. Wheen does, however, acknowledge Marx's lifelong assault on capitalism through his chapters on The Communist Manifesto, arguably one of the most influential political pamphlets ever published, and on the monumental undertaking that would eventually lead to Das Kapital.
             It is not the Wheen's goal to demonize or discover keys to Marx's behavior; rather, it is to reveal his true nature as an individual who was genuinely human. Wheen gives the reader glimpses into the Marx household and the domestic, day-to-day side of this great intellectual, who was also a stern patriarch toward his wife and six children in their cramped north London apartment. Marx is caricatured as either a wild eyed revolutionary lunatic or a dry academic who spent his life in the British Museum. He did spend many years researching political economy, but his life was also punctuated by intense periods of political activity. He was hounded from country to country because of his agitation in support of the democratic revolutions of 1848.
             The defeat of the revolutions of 1848 was a turning point that affected the whole working class across Europe. Marx withdrew from active politics for much of the dismal 1850s as a consequence. But he sprang back into activity with the revival of radical politics in the 1860s. The formation of the International Working Men's Association in 1864 ushered in a period of frenetic activity. Marx was the central figure of the International until its demise following the defeat of the Paris Commune of 1871. Marx hated 'hypocrisy, stupidity, gross arbitrariness' and 'bowing and scraping.' He found it frustrating to be forced to 'fight with pinpricks instead of clubs.' When Marx's children submitted him to a parlor game questionnaire, he responded that his idea of happiness was to
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