Previous chapter | Next chapter | Socialism: Index | Works | William Morris Archive
SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM: KARL MARX
THE foregoing chapters on earlier Socialists may be regarded as leading up to the full development of the complete Socialist theory, or as it is sometimes called, “scientific” Socialism. The great exponent of this theory, and the author of the most thorough criticism of the capitalistic system of production, is the late Dr. Karl Marx.
He was born in 1818 at Treves, his father being a baptized Jew holding an official position in that city. He studied for the law in the University of Bonn, passing his examination with high honours in 1840. In 1843 he married Jenny von Westphalen, sister of the well-known Prussian statesman of that name. Philosophy 231 and political economy, with especial reference to the great social problems of the age, were his special studies on leaving the university. These studies led him towards Socialism, the result of which was that he felt compelled to decline the offer of an important Government post. About this time he left Treves for Paris, where he became co-editor with Arnold Ruge of the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, and he also edited the Socialist journal Vorwärts; but in less than a twelvemonth he was compelled to leave France for Brussels. In March 1848 he was driven from Belgium and fled to Cologne, where the revolutionary ferment was at its height. He at once undertook the editorship of the Rheinische Zeitung, the leading revolutionary journal, which was suppressed on the collapse of the revolutionary movement in 1849.