Socialism: Utopian and Scientific of thousands of copies. Throughout the decade of the 1860s, Karl Marx, close personal friend and political associate of Friedrich Engels, dedicated himself to the study of economics, culminating in the publication of the first volume of "Das Kapital" in 1867. Marx's lengthy and ponderous volume was extremely difficult for the average to penetrate, however, leading Engels to suggest to Marx in a letter of September 16, 1868 that a short popularized version of "Das Kapital" for a working class audience was urgently needed. "If it is not written, some Moses or other will come along and do it and
Karl Marx Library with Marx's alleged transgressions with the censorship as editor of the two Rhenish newspapers with which he was associated. Padover's fifth topical volume of the Karl Marx Library, "On Religion," drew significant academic attention beyond the more typical scholarly province of intellectual history and the history of the labor movement. Writing in the "Catholic Historical Review," Joseph O'Malley of Marquette University observed that "Marx's idea of religion, as shown in these excerpts, remained one and fixed throughout his adult life," and that religion to Marx "at best provides some individuals the diversion of an illusory solace and at worst acts