Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 in Trier – 14 March 1883 in London) was a German political thinker who wrote about economics and politics. Marx thought that if a place that works together runs on wage-labor, then there would always be class struggle. Marx thought that this class struggle would result in workers taking power. He believed that no economic class—wage workers, land owners, etc. should have power over another. Marx believed that everyone should contribute what they can, and everyone should get what they need. His most famous book was the Communist Manifesto. He wrote it with Friedrich Engels in 1848. The book is about the ideas and aims of communism. His ideas are called Marxism.

Works

Das Kapital
His most important work is Das Kapital, or The Capital. It is commonly known in English as simply 'Capital.' He spent many years working on the three parts of the book.  Das Kapital describes how "capitalism" works and the problems this creates, such as division of labour, alienation and exploitation.  The book has led to many arguments between those who agree with the book and those who do not. Marx's ideas have been thought of as responsible for socialist revolutions (like the Russian Revolution).

Historical materialism
Marx's most popular theory was 'historical materialism', arguing that history is the result of material conditions, rather than ideas.  He believed that religion, morality, social structures and other things are all rooted in economics.  In his later life he was more tolerant of religion.

Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Marx also wrote the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, a critique of political economy in which he discusses topics such as labor wages, labor rent, and capital profit, and his ideas of how to change the economy, including proletarian socialist revolution and an eventual communist society.

Biography
Karl Marx was born in Trier in 1818, but he had to move many times because the government did not like his ideas. Marx lived for a long time in London. He died there in 1883. After he died, his friend Engels finished many of his works.

Many people continue to follow and develop Marx's ideas.

Related pages
Factors of production
Political economy
Marxism
Friedrich Engels

References

Biographies 
 Friedrich Engels' Biography of Marx
 Franz Mehring's Karl Marx: The Story of His Life
 Vladimir Lenin's Karl Marx Biography
 Francis Wheen's Karl Marx: A Life
 Karl Korsch's Karl Marx Biography
 Maximilien Rubel's Marx, life and works

Articles and entries 
 Dead Sociologists - Karl Marx 
 Ernest Mandel, Karl Marx (New Palgrave article)
 Marx on India and the Colonial Question  from anti-caste 
 Portraits of Karl Marx
 The Karl Marx Museum
 Marxmyths.org  - Various essays on misinterpretations of Marx
 Paul Dorn, The Paris Commune and Marx' Theory of Revolution
 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
 Why Marx is the Man of the Moment

Other websites

Bibliography and online texts 

 Marx and Engels Internet Archive 
 Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)
 On the Jewish Question (1843)
 Notes on James Mill (1844)
 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (1844)
 Theses on Feuerbach (1845)
 The German Ideology [with Engels] (1845-46)
 The Poverty of Philosophy (1846-47)
 Wage-Labour and Capital (1847)
 Manifesto of the Communist Party [with Engels] (1847-48)
 Free audiobook from LibriVox (Also available in German)
 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
 Grundrisse (1857-58)
 A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)
 Writings on the U.S. Civil War [with Engels; compiled] (1861)
 Theories of Surplus Value, 3 volumes (1862)
 Value, Price and Profit (1865)
 Capital vol. 1 (1867)
 The Civil War in France (1871)
 Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
 Notes on Wagner (1883)
 Capital, vol. 2 [posthumously, by Engels] (1893)
 Capital, vol. 3 [posthumously, by Engels] (1894)
 Letters [with Engels; compiled] (1833-95)
 Ethnological Notebooks —  (1879-80)
 
 "The Reality Behind Commodity Fetishism" (in English) at Sic et Non (in German)
 Libertarian Communist Library Karl Marx Archive
 Karl Marx Biography 
 Works by Karl Marx at Zeno.org 

1818 births
1883 deaths
19th-century German philosophers
Former Christians
German atheists
German communists
German economists
German historians
German sociologists
Infectious disease deaths in London
Jewish atheists
Jewish German scientists
Jewish German writers
Jewish philosophers
Marxism
People from Rhineland-Palatinate