Eighteen forty-eight was a year that saw revolutions in most of Europe’s capitals. Of all the revolutionary events, the publication of The Communist Manifesto had the greatest effect on later history, though ironically the document was barely noticed when first published. Written by two German revolutionaries living in England – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – The Communist Manifesto is now recognised as the most challenging and most inflammatory expression of socialist philosophy ever written. Manifesto: Words that Changed the World reproduces the entire document, with incisive explanatory text by David Boyle.