Completed in 1939, during the period of Conze's own inflection from Marxist philosophy to Buddhist studies, the original manuscript was never published and is now in print for the first time. The book has been edited and includes a new introduction by Richard N. Levine and Nathan H. Levine, also featuring a foreword by American legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe, and an afterword by actor, director, writer, and Buddhist priest Peter Coyote.