It is, as Frederick Engels says, "Marx's first attempt, with the aid of his materialist conception, to explain a section of contemporary history from the given economic situation." The work has long been considered a class in historical materialism as applied to current events, having withstood the test of later and fuller analyses. This edition includes in full Engels' famous Preface of 1895, in which he assessed Socialist strategy and tactics for the previous fifty years.Cover: From a lithograph by H. Daumier symbolizing the reactionaries of the period.