Karl Marx was born on May 15, 1818, in Trier, Germany, several years after Emperor Napoleon I conquered and “liberated” western Germany. Marx became a notable philosopher and economist. While a university student, Marx joined the “Young Hegelians,” a group of students heavily influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Hegel. After receiving a doctorate in philosophy, Marx worked as a journalist and editor for radical and socialist newspapers. In his personal life, he married Jenny von Westphalen, with whom he had three daughters. Hounded by governments over his political beliefs, Marx and his family migrated to London in 1849. He lived there until his death from various health complications on March 14, 1883.

Marx was an avid writer, and he often worked with his close friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels. Along with The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx’s most famous works include The Communist Manifesto (1848), a pamphlet co-written with Engels. The Communist Manifesto predicted the fall of capitalism and the rise of communism, a new social and economic system where the working class will completely control the making and distribution of goods and services in society. Marx also wrote the first volume of Capital (1867), which laid out Marx’s views on economics, industrialization, and work under capitalism.