Lenin introduces the reader to the essential concepts of Marxism, an "integral and harmonious" scientific theory based on a dialectical and historical materialist understanding of society and the development of social knowledge. He provides a brief exposition of Marx's development of the labor theory of value, the theory of the class struggle, and Marx's most significant contribution to political economy, the theory of surplus value.

The author argues that the rapid growth of social inequality, rooted in the historic crisis of the capitalist system, will bring on titanic class struggles internationally. The complete breakdown of democratic forms of government, the turn to the far-right by today's ruling elites, the mad pursuit of escalating wars, and the emergence of working class struggle, all provide further confirmation that far from being at an end, "History" is very much with us.