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Summary: WALL IS OVER!
Review: If you buy these rants because it's required reading at school, welcome to the club: I too had to waste my youth going through this short but oh-so-boring book.However, if you buy it because it's your kind of Holy Gospel, wake up and smell the coffee! The Party's over and no one is complaining!
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Summary: Stalin sucks communism and marx mostly dont(probably)
Review: most people when they hear the word communism instantly think the worst things and then they say it mostly sucks most likely thinking about Stalin (Lenin knew how he was and wanted to get rid of him cuz he knew what he was capable of but he couldnt.Sadly he became the model for everyone else after him), Fidel Castro, or the dude from Laos who also killed a lot of people. It's right to hate those dudes above but before critizing the entire ideology people should read what's written here and see how this has predicted most develompments in ecomomics and power until now and how this stuff is far from gone and worthless as most people will think. If you're an american white and middle class person(you can make more extensions of privilege if you add words like male, and non-gay), well it will be nice if everyone in the world and even in this same country lived like you. Look beyond the stereotype of the cruel, ruthless dictator and your own luck and see how most history has been until now and how much is needed of some kind of system that will somehow control human greed and selfishness as soon as possible. If you are on the other side then please analyse this thing here and try to see how it was applied wrongly and what are its mistakes and then fight for a better world.
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Summary: The Manifesto is a LIVING, adaptable guide...
Review: It is not at all difficult to say that The Communist Manifesto is a flawed document; anything taken out of its historical context can be labled imperfect. Instead of defending our beliefs with tired arguments about the true nature of Russia and China, we Communists should view the Manifesto as a guideline for changing OUR society. The book has absolutely NO VALUE if it is only read and recited! It should motivate, not impede. Of course Communism has flaws- every idea does. My goal, as a Communist, is to learn from past mistakes and avoid repeating them.
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Summary: An explanation, not a rage.
Review: This book was written to explain Communism, not to neccecaeely support it
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Summary: Whether or not you believe in socialism or communism...
Review: Regardless of your political perspective, the Communist Manifesto is a seminal work of political theory. One of the most important documents of the 19th century, this new version presents the historical context in which the Manifesto was written, offering commentary and full annotation. This should certainly be required reading for any scholar of political science/theory.
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Summary: A quick-start guide to what Communism is really about.
Review: Marx and Engels were brilliant men who lived in a time and place not that different from our own. Overrun by commmerce, mid-19th Germany and the millenial United States have much in common: A huge and seemingly inexplicable stratification of rich and poor; A general malaise and widespread social displacement which lead to violence and mental illness; and a progression toward fascist ideologies (particularly racism, nationalism, & militarism) as so-called leaders rise up and claim solutions to our problems. As historians and observers, Marx & Engels knew something many intelligent adults strugggle with today: That the world seems to have always been like this, and that our way of life (government and economy) provides no way out. In a cultish, group-think manner its only proffered solution to any raised objection is merely self-perpetuation. In place of education about its real goals and methods, it offers standardized national platitudes and smoke-and-mirror explanations designed only to further the ignorance of the general populace who must be lulled into cooperation. To improve education, we cut school spending. To decrease violence, we have wars. To help the poor, we give to the rich. If you, like many people, are looking for an explanation of these events -- and a possible way out -- you owe it to yourself to read The Communist Manifesto. A careful reading and discussion with others, both aligned with and opposed to these ideas, will be most helpful in dealing with your own questions. If, on the other hand, you are a steadfast capitalist, you also deserve a reading of the Manifesto, if for no other reason than to know your enemy. The ideas proposed here have been tried and have worked, but you have to look past the propaganda to see the meanings of Marx's words. The Soviets started out with his ideas, but were not able to really implement them. Reading the Manifesto will quickly demonstrate that. One society which was successfully based on Communist ideas (in fact, predating the word) is that of the native Hawaiian population -- a subject also recommend for interested students and detractors of socialism.
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Summary: Deadly Cultural Backslash
Review: This book exposes Marx's ideology, one of the major, influential recent thinkers, next to Darwin and Hitler. His ideology competed with Hitler's national-socialism and with capitalism / liberalism, (all these sharing however in the heritage of Darwinian scientific discoveries). This is why I read Marx' book as much as I read the classics by Darwin of Hitler, or some capitalists. What should I think of the book? Unlike many reviewers who were negative about this book, I don't think I should judge the book according to the mass slaughters that are / were necessary for implementing Marxism, but on the end result. So I will pass on the fact that Marx's followers murdered more than 100 millions innocent civilians (about 20 times more than the 6 millions Jews the nazis may have killed), not speaking of the many war casualities. I will assume it was the price to pay to implement Marxism, if Marxism is a great thing. But is it? In the book I could identify two aims in Marx's ideology: 1. to make sure everyone can consume many material goods, becomes somewhat rich. 2. to make sure that social classes disappear. Now it is very clear that Marxism, in the countries were it was implemented, has lead most of the population to utter poverty and to a lack of consumption goods, including the most basic ones (food, heating, etc.). Second all Marxist countries have lead to higher class contrasts, with those who are not member of the party on one side, and on the other side the nomenklatura, the members, esp. those who are high in the party. (Not to speak of the many other evils of marxism, such as maximum corruption & fraud, utter egoism and lack of responsability, absence of freedom and basic rights, etc.) So it is clear that Marxism fails and that Marx was dead wrong, and that his ideology will disappear, as this has almost happened. Maybe nazism will compete again against capitalism, but marxism won't, as history has proven that it is wrong. In the book, I see at least two things that can explain why marxism is wrong. First, there is Marx's utopic, optimistic, irrealistic view of human nature. He did not realize that we are no angels and that there will always be people who will abuse the system, and even much more in a marxist regime, where there is no individual responsability but only static, bureaucratic organization. Second, Marx understood nothing of economy as is even more evident in his book Capital: a Critic of Political Economy. For example, Marx believed that the value of goods can be fixed objectively, whereas it is determined by subjective factors, such as how much people desire to acquire of get rid of goods, (hence the necessity of a free market, as Austrian scholars Von Mises, Hayek, Kirzner... have shown; see also the books of Reisman on capitalism.) This Communist Manifesto by Marx is important for understanding history, but because it is sooo wrong, I cannot give it more than one star. The question I am still thinking after reading the book, is how will those countries which have been very much ravaged, ruined by Marxism recover? Eastern European countries have been exposed to Marxism for a shorter time, and seem able to recover, but it is not the case about Russia, which has suffered much more from Marxism. This bothers me.
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Summary: The legacy of communism
Review: Marx said that communism would make the world a better place. He couldn't have been farther from the truth. Communism has left a legacy of poverty, high crime rates, unemployment, and horrible environmental damage. Let's not forget the millions of innocent people who were killed directly or indirectly by communist governments.
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Summary: An important work
Review: Regardless of your views on Marxism or capitalism, you should read this book because of the influence it has exerted. It is one of the clearest written works by Marx, and the reader receives a good and accurate (though introductory) picture of Marxism. One cannot deny the positive and negative influences of this text and of its philosophy. Hence, you benefit yourself intellectually by reading this book even if you find yourself disagreeing with every word of it.
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Summary: A clearly written condemnation of capitalism
Review: The Communist Manifesto is a clearly written condemnation of capitalism which is not only still applicable today, but should be studied both for its historical accuracy and its potential for changing the world.
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