historical materialism
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.04 in modern English
30
Scrabble Score
21
Letters
9
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, looking for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Statt dessen aber dient die Phrase des historischen Materialismus (man kann eben alles zur Phrase machen) nur zu vielen jüngeren Deutschen nur dazu, ihre eignen relativ dürftigen historischen Kenntnisse - die ökonomische Geschichte liegt ja noch in den Windeln! - schleunigst systematisch zurechtzukonstruieren und sich dann sehr gewaltig vorzukommen."
- "And, thus, I hope even British respectability will not be overshocked if I use, in English as well as in so many other languages, 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."
Etymology
Calque of German historischer Materialismus. Its earliest extant attestation - in German - is in Friedrich Engels's letter [5 August 1890] to Conrad Schmidt. Its earliest extant public attestation - in English - is in Engels's 1892 "Introduction to the English Edition" to his 1880 booklet Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Origin
Usage
Antonyms
historical idealism