Karl Marx

Born in Trier, Prussia to Heinrich and Henriette Marx on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx would grow up to become a radical thinker, revolutionary, and a disciple of sociology, whose ideas would influence the world long after his death (Steven Kreis, 2008). Marx’s first experience with radical thinking would be during his study at the University of Berlin as a member of the Young Hegelians, a group whose critique of Christianity was seen as controversial at the time (Kreis, 2008). After obtaining his PhD in philosophy from the University of Jena, he turned to journalism, becoming the editor of Rheinische Zeitung, where we wrote several increasingly revolutionary works that was “suppressed for its derisive social and political content” (Janet Beales Kaidantzis, n.d). Marx emigrated to France and forged a life-long friendship with Friedrich Engels as well as becoming the co-editor of another leftist radical newspaper, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (Kries, 2008). While in Paris and having been influenced previously by his work for the newspaper in Prussia, Marx started to develop and theorize his ideas of communism, detailing the economic ideas of “Marxism” and publishing several essays, papers, and manuscripts such as the The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (Jonathan Wolff, 2011). During the storm of protests, rebellions, and revolutions sweeping through Europe at the time, Marx published multiple works and books of which the most famous is the Communist Manifesto, “his most widely read work” before settling down in London, England in 1849 (Wolff, 2011). As stated on the University of Sanford’s webpage on Marx (Wolff, 2011), “He now concentrated on the study of economics,” detailing ideas and works where he “sketches out what he...

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...s happened when we as humans tried to achieve the utopia Marx had envisioned, and the biggest question seems to be, will we ever reach that perfect society? In a world where industry has taken a back seat and change into communism still has not taken place, how would Marx change his theories, if at all? How do his ideas impact us now in modern times, arguably completely different from that of two centuries ago, and if not at all, would it be still important to learn them now? Another is that through his work, it seems as if social economics is the only factor in classes; is it really his opinion that no other social factors have an impact on the set up of society (Ollman, 2004)? If this was the case then, would it be any different now, after the development of various other theories to do with sociology? The questions, much like his ideas and theories, are endless.