BBC World Service RADIO

Coordinates	21°18′32″N157°49′34″N
Name	BBC Radio 4
Type	News, Speech & Drama
Airdate	30 September 1967
Country	United Kingdom
Market share	12.3% (March 2011)
Owner	BBC
Key people	Gwyneth Williams - Controller
Former names	BBC Home Service
Digital	DAB 12B
Analog	92.5-96.1 MHz FM 103.5-104.9 MHz FM LW Also on MW : , , ,
Servicename1	BBC iPlayer
Service1	FM service LW service
Servicename2	Freesat
Service2	704 (FM) 710 (LW)
Servicename3	Freeview
Service3	704 (FM)
Servicename4	Sky
Service4	0104 (FM) 0143 (LW)
Servicename5	TalkTalk TV
Service5	604 (FM)
Servicename6	Virgin Media
Service6	904 (FM) 911 (LW)
Servicename7	UPC Ireland
Service7	910 (FM) Various frequencies on analogue cable
Website
Footnotes	}}

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the ''BBC Audio & Music'' department. The station is broadcast from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London.

A sister station, BBC Radio 4 Extra, complements Radio 4 by broadcasting archive programming alongside extended versions of programmes, or supplementary programmes to well known Radio 4 programmes, such as The Archers and Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular domestic radio station in the UK, and is broadcast throughout the United Kingdom on FM, LW and DAB, and can be received in the north of France and Northern Europe as well. In addition, the station is also available through Sky and Virgin Media, and on the internet.

BBC Radio 4 is notable for its consistent news bulletins and programmes such as ''Today'', which are heralded on air by the BBC Pips or the chimes of Big Ben.

Outline

Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station, after Radio 2 - and the most popular in London and the south of England. The station recorded its highest ever audience - 11 million listeners - in May 2011 and was named "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2003, 2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards. Costing £71.4 million (2005/6), it is the BBC's most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be the corporation's flagship. There is currently no comparable British commercial network. This situation is unlikely to change in the near future, as Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review.

The controller of Radio 4 is Gwyneth Williams. The previous controller was Mark Damazer, who is now Master of St Peter's College, Oxford.

Music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the station's remit. However the channel does broadcast occasional concerts, documentaries related to various forms of both popular and classical music, as well as the long-running music-based programme Desert Island Discs. In addition, prior to the creation of BBC Radio 5, the station broadcast several sports-based features, most notably Sport on Four and - since the creation of BBC Radio 5 Live has become the home of ball-by-ball commentaries of most test cricket matches played by England, which are broadcast on long wave. As a result, for around 70 days a year, listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts. However the number of those relying solely on long wave is now a small minority.

The cricket broadcasts even take precedence over on the hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast. Radio 4 has carried these regular weather forecasts for shipping and gale warnings since its move to the Long Wave frequency in 1978 because the long-wave service can be received clearly at sea around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. The station has also been designated as the UK's national broadcaster in times of national emergency such as a war: if all other radio stations were forced to close, Radio 4 would still carry on broadcasting. It has been claimed that Radio 4 had an additional role during the Cold War: the commanders of nuclear-armed submarines believing that Britain had suffered nuclear attack were required to check if they could still receive Radio 4, and if they could not would open sealed orders which might authorize a retaliatory strike.

As well as news and drama, and despite a reputation for being middle class and London centric, Radio 4 also has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy - many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station.

The station is available on FM (in most of Great Britain, parts of Ireland and the North of France), LW (throughout the United Kingdom and in parts of Northern Europe, and the Atlantic north of the Azores to about 20 degrees west), MW (in some areas), DAB, Digital TV (including Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media), and on the Internet.

History

[[File:R4logo.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Previous logo of BBC Radio 4 until 2007 ]]

The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967. It had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955 onwards. Radio 4 replaced the Home Service on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its domestic radio stations, in response to the challenge of offshore radio. It moved to long wave in 1978, taking over the 200 kHz frequency previously held by Radio 2, and later moved to 198 kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference.

Between 17 January 1991 and 2 March 1991, the FM broadcasts were replaced by a continuous news service devoted to the Gulf War, nicknamed "Scud FM".

Radio 4 is part of the Royal Navy's system of Last Resort Letters. In the event of a suspected catastrophic attack on Great Britain, submarine commanders, in addition to carrying out other checks, would check for a broadcast signal from Radio 4 to verify annihilation of the homeland.

Programmes and schedules

Daily schedule

The night-time feed from the BBC World Service ends at 05:20, with a brief introduction from the early shift continuity announcer. The five-minute ''Radio 4 UK Theme'' (composed by Fritz Spiegl) followed this for 33 years until April 2006. It was replaced by an extension to the early news bulletin, despite some public opposition and a campaign to save it. After a continuity link and programme trail there is a shipping forecast, weather reports from coastal stations for 04:00GMT and the inshore waters forecasts, followed at 05:30 by a news bulletin, a review of British and international newspapers, and a business report. On weekdays, ''Farming Today'', which deals with news of relevance to the agricultural sector, is followed by the ''Today'' programme from 06:00 to 09:00.

After the ''Today'' programme, the schedule is then determined by the day of the week, though on every weekday there are 'fixtures': ''Woman's Hour'' at 10:00, ''You and Yours'' at 12:00, ''The World at One'' and a repeat of the previous day's ''The Archers'' at 2:00 pm, followed by the Afternoon Play at 2.15 pm. At 5:00 pm another current affairs programme, ''PM'', is broadcast. At 6:30 pm there is a regular comedy 'slot', followed by ''The Archers''. At weekends the schedule is different, but also has its 'fixtures' at various times.

On or after the hour, a news bulletin is broadcast—this is sometimes a two-minute summary, a longer piece as part of a current affairs programme, or a 30-minute broadcast on weekdays at 18:00 and midnight. At 12:00, FM has a four-minute bulletin while long wave has the headlines and then the ''Shipping Forecast''; for the same reason, long wave leaves ''PM'' on weekdays at 17:54.

There is a news programme or bulletin (depending on the day) at 22:00. The midnight news is followed on weekdays by a repeat of ''Book of the Week''. The tune ''Sailing By'' is played until 00:48, when the late shipping forecast is broadcast. Timing is said to be difficult as the Sailing By theme must be started at a set time and faded in as the last programme ends. Radio 4 finishes with the national anthem, ''God Save the Queen'', and the World Service takes over from 01:00 until 05:20.

Timing is considered sacrosanct on the channel. Running over the hour except in special circumstances or occasional scheduled instance is unheard of, and even interrupting the Greenwich Time Signal on the hour (known as 'crashing the pips') is frowned upon.

An online schedule page lists the running order of programmes.

Production

Many Radio 4 programmes are pre-recorded. Programmes transmitted live include daily programmes such as ''Today'', magazine programme ''Woman's Hour'', consumer affairs programme ''You and Yours'', and (often) the music, film, books, arts and culture programme ''Front Row''. Continuity is generally managed from BBC Broadcasting House whilst news bulletins, including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the ''Six O'Clock News'' and ''Midnight News'', and news programmes such as ''Today'', ''The World at One'' and ''PM'' come from the BBC News Centre at Television Centre in White City. They were moved there in 1998 when the News Centre was opened to house both radio and TV news. News returned to Broadcasting House in 2008.

The Time Signal, known as 'the pips', is broadcast every hour to herald the news bulletin, except at midnight and 6 pm, where the chimes of Big Ben are played instead.

Programmes

Radio 4 is distinguished by its long-running programmes, many of which have been broadcast for over 40 years.

Most programmes are available for a week after broadcast as streaming audio from Radio 4's ''listen again'' page and via BBC iPlayer. A selection of programmes is also available as podcasts or downloadable audio files. Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives are rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7).

Continuity announcers and newsreaders

Announcers link programmes and read trails for programmes and for the Shipping Forecast. Newsreaders read hourly summaries and longer bulletins.

Senior Announcers

Chris Aldridge

Harriet Cass

Newsreaders/Continuity Announcers

Alice Arnold

Carolyn Brown

Kathy Clugston

Corrie Corfield

Charlotte Green

Annie McKie

Rory Morrison

Susan Rae

Neil Sleat

Newsreaders (non-Today programme)/Continuity Announcers

Charles Carroll

David Miles

Vaughan Savidge

Alan Smith

Zebedee 'Zeb' Soanes

Diana Speed

Newsreaders (non-Today programme)

Peter Donaldson

Brian Perkins

Continuity Announcers

Jim Lee

Neil Nunes

Howard Philpott

Caroline Nicholls

Matthew Exell

Arlene Fleming

Former staff

David Anderson (left to senior management, but covered during the May 2005 strike)

Bill Bingham (1980–1982)

Louise Botting (presenter of ''Money Box'', 1977–1992)

Louise Bruce

Piers Burton-Page (1975–1977)

Edward Cole

Andrew Crawford (can still be heard announcing ''I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'')

John Hedges

Alison Rooper (left 2005, joined Radio 3)

Astley Jones (left 2006)

Jonathan Lampon

Jenny Lane

Pennie Latin (left 11/04)

Bryan Martin (died 2009)

Patrick Muirhead (left 9/04)

Laurie Macmillan (died 10/01)

Jamie Owen

Andy Rushton (''Test Match Special'' announcer 1998 – June 2007)

Moira Stuart (left 1981 to TV; now on BBC Radio 2)

Anna Hill (left ~2000 – now presents ''Farming Today'')

Clive Roslin (left ~1990)

Jane Steele

Catriona Young (now with Radio 3)

Pauline Bushnell

Peter Jefferson (left 09/09)

Frequencies and other means of reception

Radio 4 is broadcast on:

92–95 MHz FM in England, and from some transmitters in Wales

* 95.8 MHz in central Scotland

96 MHz in Greater Belfast

* 103-104.5 from other transmitters in Wales and generally in Scotland and Northern Ireland

198 kHz longwave

Medium wave in some areas:

* 720 kHz in London and Northern Ireland

* 1449 kHz in Aberdeen and North East Scotland

DAB

* Standard FM content

* Subsidiary LW content, where applicable

Freeview channel 704 (FM only)

The Internet

* WMA live streaming

Digital satellite:

* Radio 4 FM:

** Freesat channel 704

* Sky channel 0104

* Radio 4 LW:

** Freesat channel 710

* Sky channel 0143

Virgin Media channel 904 (FM), channel 911 (LW)

Selected other cable television providers (Also on various frequencies on analogue cable networks)

* UPC Ireland channel 910 in Ireland

TalkTalk TV channel 604

Criticisms

There have been criticisms voiced by newspapers in recent years over a perceived "left-wing" bias at Radio 4 across a range of issues such as the EU and the Iraq War, as well as sycophancy in interviews, particularly on the popular morning news magazine "Today" as part of a reported perception of a general "malaise" at the BBC. Conversely, the station has sometimes also been criticised for an overtly socially and culturally conservative approach, though these criticisms are less prominent than they once were following the station's evolution under recent controllers.

