Marxism & social science

Edited by Andrew Gamble, David Marsh and Tony Tant, Macmillan, 381 pages, hardback £47.50, paperback £15.50

This is an important book for anyone who wants to know where Marxism stands today. The editors and all the authors of the 16 essays in the book reject the idea that, with the demise of the Soviet Union, Marxism is a thing of the past.

On the contrary, they see it as a living intellectual tradition of enduring significance for comprehending and changing the world. Marxist concepts, such as mode of production, capital accumulation and hegemony, are needed to analyse the economic, political and cultural developments in world capitalism.

The first part of the book discusses the relation of Marxism to other perspectives in social science - feminism, the new Right, regulation theory and postmodernism - and assesses the nature of Marxism as a social science.

Part two examines the value of Marxist approaches to a range of issues - the state, social welfare, democracy, culture, globalisation, ecology and nationalism. While the essays are uneven, most are very good.