"At the heart of Berman's commitment to Marxism is an understanding that, if the philosophy is to enjoy a continuing relevance in the coming century, it will have to move beyond its current casting as a critical tool or an occasional literary pleasure. The emancipatory potential of Marxism, its capacity to configure a world beyond the daily grind of selling one's labor to stay alive, needs to be renewed."--BOOK JACKET. "In these chapters are discussions of work on Marx and Marxism by Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Meyer Schapiro, Edmund Wilson, Jerrold Siegel, James Billington, Irving Howe and Isaac Babel, commentary on writers such as Perry Anderson and Studs Terkel, and an appreciation of the inestimable contributions of Frederick Engels and Marx himself. All are brought together in a single embrace by Berman's spirited appreciation of Marxism as expressive, playful, sometimes even a little vulgar, but always an adventure."--Jacket.