The Cambridge Companion to The Communist Manifesto covers the historical and biographical contexts and major contemporary interpretations of this classic text for understanding Marx and Engels, and for grasping Marxist political theory. The editors and contributors offer innovative accounts of the history of the text in relation to German revolutionaries, European socialism, and socialist political projects; rhetorical, dramaturgical, feminist and postcolonial readings of the text; and theoretical analyses in relation to political economy, political theory and major concepts of Marxism. The volume includes a fresh translation into English, by Terrell Carver, of the first edition (1848), and an exacting transcription of the rare earliest English translation (1850) by Helen Macfarlane.

Editors' introduction Terrell Carver and James Farr; Part I. Political and Biographical Context: 1. Rhineland radicals and '48ers Jürgen Herres; 2. Marx, Engels and other socialisms David Leopold; 3. The rhetoric of the Manifesto James Martin; 4. The Manifesto in Marx and Engels's lifetimes Terrell Carver; Part II. Political Reception: 5. Marxisms and the Manifesto after Engels Jules Townshend; 6. The permanent revolution in and around the Manifesto Emanuele Saccarelli; 7. The two revolutionary classes of the Manifesto Leo Panitch; 8. Hunting for women and haunted by gender: the rhetorical limits of the Manifesto Joan C. Tronto; Part III. Intellectual Legacy: 9. The Manifesto in political theory: anglophone translations and liberal receptions James Farr and Terence Ball; 10. The spectre of the Manifesto stalks neoliberal globalisation: reconfiguring Marxist discourse(s) in the 1990s Manfred B. Steger; 11. Decolonising the Manifesto: communism and the slave analogy Robbie Shilliam; 12. The Manifesto in a late capitalist era: melancholy and melodrama Elisabeth Anker; Part IV. The Text in English Translation.