A World to Win

Liedman's strength is as a political philosopher and he is superbly well-equipped to take us on a tour of Marx's intellectual workshop. As Sven-Eric Liedman shows in his landmark anniversary biography, A World to Win, the quest to understand contemporary reality by way of the forces of production, class relations, and the structures of politics, law and culture built on them would occupy Marx for the rest of his life. As Liedman shows, from the 1840s, these were the threads that Marx followed into "the labyrinths of the age he lived in". -- Adam Tooze * Financial Times * A lucid, scholarly guide. Those searching for a truly detailed discussion of Marx should turn here. -- Andrew Stuttaford * Wall Street Journal * A World to Win is well worth consulting by those who want to understand Marx. It provides a clear and scholarly analysis, which can be read with pleasure even by those unsympathetic to its main argument. -- Vernon Bogdanor * Jewish Chronicle * Sven-Eric Liedman's new biography of Karl Marx aims to provide the reader with a nuanced and detailed account of the intellectual giant's life and thought. The book's greatest achievement lies in its compelling demonstration of the continued relevance of Marx's critique of capitalism. In a post-Soviet era, where capitalist liberalism is supposed to have triumphed once and for?all and where bourgeois economists and politicians routinely label Marxism as obscure and antiquated, Liedman is able to show that the contradictions of capitalism identified by Marx are as present as ever. -- Carlos Martinez * Morning Star * Liedman's book has a lot to recommend it. Genuinely original and enlightening. -- David McLellan * Marx and Philosophy Society * Neoliberalism is increasingly exposed as a failed experiment and many people are now exploring the tradition of radical politics for solutions to the challenges we now face. This book brings to life the early history of the socialist tradition. -- John McDonnell, MP Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Makes clear that Marx's ideas, going on two centuries old, still have meaning in the present. Outstanding. A book to turn to for reference and deeper insight. * Kirkus (starred review) * Liedman is convinced that we live in a period of striking similarity to Marx's own, and therefore his analysis of society and history are still appropriate. Unlike many other biographies of Marx, the present volume combines in-depth personality narrative and significant comments on Marx's own works. This analysis not only looks at the social and political context of the early industrial revolution Europe, but also takes into consideration the intellectual environment of the time, German philosophy, and socialist and liberal ideas. Highly recommended. * Choice *

Sven-Eric Liedman, Professor Emeritus of the history of ideas at the University of Gothenburg, has been reading and writing about Karl Marx for over fifty years. His textbook on political ideologies (originally titled From Plato to Lenin in 1972, rechristened From Plato to the War Against Terrorism in 2014) has been reprinted in fourteen editions.