This book is a classic of Marxism. It was highly recommended by Lenin as a 'text book' of scientific socialism. The book is a polemic by Engels against a German revisionist, Eugen Dühring, who challenged all the basic ideas of Marxism by counterposing his own 'scientific' theories within the social democratic party of Germany. Very reluctantly, Engels was forced to take up these ideas and in doing so explained in the clearest fashion the revolutionary theories of Marxism.

The first popular exposition of Marxism as a whole, the titles cover the three parts - philosophy, political economy, socialism - and indicate the broad scope of this famous work.