A review by whoischels
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

informative slow-paced

4.0

You never really get a lot out of the first read of a primary source text. I imagine I'd have more to say after reading this a second time. This text makes clear to me the historical foundation (as in events) that undergird the ideas of communism, that is, how the philosophers used the revolutionary events in 18th and 19th century Europe to form a lexicon of ways to describe different classes and their struggles. Critiques of specific types of socialism and other left-wing political beliefs were a bit lost on me. I don't have a basic understanding of who the people with these views were or what their application was. That said, this is an important foundational read and I think having read it will better prepare me to read communist texts.