Karl Marx: Our Contemporary : Social Theory for a Post-Leninist World

The work of Karl Marx is often misunderstood through misleading association with figures such as Lenin. In this new book, Marx's philosophy is examined in its own right and reassessed for its relevance to contemporary conditions.Keith Graham starts by identifying Marx's basic ideas. Reconstructing Marx's philosophical assumptions more explicitly than he did himself, the author then evaluates Marx's general view of human life and society, his specific theory of capitalism and his philosophy of change. The importance of class, Marx's materialism and his problematic relationship with morality are described and critically assessed.Arriving at a view quite different from received interpretations, Graham argues that Marx's philosophy has contemporary relevance and survives the collapse of Leninism. It is a philosophy at once more extreme and more moderate than usually thought: more extreme in rejecting all forms of commodity or market society, but more moderate in its choice of the political methods employed for the transcending of capitalism.This is a challenging interpretation of Marxism, invaluable to students and teachers of philosophy, politics, sociology and related disciplines.