Marx for his times.

This article is a review essay of Gareth Stedman Jones's biography Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. It begins by situating the book in relation to existing biographies before outlining Stedman Jones's approach, which is to conceive of Marx's works as interventions within contexts which the historian of ideas must reconstruct. I argue that although the book provides an excellent account of the political contexts within which Marx lived and worked, its interpretations of his writings are frequently ungenerous, unbalanced, and misleading. I defend Marx against charges that his work was economically confused, politically naïve, and overly abstract, using the Grundrisse in particular for illustrative purposes. I also take issue with Stedman Jones's methodology, questioning whether it is desirable or possible to separate Marx from Marxism and return him to his nineteenth-century context. I end by suggesting that Stedman Jones's attempt to return Marx to his context brings into focus the contexts of Stedman Jones's own intellectual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]