I read The Communist Manifesto because there are so many recent political attacks calling individuals and changes in health care, bank regulations and such Socialist or Communist. I figured Marx might be a good place to learn whether this was correct. The book begins with a preface by Engels that explains they could not have called it The Socialist Manifesto when they wrote it because at the time Socialists were spouting utopian-ideologies and the term socialist would have been inaccurate in that climate.
In reading the Manifesto so many years after it was written in 1847/1848, I am amazed how similiar the economic conditions were in those years and now.
I recommend this book as the basis in understanding the true ideas of Marxism, which may be Socialist or it may be Communist, but which is not a political system that we have actually seen in any country or region so far as I can tell. Russia and Cuba have been aberations. Perhaps Scandinavia comes closest. But then, I'm no expert. I'm just learning. On to Rousseau....Get more detail about The Communist Manifesto.
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