Class in Anna Karenina Anonymous College

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Such is the dogma that underlies the social and economic theories laid out by German philosopher Karl Marx in his political pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto. In 1848, Marx wrote The Manifesto as propaganda for the communist movement, which arose as a response to the Industrial Revolution and the seemingly insurmountable division of classes it resulted in. In his pamphlet, Marx gives name to the classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat is comprised of wage workers whose earnings comes from selling their labor. The proletariat historically is the underclass with little to no property or political power, while the bourgeoisie is the ruling class, the “product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.” The proletariat is exploited by the bourgeoisie, who profits from this exploitation. The Manifesto outlines the issues that come with this class division, namely the continuation of this system in perpetuum. However, as the means of production shift from agricultural to industrial, so too does the balance of power. “With the development of industry, the proletariat not...