Gary Kilgore North (born 1942) is head of the Institute for Christian Economics, and a prominent Christian Reconstructionist, who has written widely on many topics (including postmillennial eschatology).

This book was North's first full-length book (originally published in 1967), and was revised somewhat in 1989 (the original subtitle was, "The Doctrine of Creative Destruction"). He wrote in the Preface that "It was written originally as a secondary source document, a hard-core Christian analysis of Marx's thought. It is more likely to serve in the future as a primary source document." He later notes that "By the age of 24, my basic world-and-life view was set in concrete." (Pg. lx)

North states that his thesis for the book is that "Marx's concept of human alienation was used by him as a substitute for the Christian doctrine of the fall of man." (Pg. 39) He points out that prior to 1917, Marx had very little influence, especially in the United States. (Pg. xxxi)

North states that the primary message of Marxism, the "very heart of Marx's religion of revolution," is the assertion that the proletarian revolution will regenerate mankind by regenerating man's economic and social conditions. (Pg. xvii) He also points out that Marx's labor theory of value "is unable to account for prices or values in terms of human labor." (Pg. 119)

North's characteristic acerbic observations are present in abundance; e.g., Marx's writing style is "best described as Germanic verbal constipation coupled with a bad case of hemorrhoids." (Pg. xlii) For North, Marx "was no starving proletarian. By anyone's standards in 1844, he was a rich man." (Pg. 246)

North makes an interesting admission, when addressing the question of whether the Soviet experience refutes Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises' argument that socialist economic planning is inconsistent with the rational allocation of scarce resources; North says, "The answer is difficult to ascertain. Mises was dealing with a problem of pure economic theory, and he had in mind a purely socialist economy. The Soviet Union has never attained such a stage of purity in its economic relations." (Pg. 202)

This book will be of interest to Christian Reconstructionists, or those seeking a Christian response to Marxism.