Marxist Historiography

"The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness."

Points of emphasis

• the sovereignty of the economy was fundamental 
• the materialist conception of history
• the meaning of capitalist industrialization and social development
• social development during capitalist industrialization ( E.U 1848-49)

FOCUSES

• The progress of man from lower to higher stages of development
• Mans reasoning: ontological, epistemological, analytical 
• Social:Those who own the means of production & those who are disposed by it
• History as a science: man struggles as a social creature/ communities

Formally Marxism was not recognized internationally until the end of the 19th century.

The work of Friedrich Engels helped to standardize marxism as a universally appreciated Philosophy.

Works such as: The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844-45), The Peasant War in Germany (1850). And perhaps one of his most important works,The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State ( 1884)

Engels even believed that Marx could rival Darwin, claiming that, "Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history."

Socialism also took Marxism and ran with it. Politically it related directly to the structure conflict of the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.

But Marxism was not where it truly should be just yet.

Specifically, it was not gaining notoriety in academic and intellectual settings.

Such as ours..

Between the 30's and 70's marxist historiography would take a turn for great acceptance.

Works such as these promoted the  developing field of Historiography.

• Maurice Dobb 'Studies in the development of Capitalism', 1946.
• Dona Torr 'Democracy and the Labour Movement', 1954.
• A.L. Morton's 'People's History of England, 1938.
• Edward Thompson 'The Making of the English Working Class', 1963
• Raymond Williams ' Culture and Society' 58' and  'The Long Revolution' 61'

France

Adopted marxism within the first three decades of the 20th century.

Taking on Social History

• The University of Strasbourg, Annales under Marc Bloch & Lucien Febvre.
• Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, under Francois Simiand & Revue. 
• Used Revolutions to influence scholarly work

Britian

Schools of thought

• The Society for the Study of Labour History, 1960.
• Communist Party Historians Group (CPGB), beginning in 1946.
• London School of Economics (LSE) as a center for social science progression
• Plebs League 
• The National Council of Labor Colleges

Where Marxism excelled

• Workers' Educational Association
• Ruskin College
• Independent Labour Party
• Communist Party

Communist Party Historians Group

Members of the CPGB accounted for a vast majority of the published work at this time, helping to shape the social history of Britain as a whole...

This influenced even more countries to intellectually become involved in the historiography of their people.

These environments believed history should focus on society as a whole and the progress of humanity alongside social systems.

Who else had a say?
Eduard Bernstein (Germany), Victor Adler (Austria), Georgi Plekhanov (Russia), Antonio Labriola (Italy)

By the 1970's and 1980's Other areas were being adopted into marxist view, such as, Womens History, Anthropology (gender history) ,other feminist historical work, and cultural histories.

Whats next?