Karl Marx: His Life and Environment

Karl Marx: His Life and Environment by Berlin, Sir Isaiah. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780195103267.

First published over fifty years ago, Isaiah Berlins compelling portrait of the father of socialism has long been considered a classic of modern scholarship and the best short account written of Marxs life and thought. It provides a penetrating, lucid, and comprehensive introduction to Marx as theorist of the socialist revolution, illuminating his personality and ideas, and concentrating on those which have historically formed the central core of Marxism as a theory and practice. Berlin goes on to present an account of Marxs life as one of the most influential and incendiary social philosophers of the twentieth century and depicts the social and political atmosphere in which Marx wrote. This edition includes a new introduction by Alan Ryan which traces the place of Berlins Marx from its pre-World War II publication to the present, and elucidates why Berlins portrait, in the midst of voluminous writings about Marx, remains the classic account of the personal and political side of this monumental figure.