The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, is the single document most responsible for launching the often-feared political philosophy of communism. It straight up tells you to revolt against the rich, and it tells you why you should.Here's the gist of the Manifesto, fast enough for you to read before you have to wake up and slave away at your job tomorrow: Marx describes how the bourgeoisie (the rich capitalists) rose to power over the aristocracy (kings and feudal lords), how the capitalists maintain power, and how they're now confronted by the proletariat (the working poor who are paid wages), who as communists will overthrow them. Once the proletarians take charge, they're supposed to set up a vanguard state--a temporary government to transition society from capitalism to communism. This will be a system where the most important private property--the means of production (factories, agricultural land, machinery)--will be shared in common, and no one will profit to exploit others.Yeah, it's an incredibly controversial work. A lot of people blame the Communist Manifesto for the fact that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin put tens of millions of people into Gulags, or forced labor camps, and committed all kinds of other horrors. On the other hand, some say communism has never been implemented properly--perhaps because the continued existence of rival capitalism doesn't allow it.Authors Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels didn't win any awards for this document, but they got a bigger prize: the manifesto, which is primarily Marx's work, is famous because it changed the world--and still does. It inspired the leaders of the Russian Revolution to overthrow the tsarist aristocracy and set up the communist Bolshevik government that led to the communist Soviet Union, one of the most powerful countries of the 20th century. China, Cuba, and other countries consider themselves communist to this day.All that wouldn't have happened if Marx, inspired by the bad working conditions for the workforce, hadn't written this little book.