
Ironically, The Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848 for the Communist League, had little influence in its own day. Only after Karl Marx and Frederick Engels' other writings had made their views on socialism widely known did it become a standard text. For nearly century it was one of the most widely read - some would argue misread - texts in the world. Manifested in vivid prose, the Manifesto continues to irk the capitalist world, lingering as an eerie specter even after the collaps .