Introduction to Historical Materialism: A Theory of Society and History

Taking off from Marx’s insights, Marxism emerged as a broad tradition sharing the common objective for pursuing a critique of exploitative systems such as capitalism and seeking a transition towards a post-exploitative, postcapitalist society. 1 Nevertheless, it will be an error to reduce any tradition to one theory. Like all traditions, Marxism too comprises many, often clashing, theories, each operating with diverse entry points, logics, modes of analysis, techniques, claims, etc. While these pull and push Marxism in different, often contesting directions it also makes for over 150 years of lineage that is extraordinarily rich, complex and dynamic. If not anything, it represents the space for the most rigorously developed critique of capitalist system that we know of.