The story of two key figures in radical thought

Karl Marx and his family arrived in London as political refugees in 1849 and stayed for the rest of their lives. Karl went on to write the founding works of international socialism, and his youngest daughter Eleanor, born in Soho, inherited his activism. In addition to editing, translating and promoting her father’s work, she was an actress, literary translator, untiring trade union activist and an important early champion of women’s rights. In this talk, recent biographers of Karl and Eleanor reveal more about these two fascinating characters and their unique father-daughter relationship.

Gareth Stedman Jones is Professor of the History of Ideas, Queen Mary University of London and author of works such as Outcast London, Languages of Class and An End to Poverty? He is a leading authority on the intellectual history of socialism since the 19th century. His book Marx: Greatness and Illusion was published in 2016.

Rachel Holmes is a writer, journalist and cultural historian. Her biography Eleanor Marx: A Life was published in 2014 to great acclaim. Inspired by her research on Eleanor’s feminist activism, she is now working on a book about the suffragette campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst.

Original documents from the British Library’s collections relating to Karl and Eleanor Marx are on display in the Treasures Gallery from 1 May to 5 August. 

Details

This event is also on