Alienation and emancipation in the work of Karl Marx Approaching Marxs theory Emancipation in Marxs early work The developing conception of historical materialism Problems of The German Ideology The German Ideology versus historical materialism The puzzle of the Manifest of the Communist Party Debating Marxs conception of class in history Historical materialism and the specificity of capitalism Capital as a social relation Capital and historical materialism Marx and the politics of the First International Marx and social theory This book considers Karl Marxs ideas in relation to the social and political context in which he lived and wrote. It emphasizes both the continuity of his commitment to the cause of full human emancipation and the role of his critique of political economy in conceiving history to be the history of class struggles. The book follows his developing ideas from before he encountered political economy through the politics of 1848 and the Bonapartist farce  the maturation of the critique of political economy in the Grundrisse and caital and his engagement with the politics of the First International and the legacy of the Paris Commune. Notwithstanding errors in historical judgment largely reflecting the influence of dominant liberal historiography Marx laid the foundations for a new social theory premised upon the historical consequences of alienation and the potential for human freedom Back cover