See also

Radio 4 UK Theme

ABC Radio National

Radio New Zealand National

CBC Radio One

RTÉ Radio 1

References

Further reading

Elmes, Simon ''And Now on Radio 4'', 2007, Random House ISBN 978-0099505372

Hendy, David ''Life on Air: A History of Radio Four'', 2007, Oxford University Press

External links

Last.FM: BBC Radio 4 group

Index of Radio 4 programmes about usability and design

Pilgrimage to the Pips: A Radio 4 Announcers' Charity Walk

Category:BBC Radio 4 4 Category:News and talk radio stations in the United Kingdom Category:Radio stations established in 1967 Category:1967 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:Peabody Award winners

cy:BBC Radio 4 de:BBC Radio 4 es:BBC Radio 4 fr:BBC Radio 4 gl:BBC Radio 4 it:BBC Radio 4 nl:BBC Radio 4 no:BBC Radio 4 pl:BBC Radio 4 pt:BBC Radio 4 simple:BBC Radio 4 fi:BBC Radio 4 sv:BBC Radio 4 tr:BBC Radio 4

Radio 4 may refer to:

BBC Radio 4, a British radio station

Radio 4 (Netherlands), a Dutch radio station

Radio 4 (band), a New York dance-punk band

Radio 4 All, an internet audio archive of over 35,000 independent non-commercial radio programs.

nl:Radio 4

Coordinates	21°18′32″N157°49′34″N
Region	Western Philosophy, German philosophy
Era	19th century philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Name	Karl Heinrich Marx
Birth date	5 May 1818
Birth place	Trier, Kingdom of Prussia
Death date	March 14, 1883 (bronchitis/pleurisy)
Death place	London, United Kingdom
Religion	Protestantism; later, none (atheist)
School tradition	Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Hegelianism
Signature	Karl Marx Signature.svg
Main interests	Politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, labour, history, class struggle
Influences	Hegel, Feuerbach, Spinoza, Proudhon, Stirner, Smith, Voltaire, Ricardo, Vico, Rousseau, Goethe, Helvetius, d'Holbach, Shakespeare, Dante, Chaucer, Fourier, Robert Owen, Balcescu, Hess, Hupay, Guizot
Influenced	Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Tito, Hoxha, Castro, Guevara, Ceaușescu, Ho, Christofias, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Luxemburg, Lukács, Gramsci, Korsch, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Chomsky, Bookchin, Arendt, Marcuse, Lyotard, Tzara, Foucault, Deleuze, Debord, Frankfurt School, Negri, Taussig, Roy and others
Notable ideas	Co-founder of Marxism (with Engels), surplus value, contributions to the labor theory of value, alienation and exploitation of the worker, ''The Communist Manifesto,'' ''Das Kapital,'' materialist conception of history |}}

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, sociologist, economic historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist who developed the socio-political theory of Marxism. His ideas have since played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement. He published various books during his lifetime, with the most notable being ''The Communist Manifesto'' (1848) and ''Capital'' (1867–1894), many of which were co-written with his friend, the fellow German revolutionary socialist Friedrich Engels.

Born into a wealthy middle class family in Trier, Prussia, Marx went on to study at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. In 1836, he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, marrying her in 1843. Following the completion of his studies, he became a journalist in Cologne, writing for a radical newspaper, the ''Rheinische Zeitung'', where he began to use Hegelian concepts of dialectical materialism to influence his ideas on socialism. Moving to Paris in 1843, he began writing for other radical newspapers, the ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'' and ''Vorwärts!'', as well as writing a series of books, several of which were co-written with Engels. Exiled to Brussels in Belgium in 1845, he became a leading figure of the Communist League, before moving back to Cologne, where he founded his own newspaper, the ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung''. Exiled once more, in 1849 he moved to London together with his wife Jenny and their children. In London, where the family was reduced to poverty, Marx continued writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he believed it could be improved, as well as campaigning for socialism and becoming a significant figure in the International Workingmen's Association.

Marx's theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as Marxism, hold that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle. He was heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and upper classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Under socialism, he argued that society would be governed by the working class in what he called the "dictatorship of the proletariat", the "workers state" or "workers' democracy". He believed that socialism would, in its turn, eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called pure communism. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for the former's implementation, arguing that both social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.

While Marx remained a relatively unknown figure in his own lifetime, his ideas and the ideology of Marxism began to exert a major influence on socialist movements shortly after his death. Revolutionary socialist governments following Marxist concepts took power in a variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of such socialist states as the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People's Republic of China in 1949, whilst various theoretical variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism, were developed. Marx is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people from around the world.

Biography

Early life: 1818–1835

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 at 664 Brückergasse in Trier, a town located in the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of the Lower Rhine. His ancestry was Jewish, with his paternal line having supplied the rabbis of Trier since 1723, a role that had been taken up by his own grandfather, Merier Halevi Marx; Merier's son and Karl's father would be the first in the line to receive a secular education. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch rabbi. Karl's father, Hirschel Marx, was middle-class and relatively prosperous, owning a number of Moselle vineyards; he converted from Judaism to the Protestant Christian denomination of Lutheranism prior to his son's birth, taking on the German forename of Heinrich over Hirschel. In 1815, he began working as an attorney and in 1819 moved his family from a five-room rented apartment into a ten-room property near the Porta Nigra. A man of the Enlightenment, Heinrich Marx was interested in the ideas of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire, and took part in agitations for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, which was then governed by an absolute monarchy. Karl's mother, born Henrietta Pressburg, was a Dutch Jew who, unlike her husband, was only semi-literate. She claimed to suffer from "excessive mother love", devoting much time to her family, and insisting on cleanliness within her home. She was from a prosperous business family. Her family later founded the company Philips Electronics: she was great-aunt to Anton and Gerard Philips, and great-great-aunt to Frits Philips.

Little is known about Karl Marx's childhood. He was privately educated until 1830, when he entered Trier High School, which was then run by the headmaster Hugo Wyttenbach, a friend of his father. Wyttenbach had employed many liberal humanists as teachers, something which angered the government, and so the police raided the school in 1832, discovering what they labelled seditious literature espousing political liberalism being distributed amongst the students. In 1835, Karl, then aged seventeen, began attending the University of Bonn, where he wished to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted on law as a more practical field of study. He was able to avoid military service when he turned eighteen because he suffered from a weak chest. Being fond of alcoholic beverages, at Bonn he joined the Trier Tavern Club drinking society (''Landsmannschaft der Treveraner'') and at one point served as its co-president. Marx was more interested in drinking and socialising than studying law, and due to his poor grades, his father forced him to transfer to the far more serious and academically oriented University of Berlin, where his legal studies became less significant than excursions into philosophy and history.

Hegelianism and early activism: 1836–1843

In 1836, Marx became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, a baroness of the Prussian ruling class who broke off her engagement with a young aristocratic second lieutenant in order to be with him. Their eventual marriage was controversial for breaking three social taboos of the period; it was a marriage between a daughter of a noble background and a man of Jewish origin as well as being between individuals who belonged to the middle and upper class (aristocracy), respectively, and between a man and an older woman. Such issues were lessened by Marx's friendship with Jenny's father, Baron Ludwig von Westphalen, a liberal thinking aristocrat. Marx dedicated his doctoral thesis to him. The couple married seven years later, on 19 June 1843, at the ''Pauluskirche'' in Bad Kreuznach.

Marx became interested in, but critical of, the work of the German philosopher G.W.F Hegel (1770–1831), whose ideas were widely debated amongst European philosophical circles at the time. Marx wrote about falling ill "from intense vexation at having to make an idol of a view I detested." He became involved with a group of radical thinkers known as the Young Hegelians, who gathered around Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer. Like Marx, the Young Hegelians were critical of Hegel's metaphysical assumptions, but still adopted his dialectical method in order to criticise established society, politics and religion. Marx befriended Bauer, and in July 1841 the two scandalised their class in Bonn by getting drunk, laughing in church, and galloping through the streets on donkeys. During that period, Marx concentrated on his criticism of Hegel and certain other Young Hegelians.

Marx also wrote for his own enjoyment, writing both non-fiction and fiction. In 1837, he completed a short novel, ''Scorpion and Felix''; a drama, ''Oulanem''; and some poems; none of which were published. He soon gave up writing fiction for other pursuits, including learning English and Italian.

He was deeply engaged in writing his doctoral thesis, ''The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature'', which he finished in 1841. The essay has been described as "a daring and original piece of work in which he set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom of philosophy", and as such was controversial, particularly among the conservative professors at the University of Berlin. Marx decided to submit it instead to the more liberal University of Jena, whose faculty awarded him his PhD based on it.

From considering an academic career, Marx turned to journalism. He moved to the city of Cologne in 1842, where he began writing for the radical newspaper ''Rheinische Zeitung'', where he expressed his increasingly socialist views on politics. He criticised the governments of Europe and their policies, but also liberals and other members of the socialist movement whose ideas he thought were ineffective or outright anti-socialist. The paper eventually attracted the attention of the Prussian government censors, who checked every issue for potentially seditious material before it could be printed. Marx said, "Our newspaper has to be presented to the police to be sniffed at, and if the police nose smells anything un-Christian or un-Prussian, the newspaper is not allowed to appear." After the paper published an article strongly criticising the monarchy in Russia, the Russian Tsar Nicholas I, an ally of the Prussian monarchy, requested that the ''Rheinische Zeitung'' be banned. The Prussian government shut down the paper in 1843. Marx wrote for the Young Hegelian journal, the ''Deutsche Jahrbücher'', in which he criticised the censorship instructions issued by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. His article was censored and the newspaper closed down by the authorities shortly after.

In 1843, Marx published ''On the Jewish Question'', in which he distinguished between political and human emancipation. He also examined the role of religious practice in society. That same year he published ''Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right'', in which he dealt more substantively with religion, describing it as "the opiate of the people". He completed both works shortly before leaving Cologne.

