The Communist Manifesto and the Problem of Universality

Abstract

One can say without fear of refutation that the Manifesto has been more consequential in the actual making of the modem world than any other piece of political writing, be it Rousseau's Social Contract, the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen." The first reason is, of course, the power of it; political message, which has reverberated throughout the world and determined the destinies of a large cross-section of humanity over the past one hundred fifty years. Then there is the style itself: no call to arms has ever been phrased in a language of such zest, beauty, and purity.

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