Historian, Teacher, Writer

Inflatable Marx

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth. Gareth Stedman Jones’ recent biography, Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, gives us the chance to take stock of Marx’s legacy. Do his theories still speak to our twenty-first century world? Stedman Jones doesn’t think so. My review essay in H-Ideas reconstructs the book’s arguments in the context of its author’s own intellectual biography. The image we get is of an inflatable Marx, one whose historical life and current relevance require positive air pressure to stay afloat. (read more)