Karl Marx’s work is defined by an unyielding commitment to critiquing and reshaping the socioeconomic structures of his time. He was born on May 5, 1818. His intellectual journey began with studies in law and philosophy at the University of Bonn and later at the University of Berlin, where he was exposed to the ideas of German philosophers such as Hegel and Feuerbach. He became associated with a group of thinkers that called themselves the “Young Hegelians,” who became increasingly radical over time and began to oppose things like monarchy and religion. Marx eventually went on to earn a PhD at the University of Jena, but had difficulty finding a faculty position because of his radical views. His difficulties in securing an academic career led him down the path of journalism, where he found work with a variety of leftwing publications.

One of those newspapers was Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which Marx founded and edited in Cologne, Germany, and where he published “Wage Labour and Capital” for the first time (1849). Marx had originally presented the articles as a series of lectures to the German Workers Society in Brussels in 1848 and intended to publish it there as well. However, he was prevented from doing so when Belgian police began arresting and deporting members of the Society after an outbreak of revolutionary activity.