It was first published in Germany is 1918, after long and irritating
delays owing to the military censorship, which wished to prevent
its publication altogether or permit it only in a mutilated form.
Despite the troublous times its success was immediate, and half
a dozen editions and many thousands of copies were sold. In
1933, on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Marx, a new
edition was published, and it is a translation of this edition which
is now before the reader. Franz Mehring dedicated the first
edition to: " Clara Zetkin--heiress to the Marxist Spirit" and
this first English edition therefore respects his wishes, although
since then she too has joined her old friends Franz Mehring and
Rosa Luxemburg in the ranks of those who will be "enshrined
for ever in the great heart of the working class".

After Mehring's death a new era in Marxist research was
opened up with its centre in the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow,
and many facts unknown to him were brought to light. The
fiftieth anniversary edition was therefore brought up to date by
means of an appendix prepared under the direction of Eduard
Fuchs, an old friend of Mehring and his literary executor. This
appendix, which the reader will find at the end of this volume,
deals with all points of importance brought to light concerning
Marx and Marxism, and in particular concerning the Lassalle-
Bakunin polemics, since Mehring's death.

The footnotes to the present edition were added by me in
order to assist the English-speaking reader to a better under-
standing of references which might otherwise have been obscure,
but I have kept them as few as possible. The bibliography at
the end of this volume makes no claim to completeness, but it
is hoped that it will prove of service to those who would like to
study Marxism more thoroughly. Some of Marx's works are
still untranslated, but these are becoming fewer and fewer, and
before long nothing of any importance will be beyond the reach
of the English-speaking reader.

The honour of introducing Mehring to the English-speaking
public has fallen to me, and I hope that I may be found to have
done it not unworthily. However, I feel that a word of apology
is necessary for my rendering of the various items of poetry
quoted, but here I can claim to be in company with Marx and
Engels, for the Muses omitted to place the gift of verse in my
cradle too. In conclusion I wish to express my thanks to
Elisabeth Kühnen, Eduard Fuchs, Dr. Hans Glaubauff and
Frank Budgen for friendly assistance in various ways.

EDWARD FITZGERALD.

AMSTERDAM,
July 4th, 1935.

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