I'm glad to have read The Communist Manifesto. While a lot of its ideas weren't new to me it's nice to finally know exactly what it says directly rather than rely on tertiary sources for Marx and Engles' words

The manifesto was both surprising and familiar. I was surprised by how steeped it was in the political context of the time. I probably wouldn't recommend the text itself to someone who knows absolutely nothing about communism because of how historically specific it was in some cases. For some of the theory, you have to be willing to do the work of extrapolation to modern times for the work to fully resonate.

It also read like a political pamphlet more than I expected it to. In hindsight, I don't know why I expected the manifesto to read like a textbook, but the emotional language and persuasive rhetoric did catch me off guard at first. I think the manifesto benefits from being emotional because the words genuinely impacted me despite being so removed from my specific experiences. Its call to arms, in the end, was genuinely inspiring.

In the end, I left The Communist Manifesto with a desire to read more about communist theory more directly applicable to the times. I agree with a lot of what Marx and Engles had to say, but the historical context of the document made its usefulness to my political journey slightly limited.