T HE development of Marxist theory up to the Revolutions of
1848-49 has been indicated; its philosophic, political, and
economic origins briefly surveyed. The dogma was the work
of young men, ardent revolutionaries, expectant of the overthrow of
middle-class domination and existing society.

These expectations failed. The remainder of Marx's life was passed
in exile. To this second period belong the pamphlets and articles in
which Marx's ability as a political journalist and Engels's power of
exposition are most strikingly displayed. The highly technical A
Contribution to the Critique of Political Econony; the masterpiece, the
three great volumes of Das Kapital, of which only the first appeared
while Marx was alive, are reinforced by the systematic, often lucid,
explanation of the doctrine written by Engels, with Marx's collabor-
ation, in the Anti-Dühring.

There were numerous other writings: the Class War in France
( 1871); Engels on Feuerbach; Engels on the Origins of the Family.
In the scale of this study only the more outstanding documents can
be examined. First, one of the most powerful of Marx's pamph-
lets, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, will be taken to
represent Marx's historical analysis. Next, an attempt will be made
to elucidate the economic theory contained in the Contribution, to chart
the broad argument of the first volume of Das Kapital, and describe
the flavour and impact of this formidable work. Then the Anti-
Dühring, probably the most succinct exposition of the total theory, will
be examined. Finally, the Marx-Engels contribution to the political
thought of the nineteenth century will be related to other traditions.

The Eighteenth Brumaire was written in defiant and rueful mood.
Exiled and in penury, in the smoke and grime of mid-Victorian
London -- his overcoat in pawn -- Marx set himself to explain this
shocking sequel to the failure of the Revolution. And he seized the
opportunity to wring lessons from the failure. The pamphlet is
regarded by Marxists as an 'object lesson in political analysis', occa-
sioned by the first crude manifestation of proto-Fascism. ^* Written

-325-