Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most important contemporary social thinkers, influencing thought about the Holocaust, postmodernity, globalization, and more. This is the first book to discuss all of Bauman's work, from the first essays in post-Stalinist Poland, through his participation in 1960s Marxist revisionism, and up to the work for which he is well known in the West. Bauman's work is put into its social and historical context, revealing why Bauman matters.