From the Danube to the China Sea, Karl Marx is officially revered by millions of people as the most noble man in history, his writings the final embodiment of truth. For countless others, in different areas of the globe, Marx and Marxism have become synonymous with total evil. However, no one, regardless of his views, can doubt the vast influence asserted by this man who set out not merely to interpret history, but to change it.

The story of Karl Marx is one of extraordinary contradictions. The son of a prosperous middle-class family, he made the middle class the object of his contempt and championed the cause of the working classes. Driven by a hatred of tyranny, he himself demanded absolute obedience. Serving a vision of universal brotherhood, he had only one man he could truly call his friend.

Exiled from Germany, then France, watching his beloved wife and children suffer terrible poverty in the slums of London, with tragedy following tragedy and seeming failure, his is in the end a story of a remarkable achievement. This man, working with only the aid of his friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels, developed an economic analysis of history that has profoundly affected man's vision of the past, the present and the future. With his Das Kapital and other writings, he set in motion a political movement that was to topple empires and vie today for the control of the world.

Capturing the vast complexities of the man, vividly depicting the intense drama of his life, and giving clear-cut assessment of his thinking, this book presents a rounded portrait of this major philosopher, whose shadow has lengthened since his death, to cover half the earth. 

From the dust jacket