it had always been the analytical Karl Marx, the political commentator rather than the revolutionary prognosticator, who had most appealed to me. If you asked me which one essay by Marx I would recommend to a student, both in order to appreciate Marx’s talents and grasp the central message, I think it would be The Eighteenth Brumaire, followed closely perhaps by The Class Struggles and The Civil War in France. Marx was a polemical commentator of genius, whatever the shortcomings of his broader theoretical speculations.
