Fundamentals of Marx: Historical Materialism

What is historical materialism? How does it relate to the Marxist dialectic and what makes it "materialist"?
This installment in the Fundamentals of Marx series looks at the basics of historical materialism. The second half of the video also considers what historical materialism is *not*.

[DershPardonNow]

Yes but didn't Stalin drink all the water in Afghanistan

[ThesWolf_]

I am 100% convinced historical materialism is the correct tool to use to understand history and what goes on today. The mainstream left seems to have abandoned it though.

[username]

Walter Rodney was the first author I read that finally made the lightbulb turn on and showed me what historical materialism is. Such an amazing and approachable thinker. RIP

[LibertarianLeninistRants]

Maybe because this is the best topic yet...but this is the best video you did so far! Especially the later part with a criticism of Marx' eurocentrism and also the notion of linear progression of history (which is widespread in the internet due to the simplified graphs that people made from slave society to communism and so on).
I can't wait for my order of Cockshott's book "How the world worked" to arrive, I already read an earlier free version and the explanations for the rise of slave trade as a component in the development of all continents was very enlightening. Looking at economic incentives (if the difference in development is huge conquest and enslavement are cheap ways to expand one's own economy), physical (i.e. real) conditions that give rise to this (the transatlantic winds gave rise to the transatlantic slave trade) and the non-linear way in which the economic systems of this world affected each other (you probably have seen Cockshott drawing his Venn diagrams for the modes of production before) make up a scientific understanding of the world that is only provided by historical materialism.

[PartyComrade]

The left: Materialism, dialectics, hardcore socio-economic science.

The right: Muuuh bankers illuminati

[omniusmaximusgluteuslxix]

Historical Materialism can help us keep facts over feelings, unlike liberals and fascists.
My brain is still in recovery mode from taking in so many high level ideas TMP, great vid:)

[Xancrim]

I love your videos so much, I've never had theory so well laid out for me! Thank you, comrade

[VAlongboardin]

one of the few actual- factual videos on marx i can use to study for my philosophy class. thank you

[sayanmajumdar]

Can i expect a series on DAS CAPITAL??? Discussing all the chapters???

[DankeyKang]

Thank you for making a better video on this than I ever could! Great job comrade!

[johnbartee]

While never working in America Marx wrote for the New York Tribune in the 1850's as a European correspondent and has some pretty cool takes on America

[edmondtarverdyan]

I've been watching your videos and they are really good and big concepts are presented in beautiful and compact way, I liked you video on surplus labor, and this one was best, in the end when you explained linear notion of progression of society I liked that part especially. Your channel is best on youtube.

[Malkiytzadeq-vvqq]

⚜️ Materialistic interpretation for me is like a relaxing state, calm state, like drinking remedie for all relaxation of mind and body.

[VocalBear]

There's a minor mistake in the video.
Church/religion mentioned twice in the triangles of basis and superstructure

[andrewp.]

What do you think of G.A. Cohen's interpretation of historical materialism? It seems to be more stagist than your presentation of historical materialism, as it postulates that the development of the productive forces necessarily causes production relations to pass through primitive communism -> pre-capitalist class society -> capitalist class society -> communism. Is this correct in your view?

[Lettermark]

Very illuminating. Grateful that you point out how the material conditions do not determine the political structure. While they do influence social organization, it’s important to remember that ideas act back upon material conditions. Reminds me that Marxist analysis needs to be introduced into the working class and does not spawn directly from it.
Can you say more about this notion of Marxist’s analysis being Eurocentric? Or rather, what other social formations have you seen unidentified by Marx and Engels In applying the historical materialist method? Thanks so much, your videos are a wealth of information and deserve multiple listens on my behalf.

[Abelonee]

thanks for this. appreciate how you broke it down in the first two minutes to a level that I actually finally understood this concept. Now I can use this understanding to further understand history and the approaches to history that I and others have taken in the past and how to analyze it going forward. I need to deepen my understanding of this to have a firm grasp in order to always be clear on this approach.

[dialecticalveganegoist]

Another great video comrade, I love this topic!

[max_mittler]

pausing only a minute in to say this reminds me of Marshall McLuhan and "the media is the message" regarding how the medium and context of the world is of more influential meaning than the content of the media. If a great idea does come to change the world, the world must materially change to adapt it.

[BioChemistryWizard]

"Workers had better lives than serfs"
Citation needed. Workers spend more of their lives working than most serfs at least in Western Europe and were far less atomized and socially disconnected under Feudalism.