Introduction The aim of this book is to present as comprehensive and balanced a selection of Marx's writings as possible. I have forgone the opportunity of writing an extended introduction offering either 'potted biography or an interpretation of Marxs thought. a biography can readily be obtained elsewhere and such contextual details as are necessary for an under standing of each extract are provided with it. An interpretation -to be worthwhile-would have to be fairly lengthy and involve the exclusion of some of Marx's texts. Nevertheless a few words on the principles of selection are necessary. The most evident difficulty confronting a portrayal of Marx's thought is that he is politic ally a controversial figure. And there is the additional difficulty that Marx was a prolific writer, in different styles and contexts, and left half of it unpublished so that it only emerged piecemeal during the years after his death. Up until very recently the most accessible large selection of Marx's works was issued by the Russian Communists and their allies who claimed to be the political incarnation of Marx's ideas Naturally, they saw Marx from their own point of view and their selection had two deficiencies. First, it ignored Marx's early writings. These were published around 1930 and reveal a more philosophical, humanist Marx, that many thought incompatible with the economic, materialist Marx of stalinist orthodoxy Although there was considerable controversy about whether the young or the old Marx was the real Marx and whether there was or was not a continuity in Marxist thought, any selection that ignored these early writings would be seriously deficient. So recent editions of Marx have tended to make selections from the Moscow selections and supplement them with some of the early writings. But the Moscow selections had another drawback: they consisted almost entirely of Marx's political writings together with some simple summaries of his economic doctrines. Over recent years increasing attention has been paid to the three works that Marx produced between 1857 and 1867-the Grundrisse, the Theories of Surplus Value, and Capital. On almost any reading of Marx these constituted his main theoretical contribution: yet, apart from a few pages of Capital, they are absent from the Moscow selection which tends to concentrate on Marx's political writings. Believing that it was not enough just to augment the Moscow selection yet again with some extracts from Capital, I have tried to have a fresh look at the whole corpus of Marx's writings in the light of recent scholarship. This has involved translating certain passages that have never been published in England before and being prepared to include very short extracts when necessary-although i have tried to avoid being too bitty'. The main interest in recent years among interpreters of Marx has focused on his methodology and on his contribution to the science of political economy. Thus any selection satisfying these interests must contain large excerpts from theIntroduction The aim of this book is to present as comprehensive and balanced a selection of Marx’s writings as possible. I have forgone the opportunity of writing an extended introduction offering either ‘potted’ biography or an interpretation of Marx’s thought. A biography can readily be obtained elsewhere and such contextual details as are necessary for an under￾standing of each extract are provided with it. An interpretation—to be worthwhile—would have to be fairly lengthy and involve the exclusion of some of Marx’s texts. Nevertheless a few words on the principles of selection are necessary. The most evident difficulty confronting a portrayal of Marx’s thought is that he is politic￾ally a controversial figure. And there is the additional difficulty that Marx was a prolific writer, in different styles and contexts, and left half of it unpublished so that it only emerged piecemeal during the years after his death. Up until very recently the most accessible large selection of Marx’s works was issued by the Russian Communists and their allies who claimed to be the political incarnation of Marx’s ideas. Naturally, they saw Marx from their own point of view and their selection had two deficiencies. First, it ignored Marx’s early writings. These were published around 1930 and reveal a more philosophical, humanist Marx, that many thought incompatible with the economic, materialist Marx of Stalinist orthodoxy. Although there was considerable controversy about whether the young or the old Marx was the real Marx and whether there was or was not a continuity in Marxist thought, any selection that ignored these early writings would be seriously deficient. So recent editions of Marx have tended to make selections from the Moscow selections and supplement them with some of the early writings. But the Moscow selections had another drawback: they consisted almost entirely of Marx’s political writings together with some simple summaries of his economic doctrines. Over recent years increasing attention has been paid to the three works that Marx produced between 1857 and 1867—the Grundrisse, the Theories of Surplus Value, and Capital. On almost any reading of Marx these constituted his main theoretical contribution: yet, apart from a few pages of Capital, they are absent from the Moscow selection which tends to concentrate on Marx’s political writings. Believing that it was not enough just to augment the Moscow selection yet again with some extracts from Capital, I have tried to have a fresh look at the whole corpus of Marx’s writings in the light of recent scholarship. This has involved translating certain passages that have never been published in England before and being prepared to include very short extracts when necessary—although I have tried to avoid being too ‘bitty’. The main interest in recent years among interpreters of Marx has focused on his methodology and on his contribution to the science of political economy. Thus any selection satisfying these interests must contain large excerpts from the