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Karl Marx is a magisterial and defining biography that vividly explores not only the man himself but also the revolutionary times in which he lived Between his birth in and his death sixty-five years later Karl Marx became one of Western civilizationxs most influential political philosophers Two centuries on he is still revered as a prophet of the modern world yet he is also blamed for the darkest atrocities of modern times But no matter in what light he is cast the short but broad-shouldered bearded Marx remainsxas a human beingxdistorted on a Procrustean bed of political xCismsxD perceived through the partially distorting lens of his chief disciple Friedrich Engels or understood as a figure of twentieth-century totalitarian Marxist regimes Returning Marx to the Victorian confines of the nineteenth century Jonathan Sperber one of the United Statesx leading European historians challenges many of our misconceptions of this political firebrand turned London xEmigrxE journalist In this deeply humanizing portrait Marx no longer is the Olympian soothsayer divining the dialectical imperatives of human history but a scholar-activist whose revolutionary Weltanschauung was closer to Robespierrexs than to those of twentieth-century MarxistsWith unlimited access to the MEGA the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe the total edition of Marxxs and Engelsxs writings only recently available Sperber juxtaposes the private man the public agitator and the philosopher-economist We first see Marx as a young boy in the city of Trier influenced by his father Heinrich for whom xCthe French Revolution and its aftermath offered an opportunity to escape the narrowly circumscribed social and political position of Jews in the societyxD For Heinrichxs generation this worldview meant no longer being a member of the so-called Jewish nation but for his son the reverberations were infinitely greaterxnamely a life inspired by the doctrines of the Enlightenment and an implacable belief in human equalityContextualizing Marxxs personal storyxhis rambunctious university years his loving marriage to the devoted Jenny von Westphalen despite an illegitimate child with the family maid his childrenxs tragic deaths the catastrophic financial problemsxwithin a larger historical stage Sperber examines Marxxs public actions and theoretical publications against the backdrop of a European continent roiling with political and social unrest Guided by newly translated notes drafts and correspondence he highlights Marxxs often overlooked work as a journalist his political activities in Berlin Paris and London and his crucial role in both creating and destroying the International Working Menxs Association With Napoleon III Bismarck Adam Smith and Charles Darwin among others as supporting players Karl Marx becomes not just a biography of a man but a vibrant portrait of an infinitely complex timeAlready hailed by Publishers Weekly as xCa major work likely to be the standard biography of Marx for many yearsxD Karl Marx promises to become the defining portrait of a towering historical figure illustrations.