In this book, McNally develops a critique of market socialism by tracing it back to its roots in early political economy. He ranges from Adam Smith to Malthus and concludes with an incisive consideration of recent writers, such as Alec Nove. McNally shows that efforts to construct a feasible model of market socialism are plagued by contradiction. Their failure to come to terms with the social foundations of the market, the commodification of labour-power, means that market socialism is, in fact, neither socialist nor workable.