Karl Marx The Burden of Reason (Why Marx Rejected Politics and the Market)

Why did Karl Marx want to exclude politics and the market from his vision of a future socialism? Allan Megill begins with this question. In answering it, he forces the reader to rethink Marx's entire intellectual project. Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason has important implications for how we think about the usability of Marx's work today. It will be of interest both to those who wish to reflect on the fate of Marxism during the era of Soviet Communism, and to those who wish to discern what is adequate and what requires replacement or supplementation in the work of a figure who, in spite of everything, remains one of the greatest philosophers and social scientists of the modern world.

Allan Megill is professor of history at the University of Virginia