Paris: 1843–1845

Following the government-imposed shutdown of the ''Rheinische Zeitung'', Marx got involved with a new radical newspaper, the ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'' (''German-French Annals''), which was then being set up by Arnold Ruge, another German socialist revolutionary. The paper was based not in Germany, but in the city of Paris in neighbouring France, and it was here that both Marx and his wife moved in October 1843. They initially lived with Ruge and his wife communally at 23 Rue Vaneau, but finding these living conditions difficult, the Marxes moved out following the birth of their daughter Jenny in 1844. Although it was intended to attract writers from both France and the German states, the ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'' was dominated by the latter, with the only non-German writer being the exiled Russian anarcho-communist Michael Bakunin. Only one issue was ever published, but it was relatively successful, largely due to the inclusion of Heinrich Heine's satirical odes on King Ludwig of Bavaria, which led to those copies sent to Germany being confiscated by the state's police force.

It was in Paris that, on 28 August 1844, Marx met German socialist Friedrich Engels at the Café de la Régence after becoming interested in the ideas that the latter had expressed in articles written for the ''Rheinische Zeitung'' and the ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher''. Although they had briefly met each other at the offices of the ''Rheinische Zeitung'' in 1842, it was here in Paris that they began their friendship that would last for the rest of their lives. Engels showed Marx his recently published book, ''The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844'', which convinced Marx that the working class would be the agent and instrument of the final revolution in history. Engels and Marx soon set about writing a criticism of the philosophical ideas of Marx's former friend, the Young Hegelian Bruno Bauer, which would be published in 1845 as ''The Holy Family''. Although critical of Bauer, Marx was increasingly influenced by the ideas of the other Young Hegelians Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach, but eventually also abandoned Feuerbachian materialism as well.

In 1844 Marx wrote ''The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts'', a work which covered numerous topics, and went into detail to explain Marx's concept of alienated labour. A year later Marx would write ''Theses on Feuerbach'', best known for the statement that "the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it". This work contains Marx's criticism of materialism (for being contemplative), idealism (for reducing practice to theory) and overall, criticising philosophy for putting abstract reality above the physical world. It thus introduced the first glimpse at Marx's historical materialism, an argument that the world is changed not by ideas but by actual, physical, material activity and practice.

After the collapse of the ''Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher'', Marx, still living on the Rue Vaneau, began writing for what was then the only uncensored German-language radical newspaper in Europe, ''Vorwärts!''. Based in Paris, the paper had been established and was run by many activists connected to the revolutionary socialist League of the Just, which would come to be better known as the Communist League within a few years. In ''Vorwärts!'', Marx continued to refine his views on socialism based upon the Hegelian and Feurbachian ideas of dialectical materialism, whilst at the same time criticising various liberals and other socialists operating in Europe at the time. However in 1845, after receiving a request from the Prussian king, the French government agreed to shut down ''Vorwärts!'', and furthermore, Marx himself was expelled from France by the interior minister François Guizot.

Brussels: 1845–1847

Unable either to stay in France or move to Germany, Marx decided to emigrate to Brussels in Belgium, but had to pledge not to publish anything on the subject of contemporary politics in order to enter. In Brussels, he associated with other exiled socialists from across Europe, including Moses Hess, Karl Heinzen and Joseph Weydemeyer, and soon Engels moved to the city in order to join them. In 1845 Marx and Engels visited the leaders of the Chartists, a socialist movement in Britain, using the trip as an opportunity to study in various libraries in London and Manchester. In collaboration with Engels he also set about writing a book which is often seen as his best treatment of the concept of historical materialism, ''The German Ideology''; the work, like many others, would not see publication in Marx's lifetime, only being published in 1932. He followed this with ''The Poverty of Philosophy'' (1847), a response to the French anarcho-socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's ''The Philosophy of Poverty'' and a critique of French socialist thought in general.

These books laid the foundation for Marx and Engels's most famous work, a political pamphlet that has since come to be commonly known as ''The Communist Manifesto''. First published on 21 February 1848, it laid out the beliefs of the Communist League, a group who had come increasingly under the influence of Marx and Engels, who argued that the League must make their aims and intentions clear to the general public rather than hiding them as they had formerly been doing. The opening lines of the pamphlet set forth the principal basis of Marxism, that "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." It goes on to look at the antagonisms that Marx claimed were arising between the clashes of interest between the bourgeoisie (the wealthy middle class) and the proletariat (the industrial working class). Proceeding on from this, the ''Manifesto'' presents the argument for why the Communist League, as opposed to other socialist and liberal political parties and groups at the time, was truly acting in the interests of the proletariat to overthrow capitalist society and replace it with socialism.

Later that year, Europe experienced a series of protests, rebellions, and often violent upheavals, the Revolutions of 1848. In France, a revolution led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the French Second Republic. Marx was supportive of such activity, and having recently received a substantial inheritance from his father of either 6000 or 5000 francs, allegedly used a third of it to arm Belgian workers who were planning revolutionary action. Although the veracity of these allegations is disputed, the Belgian Ministry of Justice accused him of it, subsequently arresting him, and he was forced to flee back to France, where, with a new republican government in power, he believed that he would be safe.

Cologne: 1848-1849

Temporarily settling down in Paris, Marx transferred the Communist League executive headquarters to the city and also set up a German Workers' Club with various German socialists living there. Hoping to see the revolution spread to Germany, in 1848 Marx moved back to Cologne where he began issuing a handbill entitled the ''Demands of the Communist Party in Germany'', in which he argued for only four of the ten points of the ''Communist Manifesto'', believing that in Germany at that time, the bourgeoisie must overthrow the feudal monarchy and aristocracy before the proletariat could overthrow the bourgeoisie. On 1 June, Marx started publication of the daily ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung'' ("New Rhenish Newspaper"), which he helped to finance through his recent inheritance from his father. Designed to put forward news from across Europe with his own Marxist interpretation of events, Marx remained one of its primary writers, accompanied by other fellow members of the Communist League who wrote for the paper, although despite their input it remained, according to Friedrich Engels, "a simple dictatorship by Marx", who dominated the choice of content.

Whilst editor of the paper, Marx and the other revolutionary socialists were regularly harassed by the police, and Marx was brought to trial on several occasions, facing various allegations including insulting the Chief Public Prosecutor, an alleged press misdemeanor and inciting armed rebellion through tax boycotting, although each time he was acquitted. Meanwhile, the democratic parliament in Prussia collapsed, and the king, Frederick William IV, introduced a new cabinet of his reactionary supporters, who implemented counter-revolutionary measures to expunge leftist and other revolutionary elements from the country. As a part of this, the ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung'' was soon suppressed and Marx was ordered to leave the country on 16 May. Marx returned to Paris, which was then under the grip of both a reactionary counter-revolution and a cholera epidemic, and was soon expelled by the city authorities who considered him a political threat. With his wife Jenny expecting their fourth child, and not able to move back to Germany or Belgium, in August 1849 he sought refuge in London.

London: 1849–1883

Marx moved to London in May 1849 and would remain in the city for the rest of his life. It was here that he founded the new headquarters of the Communist League, and got heavily involved with the socialist German Workers' Educational Society, who held their meetings in Great Windmill Street, Soho, central London's entertainment district. Marx devoted himself to two activities: revolutionary organising, and an attempt to understand political economy and capitalism. For the first few years he and his family lived in extreme poverty. His main source of income was his colleague, Engels, who derived much of his income from his family's business. Marx also briefly worked as correspondent for the ''New York Tribune'' in 1851.

From December 1851 to March 1852 Marx wrote ''The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon'', a work on the French Revolution of 1848, in which he expanded upon his concepts of historical materialism, class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, advancing the argument that victorious proletariat has to smash the bourgeois state.

The 1850s and 1860s also marks the line between what some scholars see as idealistic, Hegelian young Marx from the more scientifically-minded mature Marx writings of the later period. This distinction is usually associated with the structural Marxism school. Nor do all scholars agree that it indeed exists.

In 1864 Marx became involved in the International Workingmen's Association (also known as ''First International''). He became a leader of its General Council, to whose General Council he was elected at its inception in 1864. In that organisation Marx was involved in the struggle against the anarchist wing centred around Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Although Marx won this contest, the transfer of the seat of the General Council from London to New York in 1872, which Marx supported, led to the decline of the International. The most important political event during the existence of the International was the ''Paris Commune of 1871'' when the citizens of Paris rebelled against their government and held the city for two months. On the bloody suppression of this rebellion, Marx wrote one of his most famous pamphlets, ''The Civil War in France'', a defense of the Commune.

Given the repeated failures and frustrations of workers' revolutions and movements, Marx also sought to understand capitalism, and spent a great deal of time in the reading room of the British Museum studying and reflecting on the works of political economists and on economic data. By 1857 he had accumulated over 800 pages of notes and short essays on capital, landed property, wage labour, the state, foreign trade and the world market; this work did not appear in print until 1941, under the title ''Grundrisse''. In 1859, Marx published ''Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'', his first serious economic work. In the early 1860s he worked on composing three large volumes, the ''Theories of Surplus Value'', which discussed the theoreticians of political economy, particularly Adam Smith and David Ricardo. This work is often seen as the fourth book of ''Capital'', and constitutes one of the first comprehensive treatises on the history of economic thought. In 1867 the first volume of ''Capital'' was published, a work which analyzed the capitalist process of production. Here, Marx elaborated his labour theory of value and his conception of surplus value and exploitation which he argued would ultimately lead to a falling rate of profit and the collapse of industrial capitalism. Volumes II and III remained mere manuscripts upon which Marx continued to work for the rest of his life and were published posthumously by Engels.

During the last decade of his life, Marx's health declined and he became incapable of the sustained effort that had characterised his previous work. He did manage to comment substantially on contemporary politics, particularly in Germany and Russia. His ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' opposed the tendency of his followers Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel to compromise with the state socialism of Ferdinand Lassalle in the interests of a united socialist party. This work is also notable for another famous Marx's quote: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

In a letter to Vera Zasulich dated 8 March 1881, Marx even contemplated the possibility of Russia's bypassing the capitalist stage of development and building communism on the basis of the common ownership of land characteristic of the village ''mir''. While admitting that Russia's rural "commune is the fulcrum of social regeneration in Russia", Marx also warned that in order for the mir to operate as a means for moving straight to the socialist stage without a preceding capitalist stage, it "would first be necessary to eliminate the deleterious influences which are assailing it (the rural commune) from all sides." Given the elimination of these pernicious influences, Marx allowed, that "normal conditions of spontaneous development" of the rural commune could exist. However, in the same letter to Vera Zaulich, Marx points out that "at the core of the capitalist system ... lies the complete separation of the producer from the means of production."

