The Communist Manifesto
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season96 pages, about 2 hours: half the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbMarx and Engels begin by declaring a spectre is haunting Europe, then set out their theory of history.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 13 reviews from critics and book blogs, none credit the plot and 12 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesPeter Singer, in a Five Books interview, chose it over Marx’s own Capital as shorter and easier to read.
The case for it
on the analysis
“Marx and Engels’s historical analysis is breathtakingly, brilliantly simple.”
Felipe Fernández-Armesto · Five Books, 2019 on the pace
“Brassy and swaggering, The Communist Manifesto rushes up on readers like an avalanche.”
James Robins · The New Republic, 2023 on the length
“it is only 34 pages long”
a book blog on moral urgency
“It’s short, sharp, and burns with moral urgency.”
a Substack review
The case against
on the introduction
“the Introduction is three times the length of the work itself”
a book blog on Section 3
“Section 3, where the authors systematically declare their superiority”
Woody Woodruff · Washington Socialist, 2023 on the language
“Some of the language is a bit choice”
three stars · a book blog on the fallacies
“a competition to see who could cram more fallacies into a small amount of space”
a book blog
