Born May 5, 1818

Trier, Germany

Died March 14, 1883

London, England

German political philosopher, writer

"The worker has become a commodity, and he is lucky if he can find a buyer. And the demand on which the worker's life depends is regulated by the whims of the wealthy and the capitalists."

Karl Marx was a writer and political philosopher who responded to the rise of the working class with a theory of popular revolution that inspired generations of would-be revolutionaries in the industrialized world and beyond. He advocated the abolition of capitalism (private ownership of goods and services) and all private profit, by means of violence if necessary. Known as Marxism, his ideas inspired the famous Russian Revolution in 1917, and two of the world's largest countries, Russia and China, came to be governed by people who claimed to follow...