My criticism of Marx’s ‘historical materialism’ must certainly not be interpreted as expressing any preference for Hegelian ‘idealism’ over Marx’s ‘materialism’; I hope I have made it clear that in this conflict between idealism and materialism my sympathies are with Marx. What I wish to show is that Marx’s ‘materialist interpretation of history’, valuable as it may be, must not be taken too seriously; that we must regard it as nothing more than a most valuable suggestion to us to consider things in their relation to their economic background.
