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( The Communist Manifesto)
Manifesto of the Communist Party (German Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and program. However, Marx does not have a lot to say about the precise form that communism would take. [1] Although the names of both Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx appear on the title page alongside the "persistent assumption of joint-authorship", Engels, in the preface introduction to the 1883 German edition of the Manifesto, said that the Manifesto was "essentially Marx's work" and that "the basic thought... belongs solely and exclusively to Marx."[2] There is evidence to suggest that Engels composed an earlier, draft statement for a manifesto, which was then used as the basis for this, later, published document, the direct authorship of which can be attributed primarily to Marx.[3] It is claimed in the text itself to have been sketched by a group of Communists from various countries that gathered together in London. [4] However, some recent English editions, such as Phil Gasper's annotated "road map" (Haymarket Books, 2006), have used a slightly modified text in response to criticisms of the Moore translation made by Hal Draper in his 1994 history of the Manifesto, The Adventures of the "Communist Manifesto" (Center for Socialist History, 1994).
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