These notes of 1857-58 are now for the first time translated into English. They throw a flood light on Marx's mature views concerning the economic development of human society as a whole, from "primitive communism" to capitalism and socialism. The notes deal particularly with the epochs of historic development and their evolutionary stages, which for some time has been a subject of controversy among Marxist historians. Dr. Eric J. Hobsbawm provides a full explanatory introduction, and additional texts are included from German Ideology and the Correspondence.