Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Communist Manifesto

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the development of Communist and Socialist thought in the nineteenth century?
• 2.: Why were regimes and government authorities frightened of Communism or at least wanted to suppress it? What surrounding historical events made Communism a more immediate threat?
• 3.: Similarly, in the 1940s and 1950s, in particular, fear of Communists in the United States was rampant. Such organizations as the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated charges of Communist infiltration of government, education, and the entertainment industry. To what extent were the actions of American authorities similar to those of European authorities at the time Karl Marx wrote?
• 4.: In modern political debate, reference is sometimes made to “class warfare” as politicians, it is thought, try to pit rich against poor for the purpose of winning votes. Do you think this is true in contemporary America? If it is, to what extent do you believe this debate parallels ideas presented in the Communist Manifesto?
• 5.: In modern life, the very word Communism continues to strike a kind of fear. People in the West have been conditioned to regard Communism as perhaps little better than the Nazism of World War II Germany under Adolf Hitler. Do you believe that this is a fair judgment? Make the argument that the Communism of Karl Marx was different from the version of Communism practiced in repressive regimes such as the former Soviet Union and that Communism is simply a set of political and economic theories that help explain historical events.