Karl Marx (1818-1883) not only influenced sociology but also left his mark on world history. Marx's influence has been so great that even the Wall Street Journal, that staunch advocate of capitalism, has called him one of the three greatest modern thinkers (the other two being Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein). Like Comte, Marx thought that people should try to change society. His proposal for change was radical: revolution. This got him thrown out of Germany, and he settled in England. Marx believed that the engine of human history is class conflict. Society is made up of two social classes, he said, and they are natural enemies: the bourgeoisie (boo-shwa-ZEE) (the capitalists, those who own the means of production, the money, land, factories, and machines) and the proletariat (the exploited workers, who do not own the means of production). Eventually, the workers will unite and break their chains of bondage. The worker's revolution will be bloody, but it will usher in a classless society, one free of exploitation. People will work according to their abilities and recieve goods and services according to their needs. (Marx and Engels 1848/1967). Marxism is not the same as communism. Although Marx proposed revolution as the way for workers to gain control of society, he did not develop the political system called communism. This is a later application of his ideas. Marx himself felt disgusted when he heard debates about his insights into social life. After listening to some of the positions attributed to him, he shook his head and said, "I am not a Marxist" (Dobriner 1969:222; Gitlin 1997:89). Unlike Comte and Spencer, Marx did not think of himself as a sociologist- and with his reputation for communism and revolution, many sociologists wish that no one else did either. Because of his insights into the relationship between the social classes, Marx is generally recognized as a significant early sociologist. He introduced conflict theory, one of today's major perspectives in sociology. Later we will examine this perspective in detail.