With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, conventional wisdom announced he final triumph of liberal capitalism.  Marxism was declared irrelevant.  Barely 20 years later, the financial crisis of 2008 and the increasing inequalities generated by globalization have generated a new interest in Marxism.  Can Marxism reinvigorate twenty first century politics, or is it indeed dead?  The course will explore key texts by Marx and Engels, as well as the recent critical literature on the viability and limitations of Marxism.