Karl Marx: A Great Historian

Running Head: Karl Marx 0
Karl Marx
A Great
Historian

Karl Marx 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Substantial Contribution of Karl Marx to the Development of Historical Practice and Inquiry2
Marxism.....................................................................................................................................3
Marxist Theory of Historical Materialism.................................................................................4
Concept of Class Struggle..........................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................7
Articles/Books/Reports..........................................................................................................7

Karl Marx 2
Introduction
Karl Heinrich Marx who is also Karl Marx was born in 18181. His birthplace is Trier which is
in Germany. His father had left Judaism, as his family was belonged to the Rabbi community
and became a protestant for communal motives. Karl Marx was a writer in his professional
life, he has written many books on political and social issues, and also gave his opinions to
deal with these issues. He died in the year 18832.
He is considered one of the most prominent figures in history. He gave Marxist theory in
which Historical Materialism and Class struggle were his main concepts. These concepts are
very useful in an inquiry of history. One can understand the social, political and economic
life of the people of nineteenth-century with his theories.
Substantial Contribution of Karl Marx to the Development of Historical Practice and
Inquiry
History can be deal in two ways. The first one is to check the record of past events associated
with political and cultural developments. Historians might have explained them and it is
important to understand the past from their perspective, as they have lived under different
social and intellectual circumstances. The second way is to accumulate past events and figure
out what has happened after them. The result of the events itself can be an explanation of the
incidents that have occurred in the past3. There are so many historical records in the present
time such as inscriptions, travelogue, and the monuments constructed by different rulers. The
material used for making things in the past can explain the economic condition of that time.
1 Hartman, Andrew, ‘Book Review of Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion’, Teaching History: A Journal of
Methods, vol. 43, 2018, pp. 42-45.
22 Jonathan Sperber and Karl Marx, A Nineteenth Century Life, n.p., W.W. Norton And Company, 2013,
(unpaginated).
3 Gunther Roth, ‘Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique’, Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of
Reviews, vol. 48, 2019, pp. 270-272.