Marx and Marxism

　　馬克思絕對可說是影響20世紀最深、也引起最多爭議的思想家之一，他的《共產黨宣言》不僅如今是美國大學裡最常被選為指定閱讀的作品之一，《資本論》更是經濟學、政治學、社會學等各領域的重量級作品。馬克思的思想催生無產階級革命、共產思想，也導致俄國大革命、中國共產黨崛起、卡斯楚與古巴政權…對於二十世紀的種種動盪，甚至今日世界的面貌，都有不可抹滅的地位。

　　雖在1989年蘇聯解體，中國步向改革開放後，馬克思思想似乎已迎來終結，然而隨著這數十年，金融體制的動盪、逾趨極化的社會不均，與資本主義所帶來種種不公平與破壞日益明顯，越來越多人重拾馬克思的理論，看他如何精闢地直指資本主義的運作與病灶，同時，馬克斯曾描繪出的理想世界，也依舊給兩世紀之後的我們許多改善社會的靈感啟發。

　　《Marx and Marxism》由倫敦大學教授、當代知名社會主義歷史學者Gregory Claeys執筆，也由英國以平實價格，出版各類當代重要知識概念、議題介紹作品為宗旨的Pelican出版社擔當出品。不僅是慶祝馬克思誕辰兩百週年，一部針對馬克思最新的傳記，更於其中針對馬克思的思想體系、對應歷史影響，與我們今日何以需要閱讀、認識馬克思的一本傑出的入門邀請。（文/博客來編譯）

　　An illuminating history of Marx’s thought and intellectual influence from a leading historian of socialism

　　Why was Marx so successful as a thinker? Did he have a system and if so, what does it consist of? How did Marxism develop in the twentieth century and what does it mean today?

　　Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. The movements associated with his name have lent hope to many victims of tyranny and aggression but have also proven disastrous in practice and resulted in the unnecessary deaths of millions. If after the collapse of the Soviet Union his reputation seemed utterly eclipsed, a new generation is reading and discovering Marx in the wake of the recurrent financial crises, growing social inequality and an increasing sense of the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. Both his critique of capitalism and his vision of the future speak across the centuries to our times, even if the questions he poses are more difficult to answer than ever.

　　In this wide-ranging account, Gregory Claeys, one of Britain’s leading historians of socialism, considers Marx’s ideas and their development through the Russian Revolution to the present, showing why Marx and Marxism still matter today.

作者簡介

　　Gregory Claeys is Professor of History at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a leading historian of socialism and utopianism. Previously he taught at the University of Hannover, Germany, and Washington University, St Louis. He has written nine books, focusing on the history of radicalism, socialism, and utopianism, including Searching for Utopia, which has been acclaimed as ’magnificent’ by the Times Higher Education, and edited some fifty volumes of primary sources and essays.