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
The Communist Manifesto in the hands of shop-window mannequins, displayed in come-hither poses and fashionable décolletage." A number of late-20th- and 21st-century writers have commented on the "Communist Manifesto"s continuing relevance. In a special issue of the "Socialist Register" commemorating the "Manifesto"s 150th anniversary, Peter Osborne argued that it was 'the single most influential text written in the nineteenth century.' Academic John Raines in 2002 noted that "In our day this Capitalist Revolution has reached the farthest corners of the earth. The tool of money has produced the miracle of the new global market and the ubiquitous shopping mall. Read "The Communist Manifesto",