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Essays On the Materialistic Conception of History
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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June 5, 2021
Interesting reflections on the base-superstructure dialectic, as well as the basic of historical materialism in general; useful especially for Labriola's emphasis on employing historical materialism, laying guidelines and suggestions for Marxist historians to apply historical materialism and contribute to theory.
His brief foray and comments on "peasant stupidity" are disheartening, certainly discounting the progressive aspects of the peasantry more than necessary; I have read of influence from Labriola on Trotsky, I find this to be a possible connection.
Labriola's comments on the nature of the state in Chapter 8 are also interesting, positing that the state "creates around itself a circle of persons interested directly in its existence." While Labriola does not specify a socialist or capitalist state, but the nature of the state itself, this holds important consequences for the nature of a socialist state, something I think can be seen in "state of the whole people" as advanced by the Khrushchevite revisionists, the reaction against the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, as well as the "Three Represents" theory advanced by the reactionary Jiang Zemin in the immediate post-Deng era; these revisionist (reactionary, even) theories seem to be direct manifestation of this "circle of persons interested directly" in the existence of state, finding ideological justification in the pause of socialist development or even a "Great Leap Backward" as posited by Bettelheim.
His brief foray and comments on "peasant stupidity" are disheartening, certainly discounting the progressive aspects of the peasantry more than necessary; I have read of influence from Labriola on Trotsky, I find this to be a possible connection.
Labriola's comments on the nature of the state in Chapter 8 are also interesting, positing that the state "creates around itself a circle of persons interested directly in its existence." While Labriola does not specify a socialist or capitalist state, but the nature of the state itself, this holds important consequences for the nature of a socialist state, something I think can be seen in "state of the whole people" as advanced by the Khrushchevite revisionists, the reaction against the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, as well as the "Three Represents" theory advanced by the reactionary Jiang Zemin in the immediate post-Deng era; these revisionist (reactionary, even) theories seem to be direct manifestation of this "circle of persons interested directly" in the existence of state, finding ideological justification in the pause of socialist development or even a "Great Leap Backward" as posited by Bettelheim.
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