The Communist Manifesto rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy [sic!] of rural life". As Eric Hobsbawm noted, however: Marx and Engels’ political influences were wide-ranging, reacting to and taking inspiration from German idealist philosophy, French socialism, and English and Scottish political economy. "The Communist Manifesto" also takes influence from literature. In Jacques Derrida’s work, "Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International", he uses Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" to frame a discussion of the history of the International, showing, in the process, the influence that Shakespeare’s work had on Marx and Engel’s writing.
Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals of the government of Benito Mussolini, prominent Italian academic and public intellectuals effected the first, formal effort at defining the cultural aspirations of Italian Fascism. As conference Chairman, the Neo-idealist philosopher Gentile publicly proclaimed the alliance between Culture and Fascism, thereby challenging intellectualist critics who questioned the Fascist régime's cultural respectability. The thesis of the "Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals" bases Fascist revolution upon co-operation between Culture and Politics. As a statement of politico-philosophic principles, the "Manifesto" derived from the "Fascism and Culture" ("Fascismo e cultura") lecture Gentile delivered in the "Freedom and Liberalism" ("Libertà e liberalismo") session of the cultural