Full Marx

Ernie Haberkern reviews The Adventures of the Communist Manifesto by Hal Draper, Center for Socialist History, 1250 Addison St., Room 101, Berkeley CA 94702. $19.95

The 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto will undoubtedly be commemorated in hundreds of books and articles interpreting, polemicising for, and polemicising against this remarkable document. There will probably be new translations. All of this material, however, will suffer from one serious problem. It will be based in large measure on the Engels-Moore translation of 1888 and there is no doubt that this translation is itself now an "historic document" as Marx and Engels frequently called the original. But how reliable is it as a guide to the language and thought of the original?

This new reference and guide by Hal Draper addresses this question by considering various versions and translations, comparative analysis and looking at their literary merits and accuracy. The final section of the book contains over 120 pages of annotations explaining obscure references and elaborating where necessary on the political circumstances surrounding the text. The book is fully indexed and is an irreplaceable reference tool. But its value as a reference does not exhaust its usefulness. Important political points are highlighted for the first time.

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