Friedrich Engels, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Historical materialism — the view of the course of history that seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in the changes in the modes of production and exchange, in the consequent division of society into distinct classes, and in the struggles of these classes against one another.1
That is the definition I gave in the introduction to Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, and I stand by its precision. But the formula wants unpacking, because it is easily mistaken for a mechanical determinism it does not contain. The first premise — the one Karl and I laid down in The German Ideology — is simply that men must be in a position to live before they can make history.2
Eating, drinking, shelter, clothing: the production of material life itself is the first historical act, a fundamental condition that must be fulfilled daily and hourly, today as thousands of years ago.3 From this it follows that any theory of history which begins elsewhere — with ideas, with the state, with religion — has already lost the thread.
The Germans, notoriously, began elsewhere, and consequently never had an earthly basis for history.4 Now, the economic movement does not operate in isolation. The state, for instance, arises from the division of labour within society: persons selected for common social functions form a new branch of that division, acquire particular interests distinct from those who appointed them, and make themselves independent — and the state is in being.5
Once established, it acquires its own movement and reacts back upon the conditions of production. The relation is the interaction of two unequal forces: on one hand the economic movement, on the other the political power, which strives for as much independence as possible.6 On the whole, the economic movement gets its way — but it has to suffer reactions from the political movement it itself called into existence.
The class struggle is reflected in the struggle between government and opposition, but in inverted form, no longer directly as a class struggle but as a fight for political principles — so distorted that it has taken us thousands of years to get behind it again.7 This is why I insist the term is historical materialism and not, say, historical agnosticism or economic determinism.
The agnostic, outside the sphere of what he actually knows, translates his ignorance into Greek.8 I prefer to name the thing plainly. And the abstraction itself — the formula of base and superstructure, of class and class struggle — has no value viewed apart from real history; it can only serve to facilitate the arrangement of historical material, to indicate the sequence of its separate strata.9
It is not a recipe for neatly trimming the epochs of history into philosophical schemas. The difficulties begin precisely when we set about the real depiction of historical material, and those difficulties are governed by premises that only the study of the actual life-process of each epoch will make evident.10
the term, 'historical materialism,' to designate that view of the course of history, which seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in the changes in the modes of production and exchange, in the consequent division of society into distinct classes, and in the struggles of these classes against one another.Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
The first premise of all human existence, and therefore of all history, the premise namely that men must be in a position to live in order to be able to 'make history.'The German Ideology, p. 15
The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself. And indeed this is an historical act, a fundamental condition of all history, which today, as thousands of years ago, must daily and hourly be fulfilled merely in order to sustain human life.The German Ideology, p. 15
This, as is notorious, the Germans have never done, and they have never therefore had an earthly basis for history and consequently never a historian.The German Ideology, p. 15
Society gives rise to certain common functions which it cannot dispense with. The persons selected for these functions form a new branch of the division of labour within society. This gives them particular interests, distinct too from the interests of those who gave them their office; they make themselves independent of the latter and - the state is in being.Selected Correspondence, pp. 2939–2940
It is the interaction of two unequal forces: on one hand the economic movement, on the other the new political power, which strives for as much independence as possible, and which, having once been established, is also endowed with a movement of its own.Selected Correspondence, pp. 2939–2940
the struggle between the classes already existing and already in conflict with one another is reflected in the struggle between government and opposition, but also in inverted form, no longer directly but indirectly, not as a class struggle but as a fight for political principles, and so distorted that it has taken us thousands of years to get behind it again.Selected Correspondence, pp. 2939–2940
outside his science, in spheres about which he knows nothing, he translates his ignorance into Greek and calls it agnosticism.Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
Viewed apart from real history, these abstractions have in themselves no value whatsoever. They can only serve to facilitate the arrangement of historical material, to indicate the sequence of its separate strata.The German Ideology, p. 15
The removal of these difficulties is governed by premises which it is quite impossible to state here, but which only the study of the actual life-process and the activity of the individuals of each epoch will make evident.The German Ideology, p. 15