Marx, in the late 1840s, sets out the essence of his economic philosophy in the Communist Manifesto. He guides us through his materialist conception of history, emphasizing the major class difference between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He turns this into a more teleological argument about the necessary evolution of the links from capitalist slavery to communism, and criticizes all modern versions of socialism. By concluding with statements linking the modern communist movement to its underlying philosophy, Marx brings the cry for a communist revolution full circle. This article will both argue for the validity of the materialist conception of history based on the division of labor and the rise of the proletarian as a force, and justify Marx's brutal criticism of other types of socialism. However, Marx proceeds to praise communism as the inherent answer to economic and societal problems, and even sets out a list of short-term demands. The birth of communism from the ashes of failing capitalism will prove to be a perhaps misguided attempt to lump the current and future intrinsic problems of capitalism into an impossible generalization, impractical in the face of the modern relative luxury of the American proletariat. Marx leaves us with unanswered questions about the practicality and implementation (and perhaps also the necessity) of a communist solution to the complications of capitalism. In the first section titled “Bourgeois and Proletarians,” Marx sets out his view of the past as “the history of class struggles” (Tucker, 473). He introduces in the first sentences the key division between the oppressor and the oppressed. For him, the oppressor is considered the dominant class of a society, and the oppressed environment that it becomes productive is crucial to understanding the fundamental points of failure of capitalism. Marx attacks capitalism which makes the proletarian equivalent a simple “appendage of the machine”. This oppression does not stop at the workplace, with landowners and other traders being cited as further instruments to close the circle of bourgeois oppression. Works Cited Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Marx-Engels reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print. Smirniotopoulos, Peter. "Is the United States capitalist, socialist, or something in between? Newgeography.com." New geography. December 6, 2008. Web. January 23, 2012. .SparkNotes Publishers. “SparkNote on the Communist Manifesto. » SparkNotes.com.SparkNotes LLC. nd. Internet. January 23. 2012.