needs!’” ;

Marx, needless to add, never got to see such a flag.

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21. Authoritarian (adjective): favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government22. William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and Kingdom of Prussia.23. “Capitalism” is an economic and political system in which a country’ trade and industry are controlled by private

owners for profit, rather than by the state.24. Posit (verb): to suggest something, such as an idea or theory25. Arcane (adjective): understood by few26. Jargon (noun): special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult or

others to understand

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© 2016. The Rise and Fall of Karl Marx by CommonLit is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Thanks to his mother’s substantial inheritance, which he made sure to receive (despite the third plankof The Communist Manifesto) after her death in 1863, he and his family moved into a posh27 residencein London. He lived for another 20 years trying to finish the last volume of his Capital but failed, and itwas up to Engels to complete the trilogy from Marx’s notes. The entire work was published in 1894.

Except for die-hard Communist ideologues,28 Marxism never won wide following among Westerneconomists, and in the eyes of its detractors it had no credibility. One of Marx’s critics was JohnMaynard Keynes, a foremost British economist, who in 1925 marveled “how a doctrine so illogical anddull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men, and, throughthem, the events of history?”

Another was Austrian-born American Joseph Alois Schumpeter, one of the most influential economistsof the last century, who pronounced Marxism as “essentially the product of the bourgeois mind,”shrugged it off as “a religion,” and warned that “He who places his trust in the Marxian synthesis… isapt to be woefully wrong.”

Schumpeter’s warning was confirmed by none other than Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of theSoviet Union and secretary general of the Communist Party.

In December 1988, he came to the United Nations to announce, in effect, that Marxism did not work,and he was launching “radical” reforms to bring the Soviet economic and political system in harmonywith the rest of the world. ;

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27. Posh (adjective): elegant or stylishly luxurious28. a person who enthusiastically advocates an ideology or set of beliefs

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Text-Dependent QuestionsDirections: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. PART A: Which statement identifies a central idea of the text?A. Karl Marx was a passionate economist and philosopher who practiced what he

preached.B. Despite the strong beliefs outlined in his writing, Karl Marx often contradicted

these values in his daily life.C. Karl Marx’s political beliefs and strategies were considered radical, but were

successful when put into practice.D. Karl Marx received widespread fame and riches from his publication of “The

Communist Manifesto.”

2. A. “He was a brilliant economist, philosopher and social scientist whoseprofound insights and prolific writings made him one of the most influentialthinkers in human history.” (Paragraph 5)

B. “As a 24 year-old editor and writer of regional newspapers, he argued for thefreedom of the press, fair treatment of labor, and against governmentoppression.” (Paragraph 7)

C. “By the end of the 1800s, it had inspired in (mostly Eastern and Central) Europethe founding of nineteen socialist and labor parties and national laborfederations that had millions of members and supporters.” (Paragraph 18)

D. “Thanks to his mother’s substantial inheritance, which he made sure to receive(despite the third plank of The Communist Manifesto) after her death in 1863,he and his family moved into a posh residence in London.” (Paragraph 28)

3. PART A: What is the meaning of “surplus” in paragraph 24?A. unexpected outcomeB. what one makesC. more than what’s neededD. Intellectual capacity

4. PART B: Which quote from paragraph 25 best supports the answer to Part A?A. “the excess of value produced”B. “the wages they are paid,”C. “the pioneering idea”D. “the collapse of capitalism,”

5. PART A: How did Karl Marx’s life change after he published “The CommunistManifesto”?

A. He made a fortune.B. He was rejected by many for his views.C. He became less outspoken.D. He grew more passionate about his beliefs.

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6. PART B: Which section from the text best supports the answer to Part A?A. “Marx became a homeless exile searching for a country that would tolerate his

revolutionary views.” (Paragraph 19)B. “He had three main goals, which he pursued for the rest of his life by penning

innumerable newspaper articles and serious scientific studies” (Paragraph 20)C. “The pay checks kept his large family from going hungry until the start of the

American Civil War.” (Paragraph 21)D. “the establishment of a perfectly just society where everyone would be equal

and work would cease to be a burden.” (Paragraph 25)

7. How does paragraph 18 contribute to the development of ideas in the text?

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Discussion QuestionsDirections: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared toshare your original ideas in a class discussion.

1. Are there any aspects of communism that you agree with or think would be beneficial toour economic system? If so, what are they?

2. In your opinion, why did communism fail in the Soviet Union? Do you think it is possible forcommunism to be a successful economic structure?

3. In the context of the text, what is fair? Karl Marx attempted to balance the distribution ofgoods and wealth by placing most of it in the control of the state. Do you agree with this?Why or why not? Cite evidence from this text, your own experience, and other literature,art, or history in your answer.

4. “The Communist Manifesto” included ten principal measures. Which of these measures doyou agree with? Which do you disagree with? Why?

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