Karl Marx: A Biography

Of all the people who have provided the intellectual justification for mass movements over history, Karl Marx is one of the most misunderstood. His ideas have been co-opted by people such as V. I. Lenin and Mao Zedong, where they used his ideas to justify a violent revolution and the oppression of millions of people. Both men led movements where millions of people were killed in order to sustain them. As a consequence of the... Read Full Review

Although there have been more recent biographies of Marx this one still endures with its combination of simple narrative spiced with acute observations and comment. The lives and work of Marx and Engels constitutes one the great tales of world history and one is surprised noone has seen the Hollywood movie (seriously) in the extraordinary period leading up to 1848, and beyond. In fact, this early period, clearer to us now,... Read Full Review

Karl Marx's contribution to modern social thought is so immense it is now difficult to understand the profound degree to which much of what he thought and wrote has been almost totally discredited and discounted. This is not to deny the fact that his social theory is indeed quite essentially flawed, but rather to suggest that given the relative proportions of his contribution to sociology, economics, and cultural critique,... Read Full Review