How Much Do You Know About Karl Marx?

Karl Marx: A Summary of His Life and Work

• Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary.

• Marx's most well-known works are The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

• He believed that human societies develop through class conflict, and that the capitalist mode of production creates a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

• Marx predicted that capitalism would eventually self-destruct and be replaced by a socialist mode of production.

• Marx actively pressed for the implementation of socialism, arguing that the working class should carry out organized proletarian revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic emancipation.

• Marx's work has been both lauded and criticised, but he is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science.

• Marx was born to a non-religious Jewish family that had converted to Christianity before his birth.

• His father was a lawyer and a classical liberal who took part in agitation for a constitution and reforms in Prussia.

• Marx studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin and was privately educated by his father until he entered Trier High School.

• Marx became interested in philosophy and the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel while studying at the University of Berlin.

• Marx became a journalist in Cologne in 1842, writing for the radical newspaper Rheinische Zeitung and expressing his early views on socialism and interest in economics.

• Marx moved to Paris in 1843, where he became co-editor of a new radical left-wing Parisian newspaper, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, and met Friedrich Engels, beginning a lifelong friendship.

• Marx engaged in an intensive study of political economy, French socialists, and the history of France during his time in Paris, leading to the development of Marxism.Karl Marx's development of Marxism began in 1844, culminating in The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, which explored the concept of alienated labour. In 1845, Marx wrote the "Theses on Feuerbach," which introduced historical materialism, the argument that the world changes through material activity and practice, not just ideas. Marx emigrated to Brussels, where he wrote The German Ideology, which broke with other philosophies and established materialism as the sole motor force in history. Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which laid out their beliefs, arguing that the working class must unite with progressive elements of the bourgeoisie to bring about governmental reforms before stressing the working-class revolution. Marx moved to London in 1849, where he remained for the rest of his life, and became involved with the socialist German Workers' Educational Society. Marx committed himself to international journalism, and his principal earnings came from his work as a European correspondent for the New-York Daily Tribune.Life and Work of Karl Marx

• Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist.

• Marx wrote for the New York Daily Tribune and was involved in the International Workingmen's Association.

• Marx's most famous work is Das Kapital, which critiques political economy, exploring concepts in historical materialism, class struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat, and victory of the proletariat over the bourgeois state.

• Marx's health was poor, and he suffered from liver and gall problems, insomnia, and carbuncles or boils.

• Marx was married to Jenny von Westphalen, and they had seven children, but only three survived to adulthood.

• Marx frequently used pseudonyms, and his friends referred to him as "Moor".

• Marx's ideas were formative in the development of the theory of economics and historical progression.

• Marx was involved in the struggle against the anarchist wing centred on Mikhail Bakunin.

• Marx and Friedrich Engels co-wrote The Communist Manifesto.

• Marx believed that the driving force of capital is in the exploitation of labor, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value.

• Marx's ideas helped shape the course of communism and socialism in the twentieth century.

• Marx's work continues to have a significant impact on philosophy, economics, history, political science, and sociology.Summary Title: Karl Marx's Life, Death, and Thought

• Karl Marx may have suffered from hidradenitis suppurativa, a skin condition, which was not known to his physicians and could have produced joint pain and painful eye conditions.

• Marx's skin lesions were too persistent, recurrent, destructive, and site-specific for the diagnosis of "furuncles", "boils", and "carbuncles".

• Marx suffered from psychological distress, including loathing and disgust, and depression of self-image, mood, and well-being, which may have affected his work and helped him develop his theory of alienation.

• Marx died a stateless person at age 64, from bronchitis and pleurisy, after his wife Jenny's death.

• Marx was buried in Highgate Cemetery (East), London, on 17 March 1883, with between nine and eleven mourners attending his funeral, including Friedrich Engels, Eleanor Marx, Edward Aveling, Paul Lafargue, Charles Longuet, Helene Demuth, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Gottlieb Lemke, Frederick Lessner, G Lochner, Sir Ray Lankester, Carl Schorlemmer, and Ernest Radford.

• Marx left a personal estate valued for probate at £250, and Engels left Marx's two surviving daughters a "significant portion" of his considerable estate.

• Marx and his family were reburied on a new site nearby in November 1954, with a monument bearing the carved message: "Workers of All Lands Unite".

• Marx's view of history, which came to be called historical materialism, shows the influence of Hegel's claim that one should view reality dialectically.

• Marx criticised utopian socialists, arguing that only a large-scale change in the economic system could bring about real change.

• Marx believed that he could study history and society scientifically, discerning tendencies of history and thereby predicting the outcome of social conflicts.

• Marx's theories inspired several theories and disciplines of the future, including philosophy, social thought, and conflict theory.

• Marx's thoughts on labour and its function in reproducing capital were related to the primacy he gave to social relations in determining the society's past, present, and future.