An economist, sociologist, philosopher, journalist, historian, and revolutionary, Karl Marx was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Trier on May 5, 1818. Marx completed his doctoral thesis, titled The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature, in 1841, and submitted it to the University of Jena. He was awarded a Ph.D. in April 1841. In 1844, Marx befriended Friedrich Engels, the German socialist, and became a revolutionary communist. Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy was published in 1847. Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto, a political pamphlet summarizing their theories about the nature of society and politics, in 1848.

One of the most important political documents of the world, this monumental text is highly influential and continues to remain widely read. The first volume, Capital, Volume I, of his magnum opus Capital (Das Kapital) was published in 1867. Marx continued to work on the remaining two volumes which were published after his death by Engels. Capital, Volume II was published in 1885 and Capital, Volume III in 1894. Considered to be his masterwork, Capital has been translated into all the major languages. Marx died in London on March 14, 1883, aged sixty-four.