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Karl Marx's and Frederick Engels' Manifesto of the Communist Party, the most influential work in the history of socialism, focused on the idea of historical development, the importance of the economic mode of production, the role of class struggle and the nature of social and political change. Among the topics they discussed was the development of the proletariat from a disorganized group of industrial workers to a unified class in opposition to the bourgeoisies. Marx …

…Engle believed that just as members of the aristocratic ruling class had joined the revolutionary bourgeoisie class in the past, so too would members of the ruling bourgeoisie class join the proletariat in the present. In short, the development of the proletariat from a disorganized group of industrial workers, concerned only with individual survival, to a unified class in opposition to the bourgeoisie was gradual, and the result of industrial and social changes and struggles.