karl marx

Karl Marx and Our Necessary Future

When Karl Marx (born on 5 May 1818) finished his doctoral dissertation on Epicurus, he could not find a job. The reactionary climate in Germany meant that any radical, actually any liberal, could not be allowed a post; two of Marx’s interlocutors – Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer – were both denied academic jobs. Marx, therefore, wandered into journalism; he, along with Bruno Bauer, worked at Rheinische Zeitung, where he wrote powerful pieces from 1842 to 1843. In January 1843, Marx wrote[...]

Marx Turns 200

I imagine Karl Marx at his desk in the British Library, reading the Blue Books produced by the British imperial officials, studying the large books of Smith and Ricardo, spilling ink onto his coat, wondering what chaos will meet him at home. When he returns home, his children throw themselves on his bulk, demanding he read Shakespeare or the Grimm’s Fairy Tales to them. One of his children is likely sick, his wife and Helene Demuth tending to the ailing child. Marx tells Jenny Marx what he has[...]