An Ivy League perspective on the subject of historical materialism. Yale University offers this open course, a chance to audit their SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory. Lecture 10 is titled Marx’s Theory of Historical Materialism and the subject is continued in Lecture 11. However, Lesson 12 – Marx’s Theory of History really explains the […]
Why Historical Materialism?
Historical Materialism is a Marxist proposition that offers a “methodological approach to the study of human societies and their development over time”1. It holds, among other things, that historical change is driven by contradictions within the mode of production between the means of production and the relations of production, and that the overall nature of […]
Historical Materialism – Insight From 1859
Frederick Engels, speaking at Marx’s funeral, cited the proposition of historical materialism as the greatest of Marx’s achievements, along with the discovery of surplus value, and the capitalist system’s “laws of motion.” It is staggering to think that this excerpt, from the preface of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, was written in 1859. […]
A Letter to Young Radicals
You’ve done your homework and you’ve achieved a rarified level of insight and understanding. Your bookshelf is full of works by Chomsky, Zinn, Marx, Gramsci, Zizek and the like. You’ve protested, occupied, and possibly even contributed some cash. You see clearly that the root of the problem is the system of capitalism itself — it […]
What is a Society?
Before discussing the advent of post-capitalist society we must first examine what a society is, and say something of how a society forms and functions. A simple dictionary definition of the word society might say something like, “a group of interdependent individuals” and will usually include some mention of sharing a common culture and common institutions. […]