Karl Marx’s political philosophy has resounded throughout politics and history, from the nineteenth century to the present day. In recent times however the concept of ‘Marxism’ has become a vague term, of uncertain and contestable definition, increasingly inaccessible to those new to Marx’s writings. How are we to understand ‘Marxism’ when it has become so open to appropriation? In Karl Marx, Paul Thomas introduces the reader to Marx’s life and writings, to show how each cast light on the other.