Marx as a Migrant – A digital narrative

Karl Marx lived a long life as a migrant. Fleeing from the Prussian state, censorship and possible arrest, important stops on his journey were Paris, Brussels and London. These cities shaped his political activities, his engagement with political fellow-travellers, as well as his intellectual development and thus his entire work.

At the click of a mouse, you can follow Marx as a migrant from city to city. You can not only immerse yourself in his time, but also discover that even today, traces of his life and work continue to be seen in Paris, Brussels and London.

Each station takes about 45 minutes.

Contact: info@marx200.org

Marx as a Migrant

  • Brussels
  • The Poverty of Philosophy

Reckoning with Proudhon

At this time, Karl Marx is working on a response to Proudhon’s “The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty” which has just been published.

With his refusal to join the correspondence committee – as several biographers later wrote – Proudhon had challenged Marx to an intellectual duel, and in doing so triggered Marx’s “bite reflex”. The two battled for influence over the many (and more established) socialist and communist tendencies of the time.

Marx, others wrote, had returned to his study of economics months earlier and seized the first opportunity to state his interpretation of history. He did this in order to distance himself from socialists like Proudhon, whose programmes appeared as “a reluctant acceptance of the status quo (...) in Marx’ merciless view”..