This small treatise was originally part of a larger whole. Around 1875, Dr. E. Dühring, a private lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Berlin, suddenly declared with considerable fanfare that he had converted to socialism and gifted the German public not only a detailed socialist theory but also a comprehensive practical plan for the reorganization of society.

It was obvious that he hit out at his forerunners. First and foremost, he honored Marx, showering him with the full content of his mania. This occurred at a time when the merger of the two factions of the Socialist Party in Germany -the Eisenach and Lassallean factions- had just been completed, and the Party thus gained not only a tremendous increase in its power but, more importantly, the ability to wield all that power against the common enemy.

(...) [Excerpt from the text of the introduction of the edition]