Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, a town in Prussia. His parents were of Jewish descent, although they were not practitioners of the religion. In fact, by 1824 his family adopted Protestantism, and Karl was baptized within the Christian faith. Later the young writer attended the Universities of Bonn and Berlin majoring in history and philosophy, and spending his other time studying law. Following his graduation from college Marx became involved with the "Left Hegelians", an activist group centered on Hegel's philosophy. In 1842 Marx began writing for an opposition paper in Cologne called the "Rheinische Zeitung", and in less than a year he was named editor-in-chief. However by 1843 the German government caught wind of the writer's ideas and quickly had publication shut down. At this point, Karl moved to Paris to pursue political activism. Once there he met his closest friend Frederick Engels and together they formed the ideas behind Communism. Before long Marx was banished from Paris for being volatile revolutionary propagandist. As a result, he sought refuge in Brussels where he and Engels joined forces once more and at the request of the Communist League drew up the "Communist Manifesto" in 1848.
             In the "Communist Manifest" authored primarily by Marx with the help of Engels; Marx essentially presents the framework for his political beliefs while unleashing an assault on the capitalist system and its proponents. The beginning dissects the political struggle between the "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat" classes of society. The authors describe in detail the reasons growing industry will lead to increased competition, owner cost cutting to raise profit, and a resulting steady decline in wages for the worker. Next, the piece offers the reasons and means for a proletariat uprising, which in the authors opinion will be won by the working class because their population is of such magnitude. The rest of the work provides the explicit for...