Project Summary: Karl Marx is one of the most important figures in Political Economy, not only because of his contributions to the field, but also because of the influence of his many writings. Dissecting his work gives us a good starting framework from which you can build upon as Marx applied (and also created) many fundamental concepts used in political economy. In order to ease our understanding of Marx's works, it is always useful to understand the intention behind his works. Why did he write hundreds of pages about the surplus value of labor? Why did he criticize social democrats, anarchists, utopian socialists, and other figures in the left? Why exactly did Marx write about the oppression of the proletariat? These are questions that cannot really be fully answered until we understand who Karl Marx was.