Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist and revolutionary theorist whose analysis of capitalism became the foundation of Marxian economics. In his multi volume work Capital, the first volume of which appeared in 1867, Marx argued that capitalist profit is generated by extracting surplus value from the labor of workers, and he set that economic analysis within a broader theory of historical change in which economic structure shapes politics, law and ideology. Marx worked closely with Friedrich Engels, who helped complete and publish the later volumes of Capital after his death, and his ideas went on to shape not only an academic tradition of economic analysis but also a wide range of twentieth century political movements that claimed his legacy in varying and often conflicting ways.