Karl Marx
1818–1883 · Germany
“Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
Peak-work percentile in the canon.
The lineage through Karl Marx
Inspired(1)
who Karl Marx shaped
via The Jungle
- When Sinclair converted to socialism in 1902, fellow Socialists pointed him straight at Marx — and The Jungle is the result, often called the closest anyone has come to fictionalizing the Manifesto
- The Packingtown stockyards dramatize Marx's class struggle: the worker ground down to nothing until the novel's didactic socialist climax names the cure
Portraits
Cleaned restoration of the iconic 1875 Mayall portrait — higher-fidelity version of the most-reproduced Marx likeness.
John Jabez Edwin Mayall, 1875
Studio photograph of Marx at 57: bearded, white-haired, dark suit, seated three-quarter view against a plain studio backdrop.
John Jabez Edwin Mayall, 1875
International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam) print of the 1875 Mayall portrait — the version that long served as Wikipedia's lead image.
John Jabez Edwin Mayall, 1875
Famous Quotes
“A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.”
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
“Working Men of All Countries, Unite!”
About Karl Marx
German philosopher, economist, and revolutionary socialist whose ideas transformed world history. The Communist Manifesto, co-written with Friedrich Engels, is one of the most influential political documents ever written. He spent most of his adult life in London, writing Das Kapital in the British Museum while living in poverty.