Communist Manifesto introductions

[Political_Chucky]

I have already read the Manifesto obviously, but my friend took my only copy months ago and he never gave it back so I just went and bought a new one. Well the last one I had was an older copy(without any introductions, just the many prefaces by Engels.) but the new one I just got is pretty biased in my opinion. I don't understand why a publisher would include absurd introductions, such as the one in this version, if not to install their own propaganda to readers. It attacks Marx's theories as romantic idea, his beliefs of god, and even mentions Marx's insults to people he did not like as "dirty jews with Negro blood"(whether or not he did use these terms I do not know, but it is completely irrelevant to the literature). It even attacks Marxists sayings they do not even understand what Marx has wrote, "despite their feelings." Anyone else find introductions such as this? Only reason why I bought it was because it was the cheapest version out of two.($2.99 or $12.99) The introduction by a Francis B. Randall, but it was written in 1963, however this doesn't excuse it being included.

[luxemburg89]

marx wouldn't call anyone a 'dirty jew' - he was jewish. yeah the new editions are generally a load of crap - just skip the long intro and go straight to the stuff written by Marx and Engels. It's just some conservative 'historian' talking crap. I mean a conservative would believe that Romanticism wouldn't work. Marx was definetely a romantic - it can even be considered he was the last Romantic of the Romantic era, a conservative cannot understand Romanticism. To understand how a communistic society would work you need imagination, the key element of romanticism, to make a prediction you need immagination, the imagination is vital to the future of the world - conservatives cannot understand that.

[Janus]

The publisher can add just about anything s/he wants to for the introduction so it's best to ignore it.


and even mentions Marx's insults to people he did not like as "dirty jews with Negro blood
He did make some racist remarks about Ferdinand Lassalle's physical characteristics. Of course, one must observe these remarks in context of the times back then rather than currently.