Hal Draper

The Adventures of the Communist Manifesto Hal Draper

At this date, it is unnecessary to explain the continuing concern with a short pamphlet published over a century and a half ago. Page for page, no other publication has rivaled the historical impact of the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The oft-repeated statement that the Manifesto gained no attention whatever when it first came off the press is, to be sure, inaccurate. But it is certainly true that, decade by decade, the significance of the Manifesto increased, until now it blankets most of the globe. The number of books and essays which, in whole or in part, devote long discussions and evaluations to the views of the Manifesto-for and against-is enough to fill this book from cover to cover. But this book is not one of them. It is, logically, anterior to all of them for the following reason.