"What are the main strengths and weaknesses of Marxist histories"?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Matt Eagles

"What are the main strengths and weaknesses of Marxist histories"?

Marxist theories ultimately have their ambitions set upon social upheaval of

whatever current system of governance is in place and the replacing of it with

the idea of Communism. At the fulcrum of these Marxist theories is the

concept of class struggle throughout history.

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

(Communist Manifesto)

An immediate potential weakness within the Marxist school of thought could

be the apparent cynicism that is apparent throughout. To grasp the idea that

man is no more in control of his existence and circumstances is a daunting

and uneasy way of approaching the interpretation of history.

"It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the

contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness."

(Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.)

However the driving force of Marxist histories is derived from the question of

class struggle and in particular that Marx emphasized