M arx, K arl

Abstract

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818 and died in London in 1883. While often referred to as the “father of communism,” he was much more than that. Marx was a historian and social scientist who founded some of the basic social scientific ideas and concepts still used today. At first glance, the main ideas behind Marx's theory of society and social stratification are deceptively simple. But Marxian theory is at the same time both simple and very complex. Marx began or built his theory of society from a set of very basic concepts. From this base he then expanded with many elaborations, qualifiers, and amendments, thus producing a complex theory contained in many volumes of work written over a period of about 40 years. It is important to understand these basic concepts of Marxian theory first, but its richness and complexity should not be overlooked.