1 / 26

Marxist Historiography

Recent Discussions. Chris Wickham (ed)Marxist History-writing for the Twenty-first CenturyPaul BlackledgeReflections on the Marxist Theory of History. -Theory - Plenty of that coming up- Archives

napoleon
Download Presentation

Marxist Historiography

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. Marxist Historiography Lecture 2 Theory, Skills and Methods

    2. Recent Discussions Chris Wickham (ed) Marxist History-writing for the Twenty-first Century Paul Blackledge Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History

    3. -Theory - Plenty of that coming up - Archives – Stalin called historians ‘archive rats’

    4. A Little Marxist Theory Many people think Marx’s ideas on society begins with class but actually it begins with what creates class – namely labour Fundamental part of human ‘essence’ – creativity; transforming the world to accommodate human needs – shelter; transport; goods etc. Also condition of our survival – food production etc. Starting point of all social analysis – who does the labour and who controls it? human societies differentiated by their systems of labour Primitive communism; slave society; feudal society; capitalist society

    5. A Little Marxist Theory (cont) Capitalism and Labour Identified by its ‘relations of production’ (obscure term meaning how is work organised!) and rise of private property to produce two conflicting classes i.) one group composed of those who own the means of production (land, machines , capital) as private property plus their associates (lawyers, managers, agents etc.) ‘bourgeoisie’ ii.) a second group who do not own the means of production but sell their labour power to those who work for a wage. ‘proletariat’

    6. A Little Marxist Theory (cont) ‘Surplus value’ According to Marx the wage paid to the worker excludes an element controlled by the employer to make a profit thus, for Marx capitalism is constructed to allow, or even compel, the employers to extract ‘surplus value’ from their workers – which goes to create the wealth of the employers; military; judiciary; religion; art; mass media; ‘superstructure’ etc. all of which reflect culture and interests of exploiters who fund them

    7. A Little Marxist Theory (cont) Socialist revolution competition leads to ever-fiercer conflict between employers to maintain profit ‘exploitation’ (i.e.squeezing ever more surplus value from workers to maintain) impoverishes workers and leaves them with ‘nothing to lose but [their] chains’ (Com Man 1848) also constricts markets for capitalists preventing system from functioning – nowhere to realise profit – succession of crises one of which will be terminal contradiction of productive potential and massive, unaddressed, needs of masses leads to rising class-consciousness of workers and revolution – liberates productive potential to meet human needs not profits

    8. HOWEVER, NOTE i.) progression from one level to another not inevitable – Roman society collapsed, it did not move into a higher stage ii.) Marx own historical analysis very subtle – Eighteenth Brumaire gives a very nuanced picture of class and conflicts within classes in France iii.)Marx no crude determinist ‘Men make their own history’ but not under circumstances of their own choosing. The weight of past, dead tradition ‘weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living

    9. Subsequent Problems of Marxist Theory: Critics of Marxism ‘Writing off Marx’ by his critics is a permanent academic industry from a forerunner of the eventual Chicago school, the Austrian economist Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk Karl Marx and the Close of his System (1896) (Schumpeter; von Mises) Also liberals (promoting individualism not collectivism); Popper (Open Society and its Enemies 1945 and The Poverty of Historicism 1936/ 1957); Marxism=positivism critics of ‘enlightenment rationalism’ from Nietzscheans to fascists to postmodernists Among historians – Elton; Cobban; Furet et al. Often polemical Norman Stone and Andrew Roberts

    13. Marxism and historical analysis Initially Marxist theory was crude and deterministic – ‘vulgar’ Marxism Marx himself famously said ‘as for myself, I am not a marxist’ Picked up as ‘official’ Marxism in USSR – sterile and dispiriting dogmas deriving all ‘superstructure’ from economic ‘base’ (often this variant which critics refute as ‘marxism’)

    14. Marxism and historical analysis Stressed certain aspects materialist (philosophical=objective existence of external world versus idealism=external world only known and interpreted through the senses) Economic determinist – root of society is economic interests not individual will or free-floating values and ideas Dialectical - ‘everything is in motion/ process of change into something else’ – thesis/ antithesis/ synthesis (makes change the norm, undermines conservative stress on stasis which is really a balance of opposing forces ready to split asunder) Structuralist – collectives not individuals crucial; class struggle as main agent of historical change; examine social structures not ‘great men and women’

    15. Marxism and historical analysis Lenin – Marxism not a dogma but a guide: for Lenin ‘consciousness’ was a crucial historical battleground turning a class from a ‘class in itself’ (i.e. a class occupying a certain social position) into a ‘class for itself’ (i.e. a class which is aware – conscious – of that position). Party to accomplish this task Opens up the impertinent concept of ‘false consciousness’ (i.e. what you believe is not what you should really believe) For Lenin revolution requires ‘raising consciousness’ of workers to revolutionary/ advanced level by emancipating them from ‘bourgeois ideology’ (royalism; nationalism; religion etc.)

