在現代中國史上，李大釗是五四新文化運動的主要旗手、中共主要的創黨人、第一個馬克思主義者、也是第一個較廣泛、較系統向五四知識份子介紹與傳播布爾什維克主義、馬克思主義的學者。李氏到馬克思主義之路的過程與問題，不僅透露反映出五四知識份子何以選擇、接受共產主義，作爲解決中國危機的出路的重大歷史問題，同時也牽涉到中國馬克思主義形成初期的性質、性格，以及它將預示、影響著爾後中共革命運動的方向與動力。李大釗接受馬克思的分析，認爲資本從誕生起即邁向成爲一種世界性的力量。然而，李大釗亦觀察到：資本無法自存自養；它必得在非資本主義國家不斷創造出無產者。換言之，資本擴張即意謂著帝國主義的擴張與非資本主義世界的被剝削與掠奪。李大釗因此超越馬克思認爲資本將逼使全球採取資產階級生產模式的見解，並堅信革命者應立即針對帝國主義的矛盾而行動。就這層意義言之，李大釗對帝國主義的批判始由理論而終於實踐。他經由帝國主義所作的概念分析，將資本與資本擴張的難題綰合在一起。同時，經由將不同的革命論述編織在一起，李大釗遠較其他五四知識份子更能夠預見到，在資本宰制的鎖鍊上，中國革命可以在最大矛盾、最弱環節的地方，展開革命鬥爭。

Li Ta-chao was a major architect of the New Culture Movement, a leader in initiating the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the first leading Chinese Marxist who introduced Bolshevism to his contempo­raries in a systematic manner. His turn toward Marxism not only revealed the reasons why Chinese intellectuals adopted Marxism as the solution to modern China's crises but also helped shape the early charac­ter and later development of Chinese Marxism. To be more specific, Li Ta-chao adopted Marx's analysis that capi­tal from its inception tends toward becoming a world power. Nonethe­less, Li further observed, capital cannot sustain itself without constantly creating and engaging new proletarians among non-capitalist countries. The expansion of capital, in other words, implicates imperialism and the pillage of the non-capitalist world. Thus, moving beyond Marx's view that capital will compel all nations to adopt the capitalist mode of pro­duction, Li was convinced of the need for the revolutionaries to act on the contradiction posed by capital's present imperialist organization. Li, in this way, put the critique of imperialism into practice. He brought togher the problematic of capital and of its development through both re-interpreting the concept of imperialism and weaving together differ­ent discourses of revolution. He, more than any other May Fourth intel­lectual, was able to foresee the possibility of struggle against the most contradictory and weakest link in the chain of capitalist domination.