Ahead of Darwin, Newton, and Einstein came Marx in first place.
Now this possibly says more about the sample. Apparently thousands voted but we do not know if they were specially slanted towards Open University sociology students, or whether there was a secret campaign by the UK Socialist Workers Party (perhaps unlikely since the SWP controls its members participation in mailing lists at least).
On the other hand it is a sign of the times, is it not, that within ten years of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Marx is not an unfashionable name in intellectual circles.
There is a sense we share with many intelligent people, of an old mole tunnelling away under the temples of a capitalist system that is shaken by periodic earthquakes. The critique of that system is still relevant and perhaps still to be completed in practice.
Chris Burford
London