Economic Theory of the Leisure Class. Nikolai Bukharin 1919

Preface to the American Edition

This book was written many years ago. Had the author had more time he would doubtless have rewritten the book with the aid of the many publications that have since appeared. Unfortunately he has not the time. Yet he considers it fortunate that this book is now appearing in the United States, since it is the only Marxist work presenting a systematic criticism of the fundamental tendency of bourgeois theoretical philosophy in the field of economics. From this point of view, the book is by no means out of date, and in our opinion is still perfectly valid from the theoretical standpoint. Thoughtful Marxist readers will find in this book a guide to an understanding of the ideologists of the modern bourgeoisie. It will be a comparatively easy matter to fit the most recent bourgeois writers into the scheme outlined in our treatment.

MOSCOW, SPRING, 1927.

N. BUKHARIN.