In general terms, this book has examined the role of Jewish socialism in the emergence of modern Jewish politics. Specifically, it has concentrated on the clash between socialist internationalism and Jewish nationalism; on the attempts to reconcile the one with the other in some form of synthesis; and on the subsequent interrelationship of movements and ideologies that were in varying degrees both socialist (or at least proletarian) and nationalist (or at least national). Throughout, it has emphasized the constant interaction of the ideological and the political.

It was argued in the Introduction that Jewish socialism could be regarded as a political subworld or subculture. By 1914, this subworld was in existence in every major center of Russian-Jewish life – not only in the Pale, Galicia, London, and New York but also (on however small a scale) in Paris, Canada, South America, and South Africa.

Its constituent movements did not share a common ideology: far from it. But certain shared assumptions, a lowest common denominator of belief, did exist. Thus, they all accepted that there was room within Jewish society for at least an autonomous (if not an independent) labor or socialist movement; that such a movement could contribute to the solution of the Jewish question; and that its right to exist was no less than that of parallel organizations among other minority peoples. They all put their faith in a radically new society and in the new man (however differently envisaged he might be).