How to change the world reflections on Marx and Marxism

Includes bibliographical references (p. 420-455) and index.

Marx and Engels. Marx today -- Marx, Engels and pre-Marxian Socialism -- Marx, Engels and politics -- On Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England -- On the Communist Manifesto -- Discovering the Grundrisse -- Marx on pre-Capitalist formations -- The fortunes of Marx's and Engels' writings -- Marxism. Dr Marx and the Victorian critics -- The influence of Marxism 1880-1914 -- In the era of anti-fascism 1929-45 -- Gramsci -- The reception of Gramsci -- The influnence of Marxism 1945-83 -- Marxism in recession 1983-2000 -- Marx and labour: the long century.

"The ideas of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquent enemy have been enlightening in every era, the author contends, and our current historical situation of free-market extremes suggests that reading Marx may be more important now than ever. Hobsbawm begins with a consideration of how we should think about Marxism in the post-communist era, observing that the features we most associate with Soviet and related regimes--command economies, intrusive bureaucratic structures, and an economic and political condition of permanent was--are neither derived from Marx's ideas nor unique to socialist states. Further chapters discuss pre-Marxian socialists and Marx's radical break with them, Marx's political milieu, and the influence of his writings on the anti-fascist decades, the Cold War, and the post--Cold War period. Sweeping, provocative, and full of brilliant insights, How to Change the World challenges us to reconsider Marx and reassess his significance in the history of ideas." --Publisher's website.