Death

Following the death of his wife Jenny in December 1881, Marx developed a catarrh that kept him in ill health for the last 15 months of his life. It eventually brought on the bronchitis and pleurisy that killed him in London on 14 March 1883. He died a stateless person; family and friends in London buried his body in Highgate Cemetery, London, on 17 March 1883. There were between nine to eleven mourners at his funeral.

Several of his closest friends spoke at his funeral, including Wilhelm Liebknecht and Friedrich Engels. Engels's speech included the passage: }} Marx's daughter Eleanor and Charles Longuet and Paul Lafargue, Marx's two French socialist sons-in-law, were also in attendance. Liebknecht, a founder and leader of the German Social-Democratic Party, gave a speech in German, and Longuet, a prominent figure in the French working-class movement, made a short statement in French. Two telegrams from workers' parties in France and Spain were also read out. Together with Engels's speech, this constituted the entire programme of the funeral. Non-relatives attending the funeral included three communist associates of Marx: Friedrich Lessner, imprisoned for three years after the Cologne communist trial of 1852; G. Lochner, whom Engels described as "an old member of the Communist League" and Carl Schorlemmer, a professor of chemistry in Manchester, a member of the Royal Society, and a communist activist involved in the 1848 Baden revolution. Another attendee of the funeral was Ray Lankester, a British zoologist who would later become a prominent academic.

Marx's tombstone bears the carved message: "WORKERS OF ALL LANDS UNITE", the final line of ''The Communist Manifesto,'' and from the 11th ''Thesis on Feuerbach'' (edited by Engels): "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways—the point however is to change it". The Communist Party of Great Britain had the monumental tombstone built in 1954 with a portrait bust by Laurence Bradshaw; Marx's original tomb had had only humble adornment. In 1970 there was an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the monument using a homemade bomb.

The later Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm remarked that "One cannot say Marx died a failure" because, although he had not achieved a large following of disciples in Britain, his writings had already begun to make an impact on the leftist movements in Germany and Russia. Within 25 years of his death, the continental European socialist parties that acknowledged Marx's influence on their politics were each gaining between 15 and 47% in those countries with representative democratic elections.

Marx's thought

Inspirations

Marx's thought demonstrates influences from many thinkers, including but not limited to: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's philosophy; The classical political economy (economics) of Adam Smith and David Ricardo; French socialist thought, in particular the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier; Earlier German philosophical materialism, particularly that of Ludwig Feuerbach; The working class analysis by Friedrich Engels.

Marx's view of history, which came to be called historical materialism (controversially adapted as the philosophy of dialectical materialism by Engels and Lenin) certainly shows the influence of Hegel's claim that one should view reality (and history) dialectically. However, Hegel had thought in idealist terms, putting ideas in the forefront, whereas Marx sought to rewrite dialectics in materialist terms, arguing for the primacy of matter over idea. Where Hegel saw the "spirit" as driving history, Marx saw this as an unnecessary mystification, obscuring the reality of humanity and its physical actions shaping the world. He wrote that Hegelianism stood the movement of reality on its head, and that one needed to set it upon its feet.

Though inspired by French socialist and sociological thought, Marx criticised utopian socialists, arguing that their favoured small scale socialistic communities would be bound to marginalisation and poverty, and that only a large scale change in the economic system can bring about real change.

The other important contribution to Marx's revision of Hegelianism came from Engels's book, ''The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844'', which led Marx to conceive of the historical dialectic in terms of class conflict and to see the modern working class as the most progressive force for revolution.

Marx believed that he could study history and society scientifically and discern tendencies of history and the resulting outcome of social conflicts. Some followers of Marx concluded, therefore, that a communist revolution would inevitably occur. However, Marx famously asserted in the eleventh of his ''Theses on Feuerbach'' that "philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however is to change it", and he clearly dedicated himself to trying to alter the world.

Philosophy and social thought

Marx polemic with other thinkers often occurred through critique, and thus he has been called "the first great user of critical method in social sciences." He criticised speculative philosophy, equating metaphysics with ideology. By adopting this approach, Marx attempted to separate key findings from ideological biases. This set him apart from many contemporary philosophers.

Human nature

Fundamentally, Marx assumed that human history involves transforming human nature, which encompasses both human beings and material objects. Humans recognise that they possess both actual and potential selves. For both Marx and Hegel, self-development begins with an experience of internal alienation stemming from this recognition, followed by a realisation that the actual self, as a subjective agent, renders its potential counterpart an object to be apprehended. Marx further argues that, by molding nature in desired ways, the subject takes the object as its own, and thus permits the individual to be actualised as fully human. For Marx, then, human nature—''Gattungswesen'', or species-being—exists as a function of human labour. Fundamental to Marx's idea of meaningful labour is the proposition that, in order for a subject to come to terms with its alienated object, it must first exert influence upon literal, material objects in the subject's world. Marx acknowledges that Hegel "grasps the nature of ''work'' and comprehends objective man, authentic because actual, as the result of his ''own work''", but characterises Hegelian self-development as unduly "spiritual" and abstract. Marx thus departs from Hegel by insisting that "the fact that man is a ''corporeal'', actual, sentient, objective being with natural capacities means that he has ''actual, sensuous objects'' for his nature as objects of his life-expression, or that he can only ''express'' his life in actual sensuous objects." Consequently, Marx revises Hegelian "work" into material "labour", and in the context of human capacity to transform nature the term "labour power".

Labour, class struggle and false consciousness

)}} Marx had a special concern with how people relate to that most fundamental resource of all, their own labour power. He wrote extensively about this in terms of the problem of alienation. As with the dialectic, Marx began with a Hegelian notion of alienation but developed a more materialist conception. Capitalism mediates social relationships of production (such as among workers or between workers and capitalists) through commodities, including labour, that are bought and sold on the market. For Marx, the possibility that one may give up ownership of one's own labour—one's capacity to transform the world—is tantamount to being alienated from one's own nature; it is a spiritual loss. Marx described this loss as commodity fetishism, in which the things that people produce, commodities, appear to have a life and movement of their own to which humans and their behavior merely adapt.

Commodity fetishism provides an example of what Engels called "false consciousness", which relates closely to the understanding of ideology. By "ideology", Marx and Engels meant ideas that reflect the interests of a particular class at a particular time in history, but which contemporaries see as universal and eternal. Marx and Engels's point was not only that such beliefs are at best half-truths; they serve an important political function. Put another way, the control that one class exercises over the means of production includes not only the production of food or manufactured goods; it includes the production of ideas as well (this provides one possible explanation for why members of a subordinate class may hold ideas contrary to their own interests). An example of this sort of analysis is Marx's understanding of religion, summed up in a passage from the preface to his 1843 ''Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right'':

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Whereas his Gymnasium senior thesis argued that religion had as its primary social aim the promotion of solidarity, here Marx sees the social function of religion in terms of highlighting/preserving political and economic status quo and inequality.

Economy, history and society

Marx thoughts on labour were related to the primacy he gave to the economic relation in determining the society's past, present and future (see also economic determinism). Accumulation of capital shapes the social system. Social change, for Marx, was about conflict between opposing interests, driven, in the background, by economic forces. This became the inspiration for the body of works known as the conflict theory. In his evolutionary model of history, he argued that human history began with free, productive and creative work that was over time coerced and dehumanised, a trend most apparent under capitalism. Marx noted that this was not an intentional process; rather, no individual or even no state can go against the forces of economy.

The organisation of society depends on means of production. Literally those things, like land, natural resources, and technology, necessary for the production of material goods and the relations of production, in other words, the social relationships people enter into as they acquire and use the means of production. Together these compose the mode of production, and Marx distinguished historical eras in terms of distinct modes of production. Marx differentiated between base and superstructure, with the base (or substructure) referring to the economic system, and superstructure, to the cultural and political system. Marx regarded this mismatch between (economic) base and (social) superstructure as a major source of social disruption and conflict.

Despite Marx's stress on critique of capitalism and discussion of the new communist society that should replace it, his explicit critique of capitalism is guarded, as he saw it as an improved society compared to the past ones (slavery and feudal). Marx also never clearly discusses issues of morality and justice, although scholars agree that his work contained implicit discussion of those concepts.

Marx's view of capitalism was two sided. On one hand, Marx, in the 19th century's deepest critique of the dehumanising aspects of this system, noted that defining features of capitalism include alienation, exploitation and reoccurring, cyclical depressions leading to mass unemployment; on the other hand capitalism is also characterised by "revolutionizing, industrializing and universalizing qualities of development, growth and progressivity" (by which Marx meant industrialisation, urbanisation, technological progress, increased productivity and growth, rationality and scientific revolution), that are responsible for progress. Marx considered the capitalist class to be one of the most revolutionary in history, because it constantly improved the means of production, more so than any other class in history, and was responsible for the overthrow of feudalism and its transition to capitalism. Capitalism can stimulate considerable growth because the capitalist can, and has an incentive to, reinvest profits in new technologies and capital equipment.

According to Marx capitalists take advantage of the difference between the labour market and the market for whatever commodity the capitalist can produce. Marx observed that in practically every successful industry input unit-costs are lower than output unit-prices. Marx called the difference "surplus value" and argued that this surplus value had its source in surplus labour, the difference between what it costs to keep workers alive and what they can produce. Marx's dual view of capitalism can be seen in his description of the capitalists: he refers to them as to vampires sucking worker's blood, but at the same time, he notes that drawing profit is "by no means an injustice" and that capitalists simply cannot go against the system. The true problem lies with the "cancerous cell" of capital, understood not as property or equipment, but the relations between workers and owners – the economic system in general.

At the same time, Marx stressed that capitalism was unstable, and prone to periodic crises. He suggested that over time, capitalists would invest more and more in new technologies, and less and less in labour. Since Marx believed that surplus value appropriated from labour is the source of profits, he concluded that the rate of profit would fall even as the economy grew. Marx believed that increasingly severe crises would punctuate this cycle of growth, collapse, and more growth. Moreover, he believed that in the long-term this process would necessarily enrich and empower the capitalist class and impoverish the proletariat. In section one of ''The Communist Manifesto'' Marx describes feudalism, capitalism, and the role internal social contradictions play in the historical process:

Marx believed that those structural contradictions within capitalism necessitate its end, giving way to socialism, or a post-capitalistic, communist society:

Thanks to various processes overseen by capitalism, such as urbanisation, the working class, the proletariat, should grow in numbers and develop a class consciousness, in time realising that they have to change the system. Marx believed that if the proletariat were to seize the means of production, they would encourage social relations that would benefit everyone equally, abolishing exploiting class, and introduce a system of production less vulnerable to cyclical crises. Marx argued that capitalism will end through the organised actions of an international working class:

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In this new society the self-alienation would end, and humans would be free to act without being bound by the labour market. It would be a democratic society, enfranchising the entire population. In such a utopian world there would also be little if any need for a state, which goal was to enforce the alienation. He theorised that between capitalism and the establishment of a socialist/communist system, a dictatorship of the proletariat—a period where the working class holds political power and forcibly socialises the means of production—would exist. As he wrote in his "Critique of the Gotha Program", "between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." While he allowed for the possibility of peaceful transition in some countries with strong democratic institutional structures (such as Britain, the US and the Netherlands), he suggested that in other countries with strong centralised state-oriented traditions, like France and Germany, the "lever of our revolution must be force."

