,,essays on the ,materialistic          
,conception of ,history   by  ,,antonio 
,,labriola ,professor in the ,university
 of ,rome   translated by ,,charles ,h4 
,,kerr   ,chicago ,,charles ,h4 ,,kerr  
,,company ,,co-,,operative              
,,copyright #aijh ,,by ,,charles ,h4    
,,kerr  ,,company ,,chicago   ,,john ,f4
 ,,higgins ,,printer ,,and ,,binder     
,illustration3 ,logo  #cgf-chb ,,monroe 
,,street ,,chicago1 ,,illinois          
,,translator',s ,,preface4   ,on the    
tenth of ,march1 #ahif1 the same year   
that the last despairing revolt of the  
small producer against capitalism in    
,america was to end in the overwhelming 
defeat of ,bryan1 an ,italian scholar   
published in the city of ,rome the      
remarkable work which is now for the    
first time offered to ,american readers4
  ,to publish this book in ,america at  
that time would have been an            
impossibility4 ,the ,american socialist 
movement was then hardly more than an   
association of immigrants who had       

brought their socialism with them from  
,europe4 ,today it numbers at least half
 a million adherents1 and its platform  
is an embodiment of the ideas first     
adequately stated in the ,communist     
,manifesto of #ahdh1 and now first      
adequately explained and elaborated in  
this remarkable work of ,labriola4  ,the
 central and fundamental proposition of 
socialism is not any scheme for         
reconstructing society1 on a            
cut-and-dried programme1 nor again is it
 any particular mathematical formula    
showing to what extent the laborer is   
robbed by the present system of the     
fruits of his labor2 it is precisely    
this ,historical ,materialism1 which    
,labriola has so admirably explained in 
the present work4  ,some idea of the    
place accorded to this book by ,european
 socialists may be gathered from the    
preface to the ,french edition by ,g4   
,sorel1 one of the most prominent       
socialists of ,france4  ,he says3 ,the  
publication of this book marks a date in

 the history of socialism4 ,the work of 
,labriola has its place reserved in our 
libraries by the side of the classic    
works of ,marx and ,engels4 ,it         
constitutes an illumination and a       
methodical development of a theory which
 the masters of the new socialist       
thought have never yet treated in a     
didactic form4 ,it is therefore an      
indispensable book for whoever wishes to
 understand something of proletarian    
ideas4 ,more than the works of ,marx and
 ,engels it is addressed to that public 
which is unacquainted with socialist    
preconceptions4 ,in these pages the     
historian will find substantial and     
valuable suggestion for the study of the
 origin and transformation of           
institutions4  ,the economic development
 of the ,united ,states has reached a   
point where the growth of the ,socialist
 ,party must henceforth go forward with 
startling rapidity4 ,that the           
publication of this volume may have some
 effect in clarifying the ideas of those

 who discuss the principles of that     
party1 whether with voice or pen1 is the
 hope of the  ,,translator4     ,,essays
 ,,on ,,the ,,materialistic ,,conception
 ,,of ,,history   ,i4  ,in ,memory of   
the ,communist ,manifesto            #g 
,,ii4  ,historical ,materialism         
#ic     ,,essays on the ,materialistic  
,conception of ,history     ,,part ,i   
,,in ,,memory ,,of ,,the ,,communist    
,,manifesto4   ,i4  ,in three years we  
can celebrate our jubilee4 ,the         
memorable date of the publication of the
 ,communist ,manifesto 7,february1      
#ahdh7 marks our first unquestioned     
entrance into history4 ,to that date are
 referred all our judgments and all our 
congratulations on the progress made by 
the proletariat in these last fifty     
years4 ,that date marks the beginning of
 the new era4 ,this is arising1 or1     
rather1 is separating itself from the   
present era1 and is developing by a     
process peculiar to itself and thus in a
 way that is necessary and inevitable1  

whatever may be the vicissitudes and the
 successive phases which cannot yet be  
foreseen4  ,all those in our ranks who  
have a desire or an occasion to possess 
a better understanding of their own work
 should bring to mind the causes and the
 moving forces which determined the     
genesis of the ,manifesto1 the          
circumstances under which it appeared on
 the eve of the ,revolution which burst 
forth from ,paris to ,vienna1 from      
,palermo to ,berlin4 ,only in this way  
will it be possible for us to find in   
the present social form the explanation 
of the tendency toward socialism1 thus  
showing by its present necessity the    
inevitability of its triumph4   ,is not 
that in fact the vital part of the      
,manifesto1 its essence and its         
distinctive character8  ,we surely      
should be taking a false road if we     
regarded as the essential part the      
measures advised and proposed at the end
 of the second chapter for the          
contingency of a revolutionary success  

