Had this collection been a celebration of the 100 years between the middle of the nineteenth century and middle of the twentieth century it could have claimed to trace the development of Marxism as a dominant political tradition. This dominance emerged from roots in the late 1840s, with the publication of the Communist Manifesto, and a few years later the formation of the First International, amid widespread political unrest in Europe. It culminated with half the globe under Communist rule and liberal democracy subverted by social reformist and parliamentary socialist politics after the Second World War. Even as late as 30 years ago, a gaze back 100 years would have recognized the global reach of Marxist theory and politics. That period began with workers' political emancipation in Europe and the growth of socialist politics within organized labour, and ended with the entrenched agenda of social democracy and the rise of Eurocommunism in Europe, and the development of a global détente or accommodation between Communist and Capitalist worlds. Why then, was the end of the twentieth century — and the second Millennium of the Christian calendar -accompanied by a variety of contemporary analyses that commonly consign Marxist politics and theory to the history books?