This edition makes easily accessible the most important parts of Marx's and Engel's major early philosophical work, "The German Ideology". The full text, which Marx and Engels were unable to get published in their lifetimes, occupies some 650 closely printed pages, the greater part of which is a detailed polemic against the "Young Hegelians" which is now of little more than historic interest. This polemic was, however, introduced by a brilliant exposition of the fundamental ideas of historical materialism which Marx and Engels were then working out. This is, in fact, their first presentation of the new revolutionary philosophy, and as such is written with all the freshness of a new discovery. This edition contains only the first part of the complete work, together with a number of excerpts presenting the most telling points, which remain fully relevant today, out of the polemics which occupy the parts of the work not included in this edition. The editor has added an introduction dealing with the place of "The German Ideology" in the evolution of Marxism and containing a summary of the contents and controversies which occupy the parts of the work not printed here. Marx's famous "Theses on Feuerbach" and his unfinished "Introduction to a Critique of Political Economy" are added as appendices. (From the publisher)