Originally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism (a transition from capitalism to socialism), they believed that labour creates wealth; hence, capitalism is exploitative and antithetical to freedom.

The Manifesto's stirring poetic language helped spread Marx and Engels' socialist message far and wide, unleashing a century of political revolution. In an age of great inequality, its message of an exploited and suffering working class that must rise up and claim the means of production and wealth continues to resonate.