How democratic was the political thought of Spinoza? Mandel argues that to understand the seeming contradictions in Spinoza, we must place him in the historical context of early capitalism and an emerging bourgeoisie.

Originally titled 'Methodological problems in defining the class nature of the bourgeois state', this article is simultaneously an example Mandel's 'historical-genetic' analysis of social phenomena and the outline of an analysis of the capitalist state.

An early example of applying Marxist critique to ecological issues, in reply to the famous 'Limits to Growth' report.

In this paper Mandel argues that the theory of imperialism as developed by Hilferding and Lenin can be applied to explain the shift from direct colonialism to neo-colonialism and the changing composition of the bourgeoisie in dominated countries.

The Marxist view on the question maintains that the nation is the product of the struggle of a specific class, namely the modern bourgeoisie, the first class in history to give birth to a nation.

In this newly translated essay Mandel discusses a Marxist conception of progress, and how it is linked to the struggle for emancipation.