Originally published in 1848 as a political pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would become one of the most influential works of the era. Written as a summary of the authors&rsquo; political thought, the Manifesto is also a reflection of the unrest and the revolutions of the time.<br /><br />The Manifesto analyzes the struggle due to social inequality and the problems presented by a capitalist society. This work also speculates on the limited future of a totally capitalist driven economy, predicting that eventually the world would turn to socialism.<br /><br />By 1860, The Manifesto had fallen into obscurity and was not as important as it once was but that would change in the latter part of the nineteenth-century when Karl Marx grew more influential in socialist circles. Russia became the world&rsquo;s first socialist state with the Manifesto being its primary outline for the new social order.