Dialectical and Historical Materialism by Joseph Stalin is a central text within the Soviet Union's political theory Marxism-Leninism. Originally published in 1938, this masterful volume retains its relevance in today's world.

Was Leninism elaborated only on Russian soil, for Russia alone, and not on the soil of imperialism, and for the imperialist countries generally? Do such works of Lenin as "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism," "The State and Revolution," "The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky," "Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder," etc., apply only to Russia, and not to all imperialist countries in general? Is not Leninism the generalisation of the experience of the revolutionary movement of all countries? Are not the fundamentals of the theory and tactics of Leninism suitable, are they not obligatory, for the proletarian parties of all countries? Was not Lenin right when he said that "Bolshevism can serve as a model of tactics for all"?

This book argues that the dialectic of Marx's Capital has a systematic, rather than historical, character. It sheds new light on Marx's great work, while going beyond it in many respects.

The book provides a genealogy of 'dialectical materialism' by tracing the development of Marxist ideas from their origins in German philosophical thought to the ideology of the social-democratic groups in Russia in the 1890s, from which Lenin and the revolutionary generation emerged. It reconstructs Marx's original conceptions and examines the modifications that were made to them by himself and by his Russian followers, which eventually gave rise to the doctrine of 'dialectical materialism', first expounded by Plekhanov.

In How Language Informs Mathematics Dirk Damsma shows how Hegel’s and Marx’s systematic dialectical analysis of mathematical and economic language helps us understand the structure and nature of mathematical and capitalist systems. More importantly, Damsma shows how knowledge of the latter can inform model assumptions and help improve models. His book provides a blueprint for an approach to economic model building that does away with arbitrarily chosen assumptions and is sensitive to the institutional structures of capitalism. In light of the failure of mainstream economics to understand systemic failures like the financial crisis and given the arbitrary character of most assumptions in mainstream models, such an approach is desperately needed.