The Development of Marxist Historical Materialism as a Concept: A Short Reflection

How the Marxist notion of ‘historical materialism’ has developed is well illustrated by examining its conceptual engagement with cultural and intellectual history, which can be observed through at least two broad phases: what Perry Anderson calls the ‘Classical Tradition’ and, later, what became known as ‘cultural Marxism’.[1]

Classical Marxism

In Das Kapital, Karl Marx does not deny the existence of ideas (part of his ‘superstructure’, distinct from the economic ‘base’).[2] Instead, he explains the conditions of their existence—contrasting himself with Hegel by insisting that ‘the ideal is nothing but the material as it is transposed and translated inside human heads’.[3] 

Similarly, Friedrich Engels refers to the ‘conditions of existence’ from which political, aesthetic, philosophical, and religious aspects arise.[4] 

This is not necessarily to say that ideas have no historical influence—but such influence cannot be understood to be ‘independent’ of the material conditions that shape it.[5] ‘Consciousness is not to be ignored,’ summarises S. H. Rigby, ‘but neither is it to be seen as an autonomous historical force existing independently from real living individuals.’[6] 

For Marx, the influence of ideas is not a one-way affair, and the role of ‘productive force’ remains dominant in his explanation of historical change.[7] Christopher Hill broaches questions of intellectual history in a manner broadly consistent with this more traditional Marxist legacy by considering them in the context of economic disruption and change.[8]

For example, in his study of ideology within the English ‘revolution,’ Hill uses economic insights to posit why Puritan and Leveller elements held ‘mediæval’ and ‘reactionary’ attitudes.[9] He argues that the changes to land ownership and rural society’s structure had ‘disturbing effects on ways of thought and belief’.[10] Such a classically Marxist approach engages questions of intellectual history indirectly, as a subordinate field—using economic and material conditions to explain the development of ideas.[11] Hill will speak of the ‘radical ideas’ that are ‘thrown up’ by revolution.[12] 

In the classical Marxist view, while ideas form part of the historical object of study, they remain essentially products of the economic and material substrate.

Cultural Marxism

In the twentieth century, however, Marxist approaches to history have increasingly moved in ‘non-reductive directions’ that recognise the value of culture, as well as social structure, in understanding human thought.[13] Political and economic structures gradually lost their places as ‘the central concerns of theory,’ as European Marxists turned their attention to ‘philosophy’.[14] 

As early as the 1920s, the Frankfurt School and Antonio Gramsci further emphasised the agency (and, indeed, ‘domination,’ to quote Kellner) of ideas and cultural values from within a Marxist worldview—in some sense making Marx’s superstructure ‘the key locus of analysis’.[15] 

Gramsci emphasised the pursuit of hegemony in terms of values, practices, institutions, and symbols—rather than simply in economic terms.[16] Building on this shift of focus, Marxist historians in the 1960s like E. P. Thompson focused much more directly on the causal power of ideas and ‘popular morality’—giving rise to what has been termed British ‘cultural’ Marxism.[17] 

Pitting himself explicitly against Marxist ‘orthodoxy’, Thompson insists that historical process ‘owes as much to agency as to conditioning’—although his paradigmatic focus on class consciousness remains comfortably within Marxist orthodoxy.[18] 

Thompson’s work studied collective ideas, or class consciousness, not merely as a reflection of the economic base, but as they emerged from within a cultural community.[19] 

In this way, with particular reference to intellectual history, the Marxist theory of historical materialism can be characterised by two broad phases, representing a shift away from the primacy of economic factors and towards a greater emphasis on ideas and culture.

Endnotes:

[1] Perry Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism, London, 1976, https://archive.org/details/considerationson0000ande_y1k7, accessed 16 August 2025, p. 1.

[2] Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in History and Theory, 2nd edn, Manchester, 2016, p. 48; Walter L. Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ in (eds.) Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, A Companion to Western Historical Thought, Oxford, 2002, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/une/detail.action?docID=214127, accessed 16 August 2025, p. 212–214.

