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Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Or, Germany in 1848

Chapter 33: FOOTNOTES:
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About This Book

A series of contemporary newspaper essays analyzes revolutionary uprisings and the ensuing reaction in mid-nineteenth-century German states, reporting events as they unfolded while interpreting the social and political forces at work. The author follows popular mobilization, the initial gains made by liberal reformers, and the subsequent restoration carried out by military and ruling elites, arguing that class interests, political hesitation, and missed alliances enabled counter-revolution. The pieces blend on-the-ground reportage with theoretical reflection to explain causes, sequence of events, and likely implications for future political struggles.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] "The Manifesto." This is the celebrated "Communist Manifesto," which the Communist Congress, held in London, November, 1847, delegated Marx and Engels to draw up. It was published in 1848 (in London). The fundamental proposition of the Manifesto, Engels writes in his introduction to the "Communist Manifesto," translated by S. Moore, and published by W. Reeves, "is that in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch; that consequently the whole history of mankind has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that nowadays a stage has been reached where the exploited and oppressed class—the proletariat—cannot attain its emancipation ... without at the same time, and once and for all emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions, and class struggles." As to this fundamental proposition of the Manifesto, it "belongs," says Engels, "wholly and solely to Marx." The "Communist Manifesto" has been translated into well-nigh every language, and is, again to quote Engels, "the most international production of all Socialist literature."