Personal life

Marx married Jenny von Westphalen in 1843. Together had seven children, but partly due to the poor living conditions they were forced to live in whilst in London, only three survived to adulthood. The children were: Jenny Caroline (m. Longuet; 1844–83); Jenny Laura (m. Lafargue; 1845–1911); Edgar (1847–1855); Henry Edward Guy ("Guido"; 1849–1850); Jenny Eveline Frances ("Franziska"; 1851–52); Jenny Julia Eleanor (1855–98) and one more who died before being named (July 1857). There are allegations that Marx also fathered a son out of wedlock by his housekeeper, Helene Demuth.

Marx frequently used pseudonyms, often when renting a house or flat, apparently to make it harder for the authorities to track him down. Whilst in Paris, he used that of 'Monsieur Ramboz', whilst in London he signed off his letters as 'A. Williams'. His friends referred to him as 'Moor', due to his dark complexion and black curly hair, something which they believed made him resemble the historical Moors of North Africa, whilst he encouraged his children to call him 'Old Nick' and 'Charley'. He also bestowed nicknames and pseudonyms on his friends and family as well, referring to Friedrich Engels as 'General', his housekeeper Helene Demuth as 'Lenchen' or 'Nym', whilst one of his daughters, Jennychen, was referred to as 'Qui Qui, Emperor of China' and another, Laura, was known as 'Kakadou' or 'the Hottentot'.

Legacy

Widespread influence

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Marx has widely been thought of as one of the most influential thinkers in history, who has had a significant influence on both world politics and intellectual thought. Marx's biographer Francis Wheen considered the "history of the twentieth century" to be "Marx's legacy", whilst Australian philosopher Peter Singer believed that Marx's impact could be compared with that of the founders of the two major world religions, Jesus Christ and Muhammad. Singer noted that "Marx's ideas brought about modern sociology, transformed the study of history, and profoundly affected philosophy, literature and the arts." Marx's ideas led to him becoming "the darling of both European and American intellectuals up until the 1960s", and have influenced a wide variety of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, media studies, political science, theater, history, sociological theory, cultural studies, education, economics, geography, literary criticism, aesthetics, critical psychology, and philosophy.

In July 2005, 27.9% of listeners in a BBC Radio 4 series ''In Our Time'' poll selected Marx as their favorite thinker.

The reasons for Marx's widespread influence revolve around his ethical message; a "morally empowering language of critique" against the dominant capitalist society. No other body of work was so relevant to the modern times, and at the same time, so outspoken about the need for change. In the political realm, Marx's ideas led to the establishment of governments using Marxist thought to replace capitalism with communism or socialism (or augment it with market socialism) across much of the world, whilst his intellectual thought has heavily influenced the academic study of the humanities and the arts.

Marxism

Followers of Marx have drawn on his work to propose grand, cohesive theoretical outlooks dubbed "Marxism". This body of works has had significant influence on the both political and scientific scenes. Nevertheless, Marxists have frequently debated amongst themselves over how to interpret Marx's writings and how to apply his concepts to their contemporary events and conditions. The legacy of Marx's thought has become bitterly contested between numerous tendencies which each see themselves as Marx's most accurate interpreters, including (but not limited to) Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Luxemburgism, and libertarian Marxism. In academic Marxism, various currents have developed as well, often under influence of other views, resulting in structuralist Marxism, historical Marxism, phenomenological Marxism and Hegelian Marxism.

Moreover, one should distinguish between "Marxism" and "what Marx believed"; for example, shortly before he died in 1883, Marx wrote a letter to the French workers' leader Jules Guesde, and to his own son-in-law Paul Lafargue, accusing them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering" and of lack of faith in the working class. After the French party split into a reformist and revolutionary party, some accused Guesde (leader of the latter) of taking orders from Marx; Marx remarked to Lafargue, "if that is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist" (in a letter to Engels, Marx later accused Guesde of being a "Bakuninist").

Founder of social science

Marx is typically cited, along with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science. In contrast to philosophers, Marx offered theories that could often be tested with the scientific method. Both Marx and Auguste Comte set out to develop scientifically justified ideologies in the wake of European secularisation and new developments in the philosophies of history and science. Whilst Marx, working in the Hegelian tradition, rejected Comtean sociological positivism, in attempting to develop a ''science of society'' he nevertheless came to be recognised as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning. In modern sociological theory, Marxist sociology is recognised as one of the main classical perspectives. For Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the "true father" of modern sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."

Criticism

Predictions and theories

While many Marxist concepts are still of importance for modern social science, some specific predictions Marx made have been shown to be unlikely. Marx is often criticised for expecting a wave of socialist revolutions, originating in the most highly industrialised countries, to overturn capitalism. However others, pointing to Marx's encounter with late 19th-century Russian populism and Marx and Engels' preface to the second Russian edition of the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1882), have argued that Marx evinced a growing conviction in his late writings that revolution could in fact emerge first in Russia. Marx predicted the eventual fall of capitalism, to be replaced by socialism, yet since the late 20th century state socialism is in retreat, as the Soviet Union collapsed, and the People's Republic of China shifted towards a market economy. Additionally, his argument that profits are generated only through surplus labour has been challenged by the counterclaim that profits also come from investments in human capital and technology. Marx predicted that over time, inequality would grow (correctly) but also that this would mean growing impoverishment of the growing worker class, increasingly exploited by the capitalists. The latter has not borne true, as in the developed world, through liberal reforms, trade unions won many concessions, improving the situation of the workers (something that Marx considered very unlikely). The working class is also growing smaller, as the industrial sector is replaced by the service sector, and worldwide poverty has decreased since the end of the 19th century. (It should be noted that scholars have debated whether Marx's comments about the proletariat can be analyzed in the context of the working class). In addition to specific predictions, certain of Marx's theories, such as his labour theory of value, have also been criticised. However, in the wake of the economic crisis of 2008 some thinkers like Terry Eagleton, David Harvey, and David McNally have given renewed impetus to the debate on whether Marx was right that capitalism inherently tends towards crisis (which Marx discussed as the "contradictions of capital").

Marxism as the ideology of totalitarian states

While Marxist thought may be used to empower marginalised and dispossessed people, it has also been used to prop up governments who have utilised violence to remove those seen as impeding the revolution. In some instances, his ultimate goals have been used as justification for the end justifies the means logic. Moreover, contrary to his goal, his ideas have been used to promote dogmatism and intolerance. Polish historian Andrzej Walicki noted that Marx's and Engels's theory was the "theory of freedom", but a theory that, at the height of its influence, was used to legitimise the totalitarian socialist state of the Soviet Union. This abuse of Marx's thought is perhaps most clearly exemplified in Stalinist Marxism, described by critics as the "most widespread and successful form of mass indoctrination... a masterly achievement in transforming Marxism into the official ideology of a consistently totalitarian state." The controversy is further fueled as some left-wing theorists have tried to shield Marxism from any connection to the Soviet regime. Lastly, the undue focus on the Marxist thought in the former Eastern Bloc, often forbidding social science arguments from outside the Marxist perspective, led to a backlash against Marxism after the revolutions of 1989. In one example, references to Marx drastically decreased in Polish sociology after the fall of the revolutionary socialist governments, and two major research institutions which advocated the Marxist approach to sociology were closed.

Selected bibliography

''The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law'' (1842)

''Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right'', 1843

''On the Jewish Question'', 1843

''Notes on James Mill'', 1844

''Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844'', 1844

''The Holy Family'', 1845

''Theses on Feuerbach'', 1845

''The German Ideology'', 1845

''The Poverty of Philosophy'', 1847

''Wage-Labour and Capital'', 1847

''Manifesto of the Communist Party'', 1848

''The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon'', 1852

''Grundrisse'', 1857

''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'', 1859

''Writings on the U.S. Civil War'', 1861

''Theories of Surplus Value'', 3 volumes, 1862

''Value, Price and Profit'', 1865

''Capital'', Volume I (''Das Kapital''), 1867

''The Civil War in France'', 1871

''Critique of the Gotha Program'', 1875

''Notes on Wagner'', 1883

''Capital'', Volume II (posthumously published by Engels), 1885

''Capital'', Volume III (posthumously published by Engels), 1894

See also

Karl Marx House

Marx Memorial Library

Marx’s method

Marx's notebooks on the history of technology

Marxian Class Theory

Marxian economics

Pre-Marx socialists

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

;Academic and Popular Books |year= 2002 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location= Oxford |isbn=978–0631213475 |nopp=|ref=Cal02}} |year= 2010 [1983] |publisher=Bookmarks |location= Bloomsbury, London |isbn=978–1905192687 |nopp=|ref=Cal10}} |year= 2011 |publisher=Little, Brown |location= London |isbn=978–1408702871 |nopp=|ref=Hob11}} |year= 1967 [1913]|publisher=Foreign Languages Press |location= Peking |isbn=|nopp=|ref=Len67|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/index.htm}} |year= 1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn=978–0192875105 |nopp=|ref=Sin80}} |year= 2004 |publisher=Index Books |location= Kettering |isbn=978–0572029357 |nopp=|ref=Sto04}} |year= 1973 |publisher=Verlag Die Wirtschaft |location= |isbn= |nopp=|ref=Vyg73|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygodsky/1965/discovery.htm}} |year= 2001 |publisher=Fourth Estate |location= London |isbn=978–1857026375 |nopp=|ref=Whe00}}

Further reading

Althusser, Louis and Balibar, Étienne. ''Reading Capital''. London: Verso, 2009.

Avineri, Shlomo, ''The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx'' (Cambridge University Press, 1968) ISBN 0–521–09619–7

Axelos, Kostas, ''Alienation, Praxis, and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx'' (translated by Ronald Bruzina, University of Texas Press, 1976).

