In a work centred on Marx's harsh biography of Simon Bolvar, Jose Arico examines why Latin America was apparently excluded from Marx's thought, challenging the allegation that this expressed Eurocentric prejudice. Whilst criticising Marx's misreading of Latin American realities, Arico shows countervailing tendencies in Marx's thought, including his appraisal of non-European societies. Arico convincingly argues that Marx's work was not a dogma of linear 'progress', but a living, contradictory body of thought constantly in development.