Socialism and Marxism have inched closer to acceptable terms of debate in the past few years, primarily due to the efforts of the Right which uses them as swear-words - but then the Right has always used them that way - while they have also raised people's curiosity. The article assumes that the reader both knows what the words actually mean and is familiar with some of the more important recent authors. If you can thread your way through the unfamiliar concepts, you will find political-economic arguments that are not raised in the evening news.

There are no correct answers at the back of the book. People who claim to have them are kidding themselves. But broad reading can help figure out some good questions.