Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Marx

Episode 1 of 3

Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of thinkers whose ideas shaped the modern world. Drawing on expert opinion and new evidence, she looks at Karl Marx and his groundbreaking ideas.

Bettany Hughes investigates the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx. Born to an affluent Prussian family, Marx became an angry, idealistic radical, constantly on the run for his political agitating and incendiary writing. In Paris, he first formulated his explosive analysis of capitalism and its corrosive effects on human nature. In Brussels, he co-authored the Communist Manifesto with Frederick Engels. In London, his obsessive theorizing dragged his family into poverty and tragedy.

Marx's masterpiece Das Capital was largely overlooked in his lifetime, and only 11 people attended his funeral. Yet his ideas would generate one of the most influential, and divisive, ideologies in history. Drawing on expert opinion and new evidence, Bettany reveals the flesh-and-blood man and his groundbreaking ideas.

1 hour

Last on

Tue 29 Oct 2019 00:00
主播大秀 Four

More episodes

Previous

You are at the first episode

Next

Nietzsche

See all episodes from Genius of the Modern World

Clip

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:16

    Todd Hannigan

    Thicker Than Water

  • 00:48

    Anders Niska, Klas Wahl

    The Darkness

Credits

Presenter Bettany Hughes
Producer Rob Cowling
Director Rob Cowling
Executive Producer David Upshal

Broadcasts

Learn more about Marx, Nietzsche and Freud with The Open University

Visit OpenLearn, the OU鈥檚 home of free learning, and explore

How Marx, Nietzsche and Freud shaped the lives of millions

Bettany Hughes selects some unusual facts about the three great thinkers for 主播大秀 Arts.