Jerrold Seigel is Professor of History at New York University and author of Rhetoric and Philosophy in Renaissance Humanism (1968) and Bohemian Paris (1986).

“This impressive study provides a fresh and sensitive portrait of Marx that has not been achieved by many previous biographers and historians with narrower perspectives. . . . [Seigel] explains how experiences of childhood and early indoctrination in Hegelian philosophy influenced Marx throughout his life, and how these early conflicts were later reflected in his vacillation between ‘theory and reality, thought and the world.’ By providing generous portions of background history, Seigel shows how Marx was very much a product of his times and also provides an answer to the problem of ‘old Marx versus young Marx.’ This book will provide new interpretations for Marxian scholars, and it is lucidly enough written to be consistently absorbing for the nonspecialist.”—Publishers Weekly