The book was translated into the English by Kaethe Mengelberg and published by Bedminster Press in 1964 (Cahman, 1966) From 1855, until his retirement in 1885, von Stein was a professor of Political economy at the University of Vienna.

In 1882, Japanese Prime Minister of Japan Itō Hirobumi headed a delegation to Europe to study western governmental systems.

However, Stein is best known for the fact that he applied Hegel's dialectic to the area of public administration and the national economy, in order to improve the systematics of these sciences, although he did not neglect the historical aspects.

He outlined an economic interpretation of history that included concepts of the proletariat and of class struggle, but he shared the fear of violent revolution common among middle-class liberals and advocated reformist solutions instead.

However, Marx shows by scattered remarks on von Stein that he was aware of his highly influential book from 1842 on communist thought in France.