Barnett, Vincent, ''Marx'' (Routledge, 2009)

Blackledge, Paul. ''Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History'' (Manchester University Press, 2006)

Bottomore, Tom, ed. ''A Dictionary of Marxist Thought''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

Alex Callinicos, ''The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx'' (Bookmarks, 1983)

Isaiah Berlin, ''Karl Marx: His Life and Environment'' (Oxford University Press, 1963) ISBN 0–19–520052–7

G. A. Cohen, ''Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence'' (Princeton University Press, 1978) ISBN 0–691–07068–7

Andrew Collier, ''Marx'' (Oneworld, 2004)

Hal Draper, ''Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution'' (4 volumes) Monthly Review Press

Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson, (editors) ''Marx Refuted'', (Bath, UK, 1987) ISBN 0–906798–71–X

Fine, Ben. ''Marx's Capital.'' 5th ed. London: Pluto, 2010.

Foster, John Bellamy. ''Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000.

Stephen Jay Gould, ''A Darwinian Gentleman at Marx's Funeral – E. Ray Lankester'', Page 1, Find Articles.com (1999)

Harvey, David. ''A Companion to Marx's Capital.'' London: Verso, 2010.

Harvey, David. ''The Limits of Capital''. London: Verso, 2006.

Georg G. Iggers, "Historiography: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge."(Wesleyan University Press, 1997, 2005)

Leszek Kołakowski, ''Main Currents of Marxism'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, OUP, 1978

Daniel Little, ''The Scientific Marx'', (University of Minnesota Press, 1986) ISBN 0–8166–1505–5

Mandel, Ernest. ''Marxist Economic Theory''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.

Mandel, Ernest. ''The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx''. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977.

McLellan, David ''Marx before Marxism'' (1980), Macmillan, ISBN 978–0–333–27882–6

McLellan, David. ''Karl Marx: his Life and Thought'' Harper & Row, 1973 ISBN 978–0–06–012829–6

Franz Mehring, ''Karl Marx: The Story of His Life'' (Routledge, 2003)

Miller, Richard W. ''Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power, and History''. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Boris Nicolaevsky and Otto Maenchen-Helfen (translator), ''Karl Marx: Man and Fighter'' (Penguin Books, 1976) ISBN 0–14–021594–8

Postone, Moishe. ''Time, Labour, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory.'' Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Murray Rothbard, ''An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought Volume II: Classical Economics'' (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1995) ISBN 0–945466–48–X

Maximilien Rubel, ''Marx Without Myth: A Chronological Study of his Life and Work'' (Blackwell, 1975) ISBN 0–631–15780–8

Saad-Filho, Alfredo. ''The Value of Marx: Political Economy for Contemporary Capitalism''. London: Routledge, 2002.

Schmidt, Alfred. ''The Concept of Nature in Marx''. London: NLB, 1971.

Jerrold Seigel, ''Marx's fate: the shape of a life'' (Princeton University Press, 1978) ISBN 0–271–00935–7

Thomas T. Sekine, ''The Dialectic of Capital. A Study of the Inner Logic of Capitalism'', 2 volumes (preliminary edition), Tokyo 1986; ISBN 4924750449 (vol. 1), ISBN 4–924750–34–4 (vol. 2)

Paul Strathern, "Marx in 90 Minutes", (Ivan R. Dee, 2001)

Thomas, Paul. ''Karl Marx and the Anarchists''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.

Walker, Frank Thomas. 'Karl Marx: a Bibliographic and Political Biography''. (bj.publications), 2009.

Amy Wendling, ''Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Francis Wheen, ''Karl Marx: A Life'', (Fourth Estate, 1999), ISBN 1–85702–637–3

Francis Wheen, ''Marx's Das Kapital'', (Atlantic Books, 2006) ISBN 1–84354–400–8

External links

Bibliography and online texts

Works by Karl Marx at Zeno.org

Karl Marx at Libcom.org

Marxists.org, homepage of the Marxists Internet Archive

Works by Karl Marx in audio format from LibriVox

Articles and entries

Dead Labour: Marx and Lenin Reconsidered by Paul Craig Roberts

Hegel, Marx, Engels, and the Origins of Marxism, by David North

''In Praise of Marx'' Terry Eagleton synopsising his ''Why Marx was right'' chronicle.com 10 April 2011.

Karl Marx: Did he get it all Right? by Philip Collins, ''The Times'', 21 October 2008

''Karl Marx'' ,Ernest Mandel

''Karl Marx and the Iroquois'' by Franklin Rosemont

Liberalism, Marxism and The State, by Ralph Raico

Marx, Mao and mathematics: the politics of infinitesimals, by Joseph Dauben

Marx Was Right

Marxism and Ethics from ''International Socialism'' Paul Blackledge (2008)

Marxmyths.org Various essays on misinterpretations of Marx

Portraits of Karl Marx (International Institute of Social History)

Paul Dorn, The Paris Commune and Marx' Theory of Revolution

The Top Seven Reasons why Marx was Right by ''Green Left Weekly''

Why Marx is the Man of the Moment

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Coordinates	21°18′32″N157°49′34″N
birth name	Russell Ira Crowe
birth date	April 07, 1964
birth place	Wellington, New Zealand
occupation	Actor and musician
years active	1986–present
spouse	Danielle Spencer (2003–present) }}

Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is a New Zealand-born Australian actor and musician. His acting career began in the late 1980s with roles in Australian television series including ''Police Rescue'' and ''Neighbours''. In the early 1990s, Crowe's local prominence peaked when he won the Australian Film Industry Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an inner-city skinhead in the Geoffrey Wright film, ''Romper Stomper''. In the late 1990s, Crowe transferred his acting ambitions to the USA with his breakout role in ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997). Crowe won the Academy Award for Best Actor for ''Gladiator'' in 2001 and has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role: ''The Insider'' (1999), ''Gladiator'' (2000) and ''A Beautiful Mind'' (2001). He is also co-owner of South Sydney Rabbitohs, a National Rugby League team.

Early life

Crowe was born on 7 April 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom were movie set caterers; his father also managed a hotel. Crowe's maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was named an MBE for filming footage of World War II. Crowe's maternal great-great-grandmother was Māori, and his paternal grandfather was from Wrexham, Wales; Crowe also has Scottish, Norwegian, English, and German ancestry. His two cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe, are former New Zealand cricket captains.

When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Australia, where his parents pursued a career in film set catering. The producer of the Australian TV series ''Spyforce'' was his mother's godfather, and Crowe at age five or six was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson (in 1994 Thompson played Crowe's father in ''The Sum of Us''). Crowe also appeared briefly in serial ''The Young Doctors''.

He had been educated at the Sydney Boys High School. When he was 14, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he (along with his brother Terry) attended Auckland Grammar School with cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He then continued his secondary education at Mount Roskill Grammar School, which he left at the age 16 to pursue his ambitions and childhood dreams of becoming a successful actor.

Career

Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the mid-1980s, under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, when he performed as a rock 'n roll revivalist, under the stage name ''Russ Le Roq''. He had a New Zealand single with ''I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando''. He managed an Auckland music venue called "The Venue" in the mid '80s.

From 1986 to 1988 he was given his first professional role by director Daniel Abineri in a production of ''The Rocky Horror Show''. He played the role of Eddie/Dr Scott. He repeated this performance in a further Australian production of the show. In the 1988 Australian production of ''Blood Brothers'', Crowe played the role of Mickey. He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny in the stage musical ''Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom'' in 1989.

Crowe returned to Australia at age 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA," Crowe recalled. "I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA. He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits.'" In 1987 Crowe spent six months busking when he couldn't find other work.

After appearing in the TV series ''Neighbours'' and ''Living with the Law,'' Crowe was cast in his first film, ''The Crossing'' (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protégé of Ogilvie, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film ''Blood Oath'' (1990) (aka ''Prisoners of the Sun'') which was released a month earlier than ''The Crossing'', although actually filmed later. In 1992, Crowe starred in the first episode of the second series of ''Police Rescue.'' Also in 1992 Crowe starred in ''Romper Stomper'', an Australian film which follows the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright, for which Crowe won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, following up from his Best Supporting Actor award for ''Proof'' in 1991.

After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. He first co-starred with Denzel Washington in ''Virtuosity,'' and with Sharon Stone in ''The Quick and the Dead'' in 1995. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2001 for ''Gladiator''. Crowe was awarded the (Australian) Centenary Medal in 2001 for "service to Australian society and Australian film production."

Crowe received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations for ''The Insider'', ''Gladiator'' and ''A Beautiful Mind''. Crowe won the best actor award for ''A Beautiful Mind'' at the 2002 BAFTA award ceremony, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the same performance. However he failed to win the Oscar that year, losing to Denzel Washington. It has been suggested that his attack on television producer Malcolm Gerrie for cutting short his acceptance speech may have turned voters against him.

All three films were also nominated for best picture, and both ''Gladiator'' and ''A Beautiful Mind'' won the award. Within the six year stretch from 1997–2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, ''L.A. Confidential'' and ''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'', though he was nominated for neither. In 2005 he re-teamed with ''A Beautiful Mind'' director Ron Howard for ''Cinderella Man''. In 2006 he re-teamed with ''Gladiator'' director Ridley Scott for ''A Good Year'', the first of two consecutive collaborations (the second being ''American Gangster'' co-starring again with Denzel Washington, released in late 2007). While the light romantic comedy of ''A Good Year'' was not greatly received, Crowe seemed pleased with the film, telling STV in an interview that he thought it would be enjoyed by fans of his other films.

In recent years Crowe's box office standing has declined considerably. Crowe appeared in ''Robin Hood'', a film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and released on May 14, 2010.

Crowe starred in the 2010 Paul Haggis film ''The Next Three Days'', an adaptation of the 2008 French film ''Pour Elle''.

On 15 June 2011 it was announced Crowe had been cast as Superman's biological father Jor-El in Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman reboot "Man of Steel".

Al-Qaeda threats

On 9 March 2005, Crowe revealed to ''GQ'' magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on 25 March 2001 and told him that the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him. Crowe told the magazine that it was the first time he had ever heard of al-Qaeda and was quoted as saying:

Crowe recalled that:

Crowe was guarded by United States Secret Service agents for the next few months, both while shooting films and at award ceremonies (Scotland Yard also guarded Crowe while he was promoting ''Proof of Life'' in London in February 2001). Crowe said that he:

Music

In the 1980s Crowe, going under the name of "Russ le Roq", recorded a song titled "I Want To Be Like Marlon Brando".

