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Historical materialism

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, looking for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life. Marxism, uncountable

    "Statt dessen aber dient die Phrase des historischen Materialismus (man kann eben alles zur Phrase machen) nur zu vielen jüngeren Deutschen nur dazu, ihre eignen relativ dürftigen historischen Kenntnisse - die ökonomische Geschichte liegt ja noch in den Windeln! - schleunigst systematisch zurechtzukonstruieren und sich dann sehr gewaltig vorzukommen."

Etymology

Calque of German historischer Materialismus. Its earliest extant attestation - in German - is in Friedrich Engels's letter [5 August 1890] to Conrad Schmidt. Its earliest extant public attestation - in English - is in Engels's 1892 "Introduction to the English Edition" to his 1880 booklet Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.

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