Davidson explores classic themes in historical materialism as he explains: the moments of transition from the dominance of one mode of production to another; the process of social revolution which accompany these transitions; and the problem of nationalism, both as a theoretical challenge to Marxism's capacity for historical explanation and as a practical obstacle to socialist consciousness.

Neil Davidson is the author of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood (2000), Discovering the Scottish Revolution (2003), for which he was awarded the Deutscher Prize, and How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? (2012). Davidson lectures in Sociology in the School of Political and Social Science at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

A Note on the Cover Illustrations
Preface

1.Tom Nairn and the Inevitability of Nationalism
2.Marx and Engels on the Scottish Highlands
3.The Prophet, His Biographer and the Watchtower: Isaac Deutscher's Trotsky
4. Alasdair MacIntyre as a Marxist
5. Reimagined Communities: Benedict Anderson after 20 Years
6. Walter Benjamin and the Classical Marxist Tradition
7. Shock and Awe: Naomi Klein on Neoliberalism
8. Antonio Gramsci's Reception in Scotland
9. Eric Hobsbawm's Unanswered Question
10. The Adventures of Adam Smith in the 21st Century