The Emergence of Socialism and Communism

Hobsbawm pointedly ends the periods he treats in the book with the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. While the historical importance of the work is yet to be realized in 1848, Hobsbawm expects the reader to understand its importance in the century that follows. He marks the appearance of the work as the culmination of a series of developments that stem from the dual revolution.

It is the Industrial Revolution that makes socialism possible, Hobsbawm claims, and connects its earliest proponents directly to the newly envisioned prosperity they imagine an industrial society will bring. The Count Claude de Saint-Simon is both the inventor of the word "industrialist" and an influential socialist thinker. Men like Saint-Simon look at the enormous potential for wealth from the new industrialism and expect it will be able to raise the standard of living for all people...