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Historical materialism, or what Marx called the materialist conception of history, was a theory which sees historical causation determined by material factors, in particular the means of production.

Marx, in the 1859 Preface to A contribution to the critique of political economy wrote:

In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.

Over times Marx's conception the materialist conception of history was used in an increasingly doctrinaire fashion, see in particular Stalin's Dialectical and historical materialism.

Resources

Books

• Handbook for Tutors, Marx House, Sydney. Image PDF Details
• "Dogmatist", The materialist conception of history, an introduction to its study, Socialist Federation of Australasia, Melbourne, 1910, 84 pp. Image PDF Details

Book Sections

• "Dogmatist", 'The coming of socialism affirmed', in The materialist conception of history, an introduction to its study, Socialist Federation of Australasia, Melbourne, 1910. Image PDF Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details

Pamphlets

• Labour's religon, Social Democratic Vanguard, Brisbane, c1901. Image PDF Details

Syllabus

• Philosophy - Dialectical and Historical Materialism (Tutors' Guide), July 1950. Image PDF Details