Historical Materialism: Social Structure and Social Change in the Middle Ages

Stephen H Rigby

2004, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies

4000 Views50 Pages

1 File ▾

Marxism,

Historical Materialism,

Middle Ages,

Karl Marx Theory of the Mode of Production,

Marxist History, Philosophy and Theory

 ...more ▾

Show more ▾

This article sets out Marx and Engels' views on medieval society and examines how they have been used by modern Marxist historians. It shows how key Marxist concepts, including the productive forces, relations of production, surplus labour, class conflicts, base and superstructure, the state and ideology, have been applied to medieval history. Finally. it offers a critique of the Marxist approach, arguing that the implicit pluralism of much Marxist historiography has been at odds with Marxism's own explicit claims for the causal primacy of particular aspects of the social structure, whether these are the productive forces, the relations of production or society's so-called economic 'based'. It is this explanatory pluralism which allows Marxist approaches to be reconciled with non-Marxist historiographical traditions.

https://tinyurl.com/ydf62ez2