num_pages: 255
description: As Karl Marx the icon has fallen along with so many communist regimes, we are left with the mystery of Karl Marx the man, the complexities of a life that has profoundly affected millions. A Requiem for Karl Marx is Frank Manuel's searching meditation on that life, a learned &amp; elegantly written engagement with the man &amp; his work. Manuel gives us a psychological portrait rendered with sympathy &amp; critical detachment, a probing look at the connections between the private drama of Marx' life &amp; his revolutionary ideas. Manuel pursues these connections from Marx' adolescence &amp; education in Trier thru his university studies, marriage to a German baroness, &amp; early affiliation with French &amp; German radical groups. Here we see Marx in moments of youthful rapture, in periods of despair, in maneuvers of blatant hypocrisy, in outbursts of self-mockery. We follow his involuted response to his status as a converted Jew, observe the psychic toll of debilitating bouts of illness &amp; witness the shattering effects of his aggressive, often brutal conduct toward friend &amp; foe alike. Manuel analyzes in intricate detail the central role of Marx' enduring relationship with Friedrich Engels, which appears to transcend the bounds of friendship, &amp; his changing behavior toward his wife, Jenny, the neurotic &amp; tragic figure who shared his dismal London exile. What becomes clear in this narrative is the link between Marx' personal life &amp; his ideas about class struggle, revolutionary strategy &amp; utopia--as well as the impact of his personal vision &amp; political tactics on the movements that followed him, down to our day.
language: English
title: A Requiem for Karl Marx
titlecomplete: A Requiem for Karl Marx
genres: Biography
ratings_count: 5
publisher: Harvard University Press (Cambridge/London)