ajuanijustus 's review for:

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

4.0

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How do you even review this one? Just a few heads-ups if you're reading this edition (or most commonly available editions): Part 1, which is an introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, and the footnotes make up nearly 75% of the book. Sure, I learned a lot from the context they provided, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for what, in my opinion, was (dry) academic writing—not exactly what I enjoy in my spare time. If I were to rate that 75% of the book, I’d give it only 2 stars. But the reason I picked up this book was Part 2—the manifesto itself—which was a solid read, 4 stars, especially the first two chapters. I highly recommend reading the manifesto. It won’t take more than an hour or two, and honestly, in my opinion, you don’t need much more context unless you’re studying it academically or want to dive deeper into philosophy or philosophical history.