    16. Marxism and historical analysis SOME EARLY MARXIST HISTORIANS George Plekhanov (1856-1918) Role of the Individual in History (1886) – if Napoleon had not existed someone else would have fulfilled his historical role Karl Kautsky Foundations of Christianity (1908)– Christianity spreads because of trade routes and other material factors not because it was ‘divine’ – Jesus a ‘proletarian’ rebel M.N.Pokrovsky writes a history of Russia (1910-13) scarcely mentioning the tsars (or any other individuals) by title or even, in many cases, by name. Groups and classes predominate

    17. MUCH 20TH CENTURY MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY HAS BEEN ABOUT ‘CONSCIOUSNESS’ AND CULTURE – WESTERN MARXISM Georg Lukacs History and Class Consciousness 1924 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) Literary critic ‘Frankfurt School’ - Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Habermas – ‘culture industry’, non-positivist, psychoanalysis etc Edward Thompson ‘class happens’ And class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared), feel and articulate the identity of their interests Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) – bourgeois dominate through their ‘cultural capital’ (is Marxism the ‘opium of the intellectuals’?)

    18. Marxism and historical analysis Some random types of Marxist historical thinking French academic debate and analysis of French Revolution as locus classicus of Marxist and anti-Marxist argument (account in Gwynne Lewis) Look at material interests and actions of historical actors first and their words and images second Bush and the Houston oilmen ‘bringing democracy’ to Iraq recent governmental/ corporate rush into ‘climate change’ mode Massive new opportunites for govts to tax Fanfare for re-introduction of nuclear power Vast new opportunities for new products

    19. Marxism and historical analysis ‘Globalisation’ as continuum from monopoly capitalism – new imperialism – neo-colonialism – globalisation new phase of ruthless, worldwide pursuit of profit at all costs ‘cultural revolution’ of capitalism to make its values appear ‘universal’ and unchallengeable = ‘human nature’ e.g. to be graspingly selfish, competitive etc. Needs to sweep away or re-make all other values – family, religion, tradition, honour, love – in name of pursuit of financial profit – ‘All that is solid melts into air’ (Are we in ‘late capitalism’ or maybe ‘early’ even ‘primitive’ capitalism )

    21. Overview Jean Chesneaux – ‘What is history for?’ pre-eminently Marxist question implies utilitarian answer History as a component of ideology/ political culture/ legitimation Antonio Gramsci – concept of intellectual hegemony (derived from A.A.Bogdanov and his concept of proletarian culture)

    22. A Little Marxist Theory (cont) a few concepts Specialisation a feature of capitalism Leads to worker (and others’) ‘alienation’ – a concept developed in Marx’ early manuscripts which were unknown and unpublished until after 1945

    23. Subsequent Problems of Marxist Theory: Marxist debates By 1900 capitalism had undergone crises but far from collapsing it was spreading globally through the ‘new imperialism’ ‘Revisionism’ Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932) Evolutionary Socialism 1899 (lit Prerequisites for Socialism) leads to social-democratic trad of non-Marxist socialism Karl Kautsky (1854-1938) ‘parliamentary road’ to socialism; SPD rejects Bernstein but pursues his practices Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919) – imperialism as outlet for capitalism; mass strike Lenin (1870 -1924) – capitalist chain would break at its ‘weakest link’ (N.Bukharin) i.e. Russia (Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism 1917)

    24. Subsequent Problems of Marxist Theory: Marxist debates after the Russian Revolution Russian model achieves prominence Marxism-Leninism (leading party necessary) Trotskyism (permanent revolution; bureaucratisation of Russian Rev leads to Stalinism (revolution from above by state and party elite/ bureaucracy/ apparat) However, most ‘marxist’ revs occur in peasant-dominated countries (including Russia) ‘peasant’ Marxism prominence of imperialism result is Maoism; Ho Chi Minh; Che Guevara etc Recent emergence of less Soviet-oriented Marxisms/ socialisms – anti-globalisation movement; Chavez (Venezuela); Morales (Bolivia); Lula (Brazil); rebels in Chiapas, Mexico; maybe Raoul Castro after Fidel)

    25. Marxism and historical analysis Back to Chesneaux’s question – what is history for? For Chesneaux and many Marxists it is part of class struggle in the realm of ideas-the struggle for intellectual/ ideological/ cultural influence in society For ruling class – history had a role in legitimising its domination For oppressed it was a means to liberate themselves and establish their values

    26. Marxism and historical analysis This idea often linked to Antonio Gramsci but he derived it from Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928) For Bogdanov a dominant class prepared its values as part of its revolutionary struggle (e.g. bourgeois values germinated in last centuries of feudalism) Therefore proletarian values had to germinate before class would be sufficiently mature to take power Bogdanov’s projects – Proletarian University; Proletarian Encyclopaedia; Proletkul’t.

    27. Marxism and historical analysis Gramsci (1891-1937) was a young adherent to a branch of Proletkul’t set up in Turin during the postwar ‘red wave’ in Italy 1919-20 Establishment eventually turned to Mussolini and fascists in self-defence and Gramsci arrested and spent rest of his life in prison Develops concept of intellectual ‘hegemony’

More Related