In the '80s Crowe and friend Billy Dean Cochran formed a band, "Roman Antix", which later evolved into the Australian rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (abbreviated to TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, which formed in 1992. The band released ''The Photograph Kills EP'' in 1995 as well as three full length records, ''Gaslight'' (1998),''Bastard Life or Clarity'' (2001) and ''Other Ways of Speaking'' (2003). In 2000 TOFOG performed shows in London, Los Angeles and the now famous run of shows at Stubbs in Austin, TX which became a live DVD that was released in 2001 called ''Texas''. In 2001 the band came to the US for major press, radio and TV appearances for the ''Bastard Life or Clarity'' release and returned Stubbs in Austin, TX to kick off a sold out US tour with dates in Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City and the last show at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.

In early 2005 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts as a group has "dissolved/evolved" with Crowe feeling his future music would take a new direction and he began a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea, and with it a new band: The Ordinary Fear of God which also involved some members of the previous TOFOG lineup. A new single, ''Raewyn'', was released in April 2005 and an album entitled ''My Hand, My Heart'' which was released and is available for download on iTunes. The album includes a tribute song to actor Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of ''Gladiator''.

Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God set out to break the new band in by performing a successful sold out series of dates of Australia in 2005 and then in 2006 returned to the US to promote their new release ''My Hand, My Heart'' with another sold-out US Tour and major press, radio and television appearances.

In March 2010 Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God's version of the John Williamson song "Winter Green" was included on a new compilation album ''The Absolute Best of John Williamson: 40 Years True Blue'', commemorating the singer-songwriter's milestone of 40 years in the Australian music industry.

In May 2011 there are plans to release a new Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God recording (co-written with Alan Doyle) and for a US Tour which would be the first live dates in the US since 2006.

On 2 August 2011, the third collaboration between Crowe and Doyle was released on iTunes as ''The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol III'', featuring 9 original songs followed by their acoustic demo counterparts (for a total of 18 tracks). Danielle Spencer does guest vocals on most tracks. The release coincided with a pair of live performances at the LSPU Hall in St. John's, NF. The digital album is due to be released on Amazon.com on 9 August 2011. The album has since charted at #72 on the Canadian Albums Chart.

Philanthropy

During location filming of ''Cinderella Man'', Crowe made a donation to a Jewish elementary school whose library had been damaged as a result of arson. A note with an anti-Semitic message had been left at the scene. Crowe called school officials to express his concern and wanted his message relayed to the students. The school’s building fund received donations from throughout Canada and the amount of Crowe’s donation was not disclosed.

On another occasion, Crowe donated a large sum of money ($200,000) to a struggling primary school near his home in rural Australia. Crowe's sympathies were sparked when a pupil drowned at the nearby Coffs Harbour beach in 2001, and he believes the pool will help students become better swimmers and improve their knowledge of water safety. At the opening ceremony he dove into the pool fully clothed as soon as the venue was declared open. Nana Glen principal Laurie Renshall says, "The many things he does up here, people just don't know about. We've been trying to get a pool for 10 years."

Personal life

From his youth to the present, Crowe has had a special love of horses. "They're just like people," he told CraveOnline, "there are some horses that you have a deeper connection with immediately, and you can work on that over time." He has also noted that he sometimes finds it difficult to part with his equine co-stars when a film wraps.

On 7 April 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Crowe met Spencer while filming ''The Crossing'' (1990). Crowe and Spencer have two sons: Charles "Charlie" Spencer (born 21 December 2003) and Tennyson Spencer (born 7 July 2006).

Prior to his marriage to Spencer, Crowe had a relationship with Meg Ryan during and after the filming of ''Proof of Life'' in 2000.

Most of the year, Crowe resides in Australia. He has a home in Sydney at the end of the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo and a 320-hectare rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

Crowe also owns a house in the North Queensland city of Townsville: he purchased the $450,000 home in the suburb of Douglas on 3 May 2008. It's believed the home is for his niece, who is studying at James Cook University.

Crowe stated in November 2007 that he would like to be baptised, and feels that he has put it off for too long. "I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of a man," he says. "There is something much bigger that drives us all. I'm willing to take that leap of faith."

In the beginning of 2009, Crowe appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors. He, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-winning character.

Crowe announced he had quit smoking in July 2010 for the sake of his two sons. He told a press conference that he had started smoking when he was ten, and had probably smoked up to 18,000 cigarettes a year for most of his life. On 10 November 2010 he admitted on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' that he had smoked over 60 cigarettes a day until stopping, but added that he had smoked heavily on the previous day. In December 2010 the ''Toronto Sun'' reported that Crowe was smoking as heavily as ever during the making of, and the subsequent publicity campaign for, ''The Next Three Days''. By April 2011, it has been officially confirmed that Crowe has taken up smoking again. Since then, he has been spotted smoking just as heavily as before.

Sport

Rugby league

Crowe has been a supporter of the rugby league football team the South Sydney Rabbitohs since childhood. Since his rise to fame as an actor, he has continued appearing at home games, and supported the financially troubled club. Following the Super League war of the 1990s Crowe made an attempt to use his Hollywood connections to convince Ted Turner, rival of Super League's Rupert Murdoch, to save the Rabbitohs before they were forced from the National Rugby League competition for two years. In 1999 Crowe paid A$42,000 at auction for the brass bell used to open the inaugural rugby league match in Australia in 1908 at a fund-raiser to assist Souths' legal battle for inclusion in the League. In 2005, he made the Rabbitohs the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his film ''Cinderella Man'' on their jerseys.

He is friends with many current and former players of the club, and currently employs former South Sydney forward Mark Carroll as a bodyguard and personal trainer. He has encouraged other actors to support the club, such as Tom Cruise and Burt Reynolds.

On 19 March 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the organisation, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It cost them A$3 million, and they received four of eight seats on the board of directors. A six part television miniseries entitled "South Side Story" depicting the takeover aired in Australia in 2007.

On 5 November 2006, Crowe appeared on ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' to announce that Firepower International was sponsoring the South Sydney Rabbitohs for $3 million over three years. During a ''Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' appearance, watched by over 11 million viewers, Crowe showed viewers a Rabbitoh playing jersey with Firepower's name emblazoned on it.

Crowe helped to organise a rugby league game that took place in Jacksonville, Florida between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the English Super League champions Leeds Rhinos on 26 January 2008 (Australia Day). The game was played at the University of North Florida. Crowe told ITV Local Yorkshire the game wasn't a marketing exercise.

Crowe wrote a letter of apology to a Sydney newspaper following the sacking of South Sydney's coach Jason Taylor and one of their players David Fa'alogo after a drunken altercation between the two at the end of the 2009 NRL season.

Also in 2009 Crowe persuaded young England international forward Sam Burgess to sign with the Rabbitohs over other clubs that were competing for his signature, after inviting Burgess and his mother to the set of ''Robin Hood'', which he was filming in England at the time.

In the 2010 post-season it was reported that Crowe's influence was critical in persuading Greg Inglis, one of the world's best players, to renege on his deal to join the Brisbane Broncos and sign for the Rabbitohs for 2011.

On 5 December 2010 the Sunday Telegraph reported that the NRL was investigating the business relationships Russell Crowe has with a number of media and entertainment companies in relation to the South Sydney Rabbitohs' salary cap. Salary cap auditor Ian Schubert was reported to be delving into Crowe's recent dealings with Channel Nine, Channel Seven, ANZ Stadium and V8 Supercars.

On 26 January 2011 the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' reported that the Rabbitohs were about to embark on a five year multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with the giant Star City Casino. Souths also announced a corporate partnership with the bookmaking conglomerate Luxbet.

Previously Crowe had been prominent in trying to prevent gambling being associated with the Rabbitohs. Reuters, on 3 January 2008, reported that Crowe was "fighting a new gladiatorial combat to wean his countrymen off their addiction to gambling machines."

In May 2011 Crowe was credited for an arrangement with Fox to have the 2011 State of Origin series broadcast live for the first time in the United States, in addition to the NRL Grand Final.

Other sporting interests

In Football (soccer), Crowe acknowledged to be a fan of Bristol City and Leeds United.

Crowe is a big cricket fan. He played cricket in school and his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe are former Black Caps Captains. Russell Crowe also captained the 'Australian' Team containing Steve Waugh against an English side in the 'Hollywood Ashes' Cricket Match. On 17 July 2009, Crowe took to the commentary box for the British sports channel, Sky Sports, as the 'third man' during the second test of the 2009 Ashes series, between England and Australia.

Russell Crowe is also a supporter of the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League and Richmond Tigers in the AFL

Crowe is a big supporter of the University of Michigan Wolverines American football team, an interest that stems from his friendship with former Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr. Carr used Crowe's movie ''Cinderella Man'' to motivate his team in 2006 following a disappointing 7–5 season the previous year. Upon hearing of this, Crowe called Carr and invited him to Australia to address his Rugby league team the South Sydney Rabbitohs, an offer Carr took Crowe up on the following summer. In September 2007, after Carr came under fire following the Wolverines' 0–2 start, Crowe traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverines' 15 September game against Notre Dame to show his support for Carr. He addressed the team before the game and watched from the sidelines as the Wolverines defeated the Irish 38–0.

Crowe is also a fan of the National Football League, and on 22 October 2007, appeared in the booth of a Monday Night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is also a devout fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs which stems from his shooting of ''Cinderella Man'' at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Altercations and controversies

Crowe has been involved in a number of altercations in recent years which have given him a reputation for having a bad temper.

In 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Plantation Hotel in Coffs Harbour, Australia, which was caught on security video. Two men were acquitted of using the video in an attempt to blackmail Crowe.

When part of Crowe's appearance at the 2002 BAFTA awards was cut out to fit into the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe used strong language during an argument with producer Malcolm Gerrie. The part cut was a poem in tribute to actor Richard Harris who was then terminally ill, and was cut for copyright reasons. Crowe later apologised, saying "What I said to him may have been a little bit more passionate than now, in the cold light of day, I would have liked it to have been." Later that year, Crowe was alleged to have been involved in a "brawl" with businessman Eric Watson inside a trendy Japanese restaurant in London. The fight was broken up by British actor Ross Kemp.

In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second-degree assault by New York City police, after he threw a telephone at an employee of the Mercer Hotel who refused to help him place a call when the system did not work from his room, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone). The employee, a concierge, was treated for a facial laceration. Crowe described the incident as "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in... and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life". He was sentenced to conditional release. Prior to the plea bargain, Crowe settled a lawsuit filed by the concierge, Nestor Estrada. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed but amounts in the six-figure range have been suggested.

Crowe's altercations were lampooned in the ''South Park'' episode, "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer".

