An underappreciated text which uses a semi-inquiry method through discussion with various socialists involved in the state in some way or another - either as an employee or someone on the receiving end of certain state welfare institutions - which attempts to start formulating an answer to the difficult and still pertinent question of how revolutionary communists should approach the state. Overall I think it comes to interesting conclusions, and the idea of 'in and against' certainly holds up in some regards, however, there are a number of conclusions that seem to me (perhaps due to the blessing of hindsight) to be misguided, particularly that which argues we should work within and against the Labour Party.