Karl Marx, the Founder of Modern Socialism Term Paper

Karl Marx, the founder of modern socialism and communism and son of a lawyer was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier, and received his classical education. He studied jurisprudence at Bonn and later in Berlin, his obsession with philosophy turned him away from law. However, after spending five years in the "metropolis of intellectuals," he returned to Bonn aiming to habilitate in 1841 (The Life and Work of Karl Marx).

At the end of 1842 he took over the editorship and was received the honor of sending a censor Wilhelm Saint-Paul from Berlin particularly to take care of the Rheinische Zeitung. However, this proved of no benefit since either the paper was made to undergo dual censorship, or additionally to the common procedure, every issue was subjected to a second stage of censorship by the office of Cologne's Regierungspr sident (The Life and Work of Karl Marx).

However, this measure was not of any benefit against the obstinate malice of the Rheinische Zeitung. At the same time at the beginning of 1843 the ministry issued a decree declaring that the Rheinische Zeitung must cease publication at the end of the first quarter and Marx thus, resigned immediately as the shareholders wanted to attempt a settlement that also end in nothing and the newspaper-ceased publication (The Life and Work of Karl Marx).

In the summer of 1843, he married the daughter of Privy Councilor von Westphalen in Trier and moved to Paris, where he devoted himself mainly to studying political economy and the history of the great French Revolution and at the same time worked together with Ruge in publishing the Deutsch-Franzsische Jahrbucher. In 1845, he went to Brussels after being expelled from France by Guizot and stayed there, practicing the same studies, until the outbreak of the February revolution.

He agreed very less with the commonly accepted version of socialism and that his theory of socialism could be seen in his critique of Proudhon's mayor work in 1847, Philosophie de la misere, which published in Brussels and Paris under the title of The Poverty of Philosophy. In that work one can find many fundamental points of the theory, which he has now presented, in complete detail. His other substantial work was The Manifesto of the Communist Party, London, 1848, written before the February revolution and adopted by a workers' congress in London (Karl Marx, 1818-1883).

However, the Belgian government under the influence of the panic caused by the February revolution expelled him again. Thus, he returned to Paris at the invitation of the French provisional government and went to Cologne with his friends and founded there the Neue Rheinische Zeitung that appeared until June 1849 and still remember well today by people on the Rhine. Marx was brought twice before the assizes for an offence against the press laws and for provoking people to refuse to pay their taxes. Thus, on both occasions it had to close at the time of the May revolts of 1849 when he once again debarred on the excuse that he was no longer a Prussian subject and therefore to returned to Paris, from where he was once again expelled and in August 26, 1849 he went to his present home in London (Karl Marx, 1818-1883).

Here Marx continued to produce his Neue Rheinische Zeitung in the form of a monthly review and later he moved into the British Museum and worked through the massive and unexamined library that contained mostly political economy. Simultaneously, he was a regular contributor to the New- York Tribune, acting, till the outburst of the American Civil War, so as to say, as the editor for European politics of this, the leading Anglo-American newspaper.

The coup d'etat of December 2nd encouraged him to write a pamphlet, known as The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, New York, 1852, that has also been reprinted and made a large contribution to an understanding of the indefensible position into which the same Bonaparte got for himself (Karl Marx, 1818-1883).The hero of the coup d'etat is presented as he really is, exposed of the glory with which his brief success surrounded him. The philistine who considered his Napoleon III to be the greatest man of the century and was not able to know himself as to how the amazing genius suddenly came to be making bloomer after bloomer and one political error after the other that same philistine can consult the aforesaid work of Marx for his teaching.

Even though during his whole stay in London Marx chose not to thrust himself to the fore, he was forced by Karl Vogt, of 1859, after the Italian campaign, to enter into a polemic, which was brought to an end with Marx's Herr Vogt in London, in the year 1860. Almost at the same time his study of political economy bore its first fruit in the form of his book, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Part One, Berlin, 1859 (Karl Marx, 1818-1883).

The episodes and chapters contained only the theory of money presented from totally new view. The continuation of his book was soon to come, since the author discovered a lot new material meanwhile that he considered it important to carry out further studies.

Thus, at last, in 1867, there appeared in Hamburg: Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I and contained the work that was the results of his studies to which he devoted his whole life. The work was the political economy of the working class, which was then reduced to its scientific formulation.

This work was not concerned with provocative phrase mongering, but with severely scientific deductions. Whatever one's attitude to socialism, the reader of this book will at any rate acknowledge that this work has been presented for the first time in a scientific manner, and that it was precisely Germany that accomplished this.

Thus, this was one point of interest in the book. However, there is another point-of-view from which Marx's book is of attention. It is the first work of any author in which the actual relations existing between capital and labour, in their classical form has been presented. For instance, they have reached in England; have been described in their whole and in a clear as well as in graphic fashion.

Furthermore, ample material for this was being provided by the parliamentary inquiries, across a period of almost forty years as well as practically unknown in England even. Furthermore, the material of the book also dealt with the conditions of the workers in almost every branch of industry women's anti-children's work, night work, etc.; all made available for the first time in the history of any books of that time (Karl Marx, German social Philosopher and Revolutionary).

Moreover, there was the history of factory legislation in England which, from its modest beginnings with the first acts of 1802, finally reached the point of limiting working hours in almost all manufacturing as well as the cottage industries to 60 hours per week for women and young people under the age of 18, and to 39 hours per week for children under 13. Thus, Marx has given an excellent book, which from this point-of-view is of the greatest interest especially for every industrialist.

Moving on, Marx for many years has been the best maligned of the German writers, and none can deny that he was constant in his retaliation and that all the blows he intended and designed struck home with revenge. But polemics that he dealt in a lot was mainly an only a means of self-defence for him (Karl Marx, German social Philosopher and Revolutionary).

In the final analysis of his life and work was his real interest with his science, which he studied and reflected on for twenty-five years with unrivalled meticulousness….....