[3] Karl Marx, Capital: Critique of Political Economy, volume 1, (ed.) Paul North & Paul Reitter, trans. Paul Reitter, Princeton and Oxford, 2024, p. 709; Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ pp. 206–207; Paul Hirst, Marxism and Historical Writing (Routledge Revivals), Abington, 2010, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/une/detail.action?docID=460314, accessed 16 August 2025, p. 42; S. H. Rigby, Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edn, Manchester, 1998, https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.15976608, accessed 16 August 2025, pp. 14–15; Rigby, Marxism and History, p. 48.

[4] Quoted in Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ p. 205.

[5] Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ pp. 214–215; Green and Troup, Houses of History, p. 48; Rigby, Marxism and History, pp. 8–9.

[6] Rigby, Marxism and History, p. 9.

[7] Green and Troup, Houses of History, p. 48; Rigby, Marxism and History, pp. 52–55.

[8] Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution, London, 1972, https://archive.org/details/worldturnedupsid0000hill, accessed 16 August 2025.

[9] Christopher Hill, ‘Economic Background of the English Revolution,’ reproduced in Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in History and Theory, 2nd edn, Manchester, 2016, p. 66.

[10] Hill, ‘Economic Background,’ p. 61.

[11] Hill, World Turned Upside Down, p. 12; Doug Kellner, ‘Cultural Marxism, British cultural studies, and the reconstruction of education,’ Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 55, 2023, p. 1423.

[12] Hill, World Turned Upside Down, p. 13.

[13] Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ p. 216.

[14] Anderson, Considerations on Western Marxism, p. 49, emphasis in original.

[15] Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ p. 217; Dworkin, Cultural Marxism, p. 4; Kellner, ‘Cultural Marxism,’ p. 1425.

[16] Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ p. 217; Kellner, ‘Cultural Marxism,’ p. 1425.

[17] Green and Troup, Houses of History, p. 52; Dennis Dworkin, Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies, Durham and London, 1997, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smk18, accessed 16 August 2025, pp. 4–7.

[18] Green and Troup, Houses of History, p. 47; E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, London, 1964, https://archive.org/details/makingofenglishw0000thom, accessed 16 August 2025, p. 9, 12.

[19] Adamson, ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ pp. 217–218.

Bibliography

• Adamson, Walter L., ‘Marxism and Historical Thought,’ in (eds.) Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, A Companion to Western Historical Thought, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 2002, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/une/detail.action?docID=214127, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Anderson, Perry, Considerations on Western Marxism, London, NLB, 1976, https://archive.org/details/considerationson0000ande_y1k7, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Curthoys, Ann and John Docker, Is History Fiction? 2nd edn, Sydney, UNSW Press, 2010.

• Dworkin, Dennis, Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 1997, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smk18, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Green, Anna, and Kathleen Troup, The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in History and Theory, 2nd edn, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016.

• Hill, Christopher, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution, London, Temple Smith, 1972, https://archive.org/details/worldturnedupsid0000hill, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Hill, Christopher, ‘Economic Background of the English Revolution,’ reproduced in Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in History and Theory, 2nd edn, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016.

• Hirst, Paul, Marxism and Historical Writing (Routledge Revivals), Abingdon, Routledge, 2010, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/une/detail.action?docID=460314, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Kellner, Doug, ‘Cultural Marxism, British cultural studies, and the reconstruction of education,’ Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 55, 2023, pp. 1423–1435, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1926982, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Marx, Karl, Capital: Critique of Political Economy, volume 1, (ed.) Paul North & Paul Reitter, trans. Paul Reitter, Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2024.

• Rigby, S. H., Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edn, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1998, https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.15976608, accessed 16 August 2025.

• Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class, London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1964, https://archive.org/details/makingofenglishw0000thom, accessed 16 August 2025.