What determines history?
 Not great men
 Not pivotal moments
 Social class
 Economic realities
 HISTORY FROM BELOW
Marxist interpretations: Telelogical
 Everything moves towards a certain end, a final result
 The final result: a classless human society
What is ‘Historical materialism’?
• In order to understand human society and historical
development you have to study how humans produce
and reproduce the material requirements of life
• To successfully produce these material requirements
people have to enter into ‘production relations’ – the
relationship between those who do the work and those
who own the ‘means of production’
The stages of historical materialism
 Marxists identified several historical stages of this
relationship:
 Tribal (primitive communism)
 Ancient (slaves and slave owners)
 Feudalism (serfs and landowners)
 Capitalism (owners and workers)
 Society (politics, culture, laws etc) is shaped by these
relationships
How does society change?
 The dominant class is overthrown by a new emerging
class
Why was this interpretation
different?
 Introduced the idea of ‘coherence’ into human history
 Suggests that historical change is as a result of the
struggle between different classes
 Examined ‘history from below’
Criticisms