In this study, distinguished international contributors project an 'open' Marxism - a rejection of the determinism and positivism which characterise so much of contemporary left-wing thought.

Topics covered include Marxism and political economy, historical materialism, dialectics, state theory, class, fetishism and the periodisation of capitalist development.

Topics covered include dialectics, epistemology, social emancipation, value theory, historical materialism and the relationship between feminism and Marxism. The contributors argue that sociological heritage which grew up under the banner of scientific Marxism has had a detrimental effect on the movement of socialist thinking. The 'emancipation of Marx' implies both freeing Marx from the understanding of the 20th Century and the freeing of the human spirit from the control of capital.