LEVINE ON THE MARXIAN TRADITION: FromIdealist Roots to Nationalism and Internationalism Kevin B. Anderson Northern Illinois University Donald N. Levine's treatment of Karl Marx in his Visions of the Sociological Tradi- tion (1995) is an exemplary one by a non-Marxist scholar. In a careful reading, Levine places Marxinside the German idealisttradition. However, he overstates Marx's affinity to Ludwig Feuerbach andunderstates his continuing debtto G.W. E Hegel. Levine also points to Marx's internationalism and cosmopolitanism, drawing on both biographical andtheoretical material. In addition, he argues that Marx failed to grasp the importance of nationalism and ethnicity. Here, Levinehas not consid- ered sufficiently Marx's illuminating and substantial writings on nationalism, race, and ethnicity, particularly thoseon Poland, Ireland, andthe UnitedStates. Nonethe- less, some problematic features of Marx's writings on Jews and Judaism bear out part of Levine's critique. Donald N. Levine's Visions of the Sociological Tradition, now five years old, is the best general study of sociological theory to appear in the past decade. I believe that it will continue to stimulate fruitful discussion for many years to come. Levine develops a fresh reading, based on a dazzling array of sources, of the major traditions of Western social thought and sociology. For each of the seven mainly national traditions in part two of the book-the Aristotelian, British empiricist, French (the Enlightenment, Comte, and Durkheim), German (German idealism, Simmel, and Weber), Marxian, Italian (Machiavelli, Mosca, and Pareto), and American (pragmatist)-he draws on sources in their original languages,offering a subtle account of classical sociological theory and its origins as a dialogue across a variety of Western cultures. In keeping with the spirit of dialogue, Levine also engages a wealth of interpretation and argument. He sifts and debates not only the specialist literature on the leading clas- sical thinkers but also, at great length (in part 1), the ways in which previous narratives of the history of sociological thought-from Parsons to Gouldner and from Nisbet to Martindale-have conceptualized the issue. Levine's approach differs from that of each of these well-known predecessors. For example, his focus on specific national traditions differs from that of Talcott Parsons in The Structure of SocialAction (1937) who, Levine writes, "had largely discounted those national differences" in favor of a perspective