A Brilliant Marxist

No Marxist writing in English is more brilliant and learned than Perry Anderson. The publication of two collections of his essays in the aftermath, not only of the collapse of communism but also the electoral defeats of European social democracy, thus becomes a test case for Marxism itself. If someone this smart cannot make Marxism work, perhaps no one can.

One thing should be clear at the start: Perry Anderson is as determined to make Marxism work as he is committed to a classic socialist political project. These essays are not experiments in introspection but exercises, however complex, in tinkering. In particular, the structure of English Questions is designed to test the relevance of earlier efforts at Marxist synthes...