Kortext - EPUB Reader 2

In 1841, Marx earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena.
However, his
ambitions for an academic career ended when the Berlin ministry of education blacklisted him for
his radical views.2 Having established little in the way of career prospects during his student years,
Marx accepted an offer to write for the Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal newspaper published in
Cologne.
2
Marx’s mentor and colleague, Bruno Bauer, had promised him a faculty position at the University
of Bonn. But when Bauer was dismissed from the university for advocating leftist, antireligious
views, Marx was effectively shut out from pursuing an academic career.
Marx soon worked his way up to become editor of the newspaper. Writing on the social conditions
in Prussia, Marx criticized the government’s treatment of the poor and exposed the harsh
conditions of peasants working in the Moselle wine-producing region. However, Marx’s
condemnation of the authorities brought on the censors, and he was forced to resign his post.
Soon after, Marx married his childhood love, Jenny Von Westphalen, the daughter of a Prussian
baron. The two moved to Paris in the fall of 1843. At the time, Paris was the center of European
intellectual and political movements. While there, Marx became acquainted with a number of
leading socialist writers and revolutionaries. Of particular importance to his intellectual
development were the works of the French philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825) and his
followers. Saint-Simon’s ideas led to the creation of Christian Socialism, a movement that sought
to organize modern industrial society according to the social principles espoused by Christianity. In
their efforts to counter the exploitation and egoistic competition that accompany industrial
capitalism, Saint-Simonians advocated that industry and commerce be guided according to an ethic
of brotherhood and cooperation. By instituting common ownership of society’s productive forces
and an end to rights of inheritance, they believed that the powers of science and industry could be
marshaled to create a more just society free from poverty.
Marx also studied the work of the seminal political economists Adam Smith (1723–1790) and
David Ricardo (1772–1823). Smith’s book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (1776/1990) represents the first systematic examination of the relationship between
government policy and a nation’s economic growth. As such, it played a central role in defining the
field of political economy. (See p. 44 for summary remarks on Smith’s views.) For his part,
Ricardo, building on Smith’s earlier works, would further refine the study of economics. He wrote
on a number of subjects, including the condition of wages, the source of value, taxation, and the
production and distribution of goods. Ricardo was a leading economist in his day, and his writings
were influential in shaping England’s economic policies. It was from his critique of these writers
that Marx would develop his humanist philosophy and economic theories.
During his time in Paris, Marx also began what would become a lifelong collaboration and
friendship with Friedrich Engels, whom he met while serving as editor of the Zeitung. Marx’s stay
in France was short-lived, however, and again it was his journalism that sparked the ire of
government authorities. In January 1845, he was expelled from the country at the request of the
Prussian government for his antiroyalist articles. Unable to return to his home country (Prussia),
Marx renounced his Prussian citizenship and settled in Brussels, where he lived with his family
until 1848. In Brussels, Marx extended his ties to revolutionary working-class movements through
:
until 1848. In Brussels, Marx extended his ties to revolutionary working-class movements through
associations with members of the League of the Just and the Communist League. Moreover, it was
while living in Brussels that Marx and Engels produced two of their most important early works,
The German Ideology (see the reading that follows) and The Communist Manifesto (see the reading
that follows). In 1848, workers and peasants began staging revolts throughout much of Europe. As
the revolution spread, Marx and Engels left Brussels and headed for Cologne to serve as coeditors
of the radical Neue Rheinische Zeitung, a paper devoted to furthering the revolutionary cause. For
his part in the protests, Marx was charged with inciting rebellion and defaming the Prussian royal
family. Though acquitted, Marx was forced to leave the country. He returned to Paris but soon was
pressured by the French government to leave the country as well, so Marx and his family moved to
London in 1849.
In London, Marx turned his attention more fully to the study of economics. Spending some 60
hours per week in the British Museum, Marx produced a number of important works, including
Capital (see the reading that follows), considered a masterpiece critique of capitalist economic
principles and their human costs. Marx also continued his political activism.
From 1851 to 1862, he was a regular contributor to the New York Daily Tribune, writing on such
issues as political upheavals in France, the Civil War in the United States, Britain’s colonization of
India, and the hidden causes of war.3 In 1864, Marx helped found and direct the International
Working Men’s Association, a socialist movement committed to ending the inequities and
alienation or “loss of self” experienced under capitalism. The International had branches across the
European continent and the United States, and Marx’s popular writing and activism gave him an
international audience for his ideas.
3
A number of articles attributed to Marx were actually written by Engels, whose assistance
allowed Marx to continue to collect a wage from the newspaper. Engels, whose father owned
textile mills in Germany and England (that he would later inherit), also provided Marx with
financial support throughout his years in London. The depth of Engels’s devotion even led him to
support an out-of-wedlock child fathered by Marx.
Yet the revolutionary workers’ movements were floundering. In 1876, the International
disintegrated, and Marx was barely able to support himself and his wife as they struggled against
failing health. Jenny died on December 2, 1881, and Marx himself died on March 14, 1883.
Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas

The revolutionary spirit that inflamed Marx’s work cannot be understood outside the backdrop of
the sweeping economic and social changes occurring during this period. By the middle of the
nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain 100 years earlier was spreading
throughout Western Europe. Technological advances in transportation, communication, and
manufacturing spurred an explosion in commercial markets for goods. The result was the birth of
modern capitalism and the rise of middle-class owners of capital, or the
:
:

Kortext - EPUB Reader 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kortext - EPUB Reader 2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kortext - EPUB Reader 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

In 1841, Marx earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena.

Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas

You might also like