Many will consider this a strange work in so far as communism appears to be a long spent force from the standpoint of the twenty-first century. However, Morgan's book is one of history. He invites us to consider the thinking and the works of a chosen group of communists in their times and in their different contexts. His book is written for the general reader rather than the academic specialist. Morgan looks at the period between 1848 and 1948. The beginning of the period is marked by the publication of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.