In June 2011, Crowe expressed his views against infant circumcision on Twitter, calling the practice "barbaric" and asking, "Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that [God] requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are [born] perfect." The comments coincided with a debate to ban the procedure on infants in California. Crowe removed the comments the following day and tweeted an apology: "My personal beliefs aside I realize that some will interpret this debate as me mocking the rituals and traditions of others. I am very sorry."

Filmography

+ Films
! Year	! Film	! Role	Notes
1990		Lt. Jack Corbett
1990	''''	Johnny Ryan
1991		Andy	Australian Film Institute
1992		Kim Barrett
1992	''[[Romper Stomper''	Hando	Australian Film Institute
1993	''[[Hammers Over the Anvil''	East Driscoll
1993	''''	The Man (Egan)
1993	''For the Moment''	Lachlan Currie
1993	''Love in Limbo''	Arthur Baskin
1994	''''	Jeff Mitchell
1995	''''	Cort
1995	''No Way Back''	FBI Agent Zack Grant
1995	''Virtuosity''	SID 6.7
1995	''Rough Magic''	Alex Ross
1997		Officer Wendell "Bud" White	Chlotrudis Award for Best ActorNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997	''Heaven's Burning''	Colin O'Brien
1997		Steve
1999	''Mystery, Alaska''	Sheriff John Biebe
1999	''''	Jeffrey Wigand	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Gladiator (2000 film)
2000		[[Maximus Decimus Meridius	Academy Award for Best ActorBlockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – ActionBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorEmpire Award for Best ActorLondon Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''The Insider'')San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture DramaNominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best PerformanceNominated—MTV Movie Award for Best FightNominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated—Saturn Award for Best ActorNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RoleNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2000	''Proof of Life''	Terry Thorne
2001	''''		BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorGolden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture DramaScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RolePhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated—American Film Institute Awards 2001
2003	''[[Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World''	Capt. Jack Aubrey	Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
2005	''Cinderella Man''
2006	''''	Max Skinner
2007		Ben Wade	Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2007
2008		Detective Cristofuoro
2008		Ed Hoffman
2009		Cal McAffrey
2010		Robin Longstride
2010	''''	John Brennan
2011	''The Man with the Iron Fists''		Filming
2011	''Republic of Doyle''		''TV Series''
2013	''Superman: Man of Steel''	Jor-El	''Pre-production''

References

External links

Russell Crowe: ''American Gangster'' video interview with stv.tv, November 2007

Category:1964 births Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:New Zealand expatriates in Australia Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Former students of Mount Roskill Grammar School Category:Former students of Auckland Grammar School Category:Living people Category:Australian film actors Category:Australian Christians Category:New Zealand film actors Category:New Zealand people of Scottish descent Category:New Zealand people of Welsh descent Category:New Zealand Māori people Category:New Zealand rock singers Category:Naturalised citizens of Australia Category:People convicted of assault Category:People from Wellington City Category:People from Sydney Category:New Zealand people of Norwegian descent Category:New Zealand rugby league chairmen and investors Category:Recipients of the Centenary Medal Category:People educated at Sydney Boys High School

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Coordinates	21°18′32″N157°49′34″N
alt	A man holds a piece of paper and is giving a speech
name	Malcolm Gladwell
birth name	Malcolm T. Gladwell
birth date	September 03, 1963
birth place	Fareham, Hampshire, United Kingdom
occupation	Non-fiction writer, journalist
nationality	Canadian
period	1987–present
alma mater	Trinity College, Toronto
notableworks	''The Tipping Point'' (2000)''Blink'' (2005)''Outliers'' (2008) ''What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009)
signature	}}

Malcolm Gladwell (born September 3, 1963) is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has written four books, ''The Tipping Point'' (2000), ''Blink'' (2005), ''Outliers'' (2008), and ''What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures'' (2009), a collection of his journalism. All four books were New York Times Bestsellers.

Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology, and social psychology. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada on June 30, 2011.

Early life

Gladwell was born in Fareham, Hampshire, England to Joyce, Jamaican-born psychotherapist and Graham Gladwell, a British mathematics professor. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer. When he was six his family moved to Elmira, Ontario, Canada.

Gladwell’s father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, who was a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Waterloo, allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. During his high school years, Gladwell was an outstanding middle-distance runner and won the 1500 meter title at the 1978 Ontario High School championships in Kingston, Ontario. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto's Trinity College in 1984.

Career

Gladwell’s grades weren’t good enough for graduate school (as Gladwell puts it, “college was not an... intellectually fruitful time for me”), so he decided to go into advertising. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at ''The American Spectator'' and moved to Indiana. He subsequently wrote for ''Insight on the News'', a conservative magazine owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for ''The Washington Post'', where he worked until 1996. In a personal elucidation of the 10,000 hour rule he popularized in ''Outliers'', Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years — exactly that long."

When he started at ''The New Yorker'' in 1996 he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration." His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying “it was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8 -- that’s much tougher.” Gladwell gained popularity with two ''New Yorker'' articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt" These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, ''The Tipping Point'', for which he received a $1 million advance. He continues to write for ''The New Yorker''. He also serves as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by ESPN's Bill Simmons.

Works

Gladwell has written four books. When asked for the process behind his writing, he said "I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap." The initial inspiration for his first book, ''The Tipping Point'', came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City. He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology. While Gladwell was a reporter for ''The Washington Post'', he covered the AIDS epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were," saying that epidemiologists have a "strikingly different way of looking at the world." The word "tipping point" comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass and begins to spread at a much higher rate.

After the success of The Tipping Point, Gladwell wrote ''Blink'' in 2005. The book explains how the human subconscious interprets events or cues and how past experiences allow people to make informed decisions very rapidly, using examples like the Getty kouros and psychologist John Gottman's research on the likelihood of divorce in married couples. Gladwell’s hair was the inspiration for Blink. He stated that he started to get speeding tickets all the time, an oddity considering that he had never got one before, and that he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. In a particular incident, he was accosted by three police officers while walking in downtown Manhattan, because his curly hair matched the profile of a rapist, despite the fact that the suspect looked nothing like him otherwise.

Gladwell’s third book, ''Outliers'', published in 2008, examines how a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell’s original question revolved around lawyers: "We take it for granted that there’s this guy in New York who’s the corporate lawyer, right? I just was curious: Why is it all the same guy?" In another example present in the book, Gladwell noticed that people ascribe Bill Gates’s success to being "really smart" or "really ambitious." He noted that he knew a lot of people who are really smart and really ambitious, but not worth 60 billion dollars. "It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude--and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations."

Gladwell's fourth book, ''What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures'', was published on October 20, 2009. ''What the Dog Saw'' bundles together his favorite articles from ''The New Yorker'' since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us the world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog.

Gladwell's books—''The Tipping Point'' (2000) and ''Blink'' (2005), were international bestsellers. ''The Tipping Point'' sold over two million copies in the United States. ''Blink'' sold equally well.

Reception

''The Tipping Point'' was named as one of the best books of the decade by Amazon.com customers, The Onion A.V. Club, The Guardian, and The Times. It was also Barnes and Nobles’s 5th bestselling nonfiction book of the decade. ''Blink'' was named to Fast Company’s list of the best business books of 2005. It was also #5 on Amazon users’ favorite books of 2005, named to Christian Science Monitor’s best nonfiction books of 2005, and in the top 50 of Amazon users’ favorite books of the decade. Outliers was a #1 New York Times Bestseller for 11 straight weeks, and was Time’s #10 nonfiction book of 2008, as well as named to The San Francisco Chronicle’s list of the 50 best nonfiction books of 2008.

Critical appraisal of Gladwell's work has been mixed. Most praise his gift for compelling writing and clarity of expression while many disagree with his conclusions or question the validity of his methods.

''Fortune'' described ''The Tipping Point'' as “a fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way.” The ''Daily Telegraph'' called it “a wonderfully offbeat study of that little-understood phenomenon, the social epidemic.” Steven Pinker writes that Gladwell is a writer of "many gifts... He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves." Reviewing ''Blink'', the ''Baltimore Sun'' dubbed Gladwell “the most original American [sic] journalist since the young Tom Wolfe.” Farhad Manjoo at ''Salon'' described the book as “a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, ''Blink'' brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves.” ''The Economist'' called ''Outliers'' “a compelling read with an important message.” David Leonhardt wrote in ''The New York Times Book Review'': “In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today” and that ''Outliers'' “leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward.” Ian Sample wrote in the ''Guardian'': “Brought together, the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive.”

Criticism of Gladwell tends to focus on the fact that he is a journalist and not an academic, and as a result his work does not meet the standard of academic writing. Critics charge that he sometimes stretches his colorful stories to make them apply to business issues. ''The New Republic'' called the final chapter of ''Outliers,'' "impervious to all forms of critical thinking". Gladwell has also received criticism for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence over research to support his conclusions. Maureen Tkacik and Steven Pinker have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach. Even while praising Gladwell's attractive writing style and content, Pinker sums up his take on Gladwell as, "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning," while accusing Gladwell of "cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies" in his book ''Outliers.'' Referencing a Gladwell reporting mistake, Pinker criticizes his lack of expertise: "I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong." A writer in ''The Independent'' accused Gladwell of posing "obvious" insights. ''The Register'' has accused Gladwell of making arguments by weak analogy and commented that Gladwell has an "aversion for fact", adding that, "Gladwell has made a career out of handing simple, vacuous truths to people and dressing them up with flowery language and an impressionistic take on the scientific method."

Awards and honors

2005 ''Time'' named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. 2007 American Sociological Association's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues. 2007 honorary degree from University of Waterloo.

2011 honorary degree from University of Toronto

Bibliography

''The Tipping Point'' (2000)

''Blink'' (2005)

''Outliers'' (2008)

''What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures'' (2009)

See also

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Stephen J. Dubner

Chris Anderson

References

External links

Gladwell's personal website

Video of Honorary Degree Recipient Malcolm Gladwell addresses University of Toronto Convocation June 14 2011.

Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator

Biography and list of articles at ''The New Yorker''

Book Review in the ''New York Times''

Book Review in ''The Nation''

Malcolm Gladwell Interview ''New Statesman'' May 2010

Malcolm Gladwell interview in AAMC October 2010

Category:1963 births Category:The American Spectator people Category:Black Canadian writers Category:Business speakers Category:Canadian expatriate journalists in the United States Category:Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Category:Canadian non-fiction writers Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:Canadian people of Jamaican descent Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Living people Category:The New Yorker staff writers Category:People from Gosport Category:People from Waterloo Region, Ontario Category:Social sciences writers Category:Trinity College (Canada) alumni Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:The Washington Post people

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