This is the first major collection of Karl Marx's writings sincethe fall of Communism in eastern Europe and the former SovietUnion. That event notwithstanding, Marx remains one of the toweringfigures of modern intellectual culture. His work is still the mostsystematic, comprehensive and sustained assault upon the centraltenets of capitalism. Many ideas in political life at the end ofthe twentieth century, heard often enough from the mouths of themost trenchantly anti-Marxist politicians, can be straightforwardlytraced to the writings in this volume. The extensive readings collected here cover all the main areasof Marx's work, stretching from the early 1840s to the early 1880s.Longer selections from the major texts, such as Capital, TheCommunist Manifesto and The German Ideology, arecomplemented with shorter but crucial passages from his lessfamiliar works. Pierson's extensive introduction guides the novice readerthrough the most important and exciting elements in Marx's work. Heoffers not just a concise and lucid guide to Marx's thought butalso shows us why we still need to read Marx after the collapse ofCommunism. Whatever has been the fate of Marxism, Marx remains, asthis book shows, a key figure for our own times.