The leading German philosopher with a study of the thought of Karl Marx.

This study of Marx serves not only as an excellent introduction to that most influential of "worldly philosophers" but is also a significant resume of the central issues of Bloch's own profound and wide-ranging thought.

Special attention is given to the political maturation of the young Karl Marx and to his studies and intellectual relationship to important thinkers of his time. Bloch concludes with an insightful summons to the West to consider Marx anew as a thinker still vitally relevant to contemporary social issues, and not merely as the father of a sovietized political system.

"exhilarating to read. resonant with urgency, recalling the sonorous, aphoristic qualities of Nietzsche or Schopenhauer, in whose tradition he follows. 'Thought provoking' hardly begins to cover it." - Guardian

"a coherent, lucid writer, although the intensity still fairly burns off the page. [a] heady, dizzying book." - New Humanist

"Ernst Bloch's 'Principle of Hope' is a masterwork" - New York Times