糖心TV

Core Readings:

Karl Marx, 鈥樷�� to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in Karl Marx, Selected Writings (ed. D. McLellan, Oxford, 1977), read preface.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, read preamble and chapter 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians

Walter L. Adamson, 'Marxism and Historical Thought', in, A Companion to Western Historical Thought, ed. by Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, pp. 205-222 (

Further Readings:

Cohen, G.,Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence(Oxford, 1978).

Elster, J., An Introduction to Karl Marx (Cambridge, 1986)

Fromm, Erich, Marx's Concept of Man (New York, 1961).

Fernbach, D. (ed.), [Marx鈥檚] Political Writings (The Revolution of 1848; Surveys from Exile), 2 vols (London, 1973) (both contain valuable introductions) .

Giddens, A., Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber (Cambridge, 1971)

Hall, S., 鈥楾he 鈥淧olitical鈥� and the 鈥淓conomic鈥� in Marx's Theory of Classes鈥�, in A. Hunt (ed.), Class and Class Structure (London, 1977), 15-60.

Stuart Hall, (1983)

Hobsbawm, E. 鈥楰arl Marx's Contribution to Historiography鈥�, in R. Blackburn (ed.), Ideology in Social Science: Readings in Critical Social Theory (London, 1972), 265-83

Hobsbawm, E., 鈥楥lass Consciousness in History鈥�, in I. Meszaros (ed.), Aspects of History and Class Consciousness (London, 1971), 5-21

Hobsbawm, E., 鈥業ntroduction鈥�, to K. Marx & F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition (London, 1998), 3-29

Hobsbawm, E., 鈥楳arx and History鈥�, in E. Hobsbawm, On History (London, 1997), 157-70

Kellner, D., 鈥楾he Obsolescence of Marxism?鈥�, in B. Magnus & S. Cullenberg (ed.), Whither Marxism? Global Crises in International Perspective (New York, 1995), 3-30

Krieger, L., 鈥楳arx and Engels as Historians鈥�, in B. Jessop & C. Malcolm-Brown (eds), Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought: Critical Assessments, Vol. II: Social Class and Class Conflict (London, 1990), 49-72

Laibman, D., 鈥楾he Legacy of The Eighteenth Brumaire鈥�, Science and Society, 66:4 (2002-03), 441-45

McLellan, D., Marxism after Marx: An Introduction (London, 1998)

Miller, R.W., Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power and History (Princeton, 1984)

Moss, B. H., 鈥楳arx and Engels on French Social Democracy: Historians or Revolutionaries?鈥�, Journal of the History of Ideas 46:4 (1985), 539-58

Riquelme, J-P., 鈥楾he Eighteenth Brumaire of Karl Marx as Symbolic Action鈥�, History and Theory 19:1 (1980), 58-72

Rigby, S., Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction (Manchester, 1987)

Schofield, Philipp, 'History and Marxism', in Peter Lambert and Phillipp Schofield (eds.),Making History, pp. 180-191.

Shaw, W. H., 鈥樷�淭he Handmill Gives You the Feudal Lord鈥�: Marx鈥檚 Technological Determinism鈥�, History and Theory 18 (1979), 155-76

Singer, Peter, Marx: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2000). (You might want to buy this mini-introduction)

Spencer, M., 'Marx on the State: Events in France 1848-50', Theory & Society (1979), 167-98

Sperber, Jonathan. Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life. London, 2013 (excellent biography!)

Tomba, M., 鈥楳arx as the Historial Materialist: Re-Reading The Eighteenth Brumaire', Historical Materialism 21/2 (2013): 21-46.

Wendling, A. E., 鈥楢re All Revolution Bourgeois? Revolutionary Temporality in Karl Marx鈥檚 Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte鈥�, Strategies 16:1 (2003): 39-49.

Whittam, J., 鈥楰arl Marx鈥�, in J. Cannon (ed.), The Historian at Work (London, 1980), 86-103

---

Seminar/Essay questions and gobbets:

• Explain and discuss human agency and historical change according to historical materialism.
• What is historical materialism? Is it simply a 'reductionist' view of human life?
• Is historical materialism 'dead' today or are its ideas worthwhile to keep?
• What is the concept of power in historical materialism?
• 'Today we are more alienated from ourselves as ever before.' Discuss.

---

• 鈥楾he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.鈥� (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848)
• 鈥極f all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.鈥� (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848)

• 鈥淚t is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.鈥� (Karl Marx, Critique of Political Economy,

  Karl Marx,

• 'Just as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.鈥� (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848)