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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Besides being approachably succinct, Avineri’s sympathetic account is distinguished by its appearance in the highly regarded Jewish Lives series."—James Miller,
New York Times"Mr. Avineri’s treatment of Marx is a perceptive and fair-minded corrective to superficial treatments of the man. . . . [H]ere lies the central strength of this short biography: It tells us what Marx actually wrote."—Jonathan Rose,
Wall Street Journal“The biographer cuts through his subject’s [prose], distilling its underlying theory of man’s alienation from the work of his hands by the commercialization of labor in far simpler terms than the writer himself.”—Sara Jo Ben Zvi,
Segula “Shlomo Avineri [. . .] presents a beautifully clear introduction to Marx's thought and its Hegelian origins”—Vernon Bogdanor,
Jewish Chronicle“Fascinating”—Colin Shindler,
History Today"[A] brilliant biography that drags Marx, kicking and screaming, back into the Rhinish Jewish community that shaped him. One can respect Marx’s desire to renounce his cultural heritage and to be judged as a cosmopolitan, global thinker. But Avineri deserves our gratitude for placing Marx in the context he chose to leave behind, not least because, beyond the purposes of yet another reinterpretation of Marx’s thought, this perspective yields new insights pertinent to today’s global challenges."—Yiannis Varoufakis,
Project Syndicate“Shlomo Avineri has written a wonderfully perceptive and nuanced biography of Karl Marx--paying all due attention (but no more than that) to Jewish interests, Marx's and ours. His book is both intellectually and politically engaging--and a pleasure to read.”—Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
