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concept1848–present

Marxism

Disciplines:
history
economics
political philosophy
sociology

Summary

Marxism is a systematic theory of history, society, and political economy centred on the claim that material conditions — especially the ownership of the means of production — determine social relations and consciousness. It holds that human history is a succession of modes of production (feudalism, capitalism, etc.) driven forward by class conflict, and that capitalism's internal contradictions will eventually give rise to a classless communist society.

Core Contribution

Historical materialism as an explanatory framework for social change; surplus-value theory to explain capitalist exploitation; class struggle as the engine of history; dialectical method applied to social and economic analysis; the base/superstructure model of society.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Publication of The Communist Manifesto (1848)
  • Paris Commune (1871)
  • Publication of Capital Vol. I (1867)
  • Russian Revolution (1917)
  • Chinese Communist Revolution (1949)
  • Global New Left movements (1960s–70s)
  • Fall of Soviet Union and Marxism's crisis of legitimacy (1989–91)
  • Resurgence after 2008 financial crisis

Historical Influences

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Adam Smith David Ricardo Henri de Saint-Simon Charles Fourier Ludwig Feuerbach Robert Owen

Intellectual Lineage

Hegelian dialectics classical political economyFrench utopian socialismLudwig Feuerbach's materialismEnlightenment rationalism

Allied Works

The Communist Manifesto — Marx & EngelsCapital, Vol. I — Karl MarxThe German Ideology — Marx & EngelsGrundrisse — Karl MarxThe Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte — Karl MarxAnti-Dühring — Friedrich EngelsThe Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State — EngelsHistory and Class Consciousness — György LukácsPrison Notebooks — Antonio GramsciFor Marx — Louis Althusser

Contemporaries & Peers

Mikhail Bakunin John Stuart Mill Auguste Comte Herbert Spencer

Minds Influenced

Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Rosa LuxemburgAntonio Gramsci Louis Althusser György LukácsHerbert Marcuse Mao Zedong Frantz Fanon Simone de Beauvoir Eric Hobsbawm Fredric Jameson David HarveySlavoj Žižek

Intellectual Posterity

Leninism and Bolshevik RevolutionMaoism Frankfurt School critical theory Western Marxism Structural MarxismNeo-Marxism Marxist feminismPost-Marxism World-systems theory analytical Marxism

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Marxism

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