Examining Lenin's conception of the revolutionary party and its place in Marxist thought, this book looks at his critics and adversaries, and at the historical context which shaped Lenin's views.

Lenin and Revolutionary Russia examines the background to and the course of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Lenin's regime. It explores all the key aspects such as the development of the Bolsheviks as a revolutionary party, the 1905 Revolution, the collapse of the Tsarists, the Russian Civil War and historical interpretations of Lenin's legacy to Russian history.

Lenin's most important and controversial theoretical text Lenin’s booklet The State and Revolution struck the world of Marxist theory like a lightning bolt. Written in the months running up to the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin turned the traditional socialist concept of the state on its head, arguing for the need to smash the organs of the bourgeois state to create a ‘semi-state’ of soviets, or workers’ councils, in which ordinary people would take on the functions of the state machine in a new and radically democratic manner. This new edition includes a substantial introduction by renowned theorist Antonio Negri, who argues for the continued relevance of these ideas.

Trotsky’s own words on revolutionary organization, from 1917 to 1940, highlight the dynamics of democratic initiative and principled centralism.

Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience offers a fresh look at Communism, both the bad and good, and also touches on anarchism, Christian theory, conservatism, liberalism, Marxism, and more, to argue for the enduring relevance of Karl Marx, and V.I. Lenin as democratic revolutionaries. It examines the "Red Decade" of the 1930s and the civil rights movement and the New Left of the 1960s in the United States as well. Studying the past to grapple with issues of war and terrorism, exploitation, hunger, ecological crisis, and trends toward deadening "de-spiritualization", the book shows how the revolutionaries of the past are still relevant to today's struggles. It offers a clearly written and carefully reasoned thematic discussion of globalization, Marxism, Christianity (and religion in general), Communism, the history of the USSR and US radical and social movements.