Karl Marx - Gareth Stedman Jones

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY 2017

'A deeply original and illuminating account of Marx's journey through
the intellectual history of the nineteenth century... a profound
reappraisal and a gripping read' Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers

As the nineteenth century unfolded, its inhabitants had to come to terms
with an unparalleled range of political, economic, religious and
intellectual challenges. Distances shrank, new towns sprang up, and
ingenious inventions transformed the industrial landscape. It was an era
dominated by new ideas about God, human capacities, industry,
revolution, empires and political systems - and above all, the shape of
the future.

One of the most distinctive and arresting
contributions to this debate was made by Karl Marx, the son of a Jewish
convert in the Rhineland and a man whose entire life was devoted to
making sense of the hopes and fears of the nineteenth century world.
Gareth Stedman Jones's impressive biography explores how Marx came to
his revolutionary ideas in an age of intellectual ferment, and the
impact they had on his times.
In a world where so many things were
changing so fast, would the coming age belong to those enthralled by the
events which had brought this world into being, or to those who feared
and loathed it?

This remarkable book allows the reader to
understand as never before the world of ideas which shaped Marx's world -
and in turn made Marx shape our own.