Of the many people whose ideas and actions have shaped twentieth-century life and thought, none has had more influence than Karl Marx. His disciples have challenged government on every continent, and his political offspring abound either openly or underground in every nation. There is no doubt ground the degree or extent of Marx's impact; but there is still considerable uncertainty about the man himself. Now, Fritz J. Raddatz interprets Marx's enigmatic and multifaceted character with imagination and insight. At the same time, he charts the intellectual development of Marx, from his first essays written at the age of twenty-four when still a struggling newspaper editor in Cologne to the apogee of his life's work, Das Kapital.