Why read Marx Today?

We could be forgiven for assuming that Marx has nothing left to say to us. Marxist regimes have failed miserably, and with them, it seemed, all reason to take Marx seriously. The fall of the Berlin Wall had enormous symbolic resonance: it was taken to be the fall of Marx as well as of Marxist politics and economics.This book argues that we can detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of future society, and that he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. It also shows that the value of the "great thinkers" does not depend on their views being true, but on other features such as their originality, insight and systematic vision. On this account too Marx still richly deserves to be read.
Contents: Marx´s Life and Works; The Plan of this Book. 1 Early Writings: Religion; The Philosophy of Historical Materialism; Labour and Alienation; Money and Credit; Liberalism; Emancipation. 2 Class, History, and Capital: Class; History; The Economics of Capitalism; The Transition to Communism; The Nature of Communism. 3 Assessment: Early Writings; Theory of History; Economics; Communism; Human Nature.