The Marxists

This book is “a primer,” a primer on marxisms, written mainly for those who do not really know these philosophies, and who do not pretend to know them. It is also written (hopefully, I suppose) for those who are already familiar with marxism but who believe that marxism as a whole has been “gobbled up by the communists” and accordingly is not for them; for those who hold to the notion that after all it is “merely ideology,” and that, nowadays especially, ideology is at an end—or ought to be. It is also for those who are bored with politics and political philosophy, who have withdrawn to or never emerged from a strictly private life. If this book does no more than push such people a bit closer to the experience of being full citizens, it will have fulfilled its central purpose.