Marxism Historiography
The Historiography of Marxist Thought
The study of Karl Marx and his philosophies has fascinated political, social and economic historians for most of the past century. Hundreds, if not thousands, of scholars have dedicated their professional life to understanding Marx and Marxism. Over the years, there have been periods of continuity and periods of discontinuity, peaks and valleys of interest and hundreds of viewpoints as to the meaning and importance of Marxist thought at the any given time. While it may not seem like modern conditions provide a fertile environment for the continued study of Marxist thought, the study of Marx is considered as important today as any time in its illustrious historiography.
Any Marxist historiography must begin with Eric Hobsbawm, who is considered the "the premier Marxist historian working today" (Matthews 88). Hobsbawm's work on Marx amounts to an impressive inter-disciplinary, inter-generational synthesis which combines history and theory to weave together Marx's impact on the social, political, and economic history of the twentieth century (Ibid). Further, Hobsbawm's work has required other historians to focus closely on the meaning and implications of nationalism and national identity on the study socialist politics. As a result, the study of class-consciousness has been replaced as the dominant focus of political economic modern history.
According to Kevin Murphy, one area of Marxist historiography that has been altogether under developed, even by liberal historians like Hobsbawm, is the relative favorable reaction to the Russian Revolution in 1917, including some very sympathetic reactions in the United States (10). While some historians are willing to concede this point as it relates to minor details on these issues, there is still appears to be an ideological resistance to the notion that early Soviet society was fundamentally different from later Stalinism, and therefore praised around the world, if not actually virtuous (Murphy 10).
In fact, Western historians are still attempting to equate the Revolution of 1917 with the Stalinism that emerged years later (Murphy 11). Whereas history used to be a left-dominated discipline and the earlier liberal historians failed to develop the Marxist ideology of the Revolution, the more recent right oriented historians will only move the ideological focus even further away from what should be the mainstream. Although the size of the field is small in terms of the number of modern day Marxist historians, there is still a need to be aware of and challenge the prevailing trends in the field, especially when they reveal a weakness, as it does here (Ibid).
Another preeminent Marx scholar is E.P. Thompson. Thompson's classic work, The Making of the English Working Class, was published in the early 1960s, "when history writing was still a favorite vehicle for left intellectuals" (Wood). This book was recognized as a landmark volume in Marxist history when it was released. Thompson believed that ordinary people were mired "the enormous condescension of posterity" and needed to be rescued from it accordingly (Wood). At the heart of this comment was Thompson's wish to see historians help the working class shape its own history and to bring about its own emancipation from the class struggle. The concepts of class and class struggle are different today as socialism and communism are challenged even by the far left. Also, historians have not with answered Thompson's call to develop "the historian's craft as a political project" (Wood).
Thompson's work helped develop history as a critique to expose and challenge the ideological presuppositions of Marxism. In this regard Thompson helped bring the historical study of Marxist thought into the age of postmodernism, along with its "rejection of grand narratives, totalizing knowledge, even conceptions of causality, and so on" (Wood). The conquest of capitalism over socialism and Marxism has made the postmodern critical "discourse" obsolete among modern day Marxist historians.
As of the early 1990s, capitalism was becoming universally transcendent which sharply curtailed the fashionable study of Marx and socialism. Among an ever growing body of right wing historians, who were only too happy to extol the virtues of capitalism, and a retreating body of leftist historians, realizing with bitter certainty and finality that socialism was a dying- if not dead- system, a sharp vacuum of Marxist history developed. In fact, the triumph of capitalism was so universally acknowledged that it too was brought to the brink of extinction.
If Marxist study ever were to become irrelevant, it would have happened at this point in the apex of capitalism in the middle of the 1990s. The study of Marx was spared extinction due to the work and legacy of Thompson, according to historian Ellen...
Essay Topic Examples 1. The Historical Analytical Methods of Donny Gluckstein: Explore the unique methodological approaches employed by historian Donny Gluckstein in his analyses of labor movements, revolutions, and social struggles. Discuss how these methods contribute to a deeper understanding of historical events and their impact on contemporary socio-political thought. 2. Donny Gluckstein and the Dialectics of Revolution: Examine Gluckstein's interpretation of historical revolutions through the
Another important theorist and historian was Eric Hobsbawm, who was well-known and respected for his work on the history of British labor movement. These and other theorists, particularly those who dealt with the history of the labor movement in the country, provided the groundwork and the historical insight that was to lead to the later more widespread acceptance of multiculturalism and social history In Britain therefore the Marxist historians and
We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighboring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation…there can be no talk
20. China must consult Japan whenever foreign capital is needed in improving the infrastructure of Fukien Province. 21. China must give Japanese the right to preach in China. On May Fourth, some 3,000 students from Peking University and other schools gathered together in front of Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace that fronts the Forbidden City complex in the center of Beijing, and held a demonstration. They were furious at the news
Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, and Allen (1995) report that during the critical states of emergency, ongoing intermittently until 1989, a low-level police official could detain any individual without a hearing by for up to six months. "Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture" Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life" (Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, & Allen, ¶ 6). The enactment
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now