Karl Marx was born in the German city of Trier in 1818. He studied law in Bonn and Berlin at his father's insistence, but his true interests lay elsewhere and, in 1841, he received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena.

For the next two years he wrote for radical left-wing newspapers before moving to Paris with his wife, Jenny; there he became a communist and met his lifelong friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels.

They published their revolutionary pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, in 1848 and Marx moved to London a year later. He spent the rest of his life there - often in considerable poverty - while he wrote his magnum opus of political theory, Das Kapital. Karl Marx died in 1883.

Tom Butler-Bowdon is recognised as an expert on personal development literature.

His 50 Classics series has been hailed as the definitive guide to the literature of possibility, and has won numerous awards including the Benjamin Franklin Self-Help Award and Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award.

A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, he lives and works in both the Oxford, UK and Australia.