on the part of the proletariat1--or     
again the indications of political      
relationship to the other revolutionary 
parties of that epoch which are found in
 the fourth chapter4 ,these indications 
and these measures1 although they       
deserved to be taken into consideration 
at the moment and under the             
circumstances where they were formulated
 and suggested1 and although they may be
 very important for forming a precise   
estimate of the political action of the 
,german communists in the revolutionary 
period from #ahdh to #ahej1 henceforth  
no longer form for us a mass of         
practical judgments for or against which
 we should take sides in each           
contingency4 ,the political parties     
which since the ,international have     
established themselves in different     
countries1 in the name of the           
proletariat1 and taking it clearly for  
their base1 have felt1 and feel1 in     
proportion as they are born and develop1
 the imperious necessity of adopting and

 conforming their programme and their   
action to circumstances always different
 and multiform4 ,but not one of these   
parties feels the dictatorship of the   
proletariat so near that it experiences 
the need or desire or even the          
temptation to examine anew and pass     
judgment upon the measures proposed in  
the ,manifesto4 ,there are really no    
historic experiences but those that     
history makes itself4 ,it is as         
impossible to foresee them as to plan   
them beforehand or make them to order4  
,that is what happened at the moment of 
the ,commune1 which was and which still 
remains up to this day the only         
experience 7although partial and        
confused because it was sudden and of   
short duration7 of the action of the    
proletariat in gaining control of       
political power4 ,this experience1 too1 
was neither desired nor sought for1 but 
imposed by circumstances4 ,it was       
heroically carried through and it has   
become a salutary lesson for us to-day4 

,it might easily happen that where the  
socialist movement is still in its      
beginnings1 appeal may be made1 for lack
 of personal direct experience--as often
 happens in ,italy--to the authority of 
a text from the ,manifesto as if it were
 a precept1 but these passages are in   
reality of no importance4   ,again1 we  
must not1 as ,i believe1 seek for this  
vital part1 this essence1 this          
distinctive character1 in what the      
,manifesto says of the other forms of   
socialism of which it speaks under the  
name of literature4 ,the entire third   
chapter may doubtless serve for defining
 clearly by way of exclusion and        
antithesis1 by brief but vigorous       
characterizations1 the differences which
 really exist between the communism     
commonly characterized to-day as        
scientific1--an expression sometimes    
used in a mistaken and contradictory    
way1--that is to say1 between the       
communism which has the proletariat for 
its subject and the proletarian         

revolution for its theme1 and the other 
forms of socialism2 reactionary1        
bourgeois1 semi-bourgeois1              
petit-bourgeois1 utopian1 etc4 ,all     
these forms except one#a have           
re-appeared and renewed themselves more 
than once4 ,they are reappearing under a
 new form even to-day in the countries  
where the modern proletarian movement is
 of recent birth4 ,for these countries  
and under these circumstances the       
,manifesto has exercised and still      
exercises the function of contemporary  
criticism and of a literary whip4 ,and  
in the countries where these forms have 
already been theoretically and          
practically outgrown1 as in ,germany and
 ,austria1 or survive only as an        
individual opinion among a few1 as in   
,france and ,england1 without speaking  
of other nations1 the ,manifesto from   
this point of view has played its part4 
,it thus merely records as a matter of  
history something no longer necessary to
 think of1 since we have to deal with   

the political action of the proletariat 
which already is before us in its       
gradual and normal course4  ,that was1  
to anticipate1 the attitude of mind of  
those who wrote it4 ,by the force of    
their thought and with some scanty data 
of experience they had anticipated the  
events which have occurred and they     
contented themselves with declaring the 
elimination and the condemnation of what
 they had outgrown4 ,critical           
communism--that is its true name1 and   
there is none more exact for this       
doctrine--did not take its stand with   
the feudalists in regretting the old    
society for the sake of criticising by  
contrast the contemporary society3--it  
had an eye only to the future4 ,neither 
did it associate itself with the petty  
bourgeois in the desire of saving what  
cannot be saved3--as1 for example1 small
 proprietorship1 or the tranquil life of
 the small proprietor whom the          
bewildering action of the modern state1 
the necessary and natural organ of      

present society1 destroys and overturns1
 because by its constant revolutions it 
carries in itself the necessity for     
other revolutions new and more          
fundamental4  ,neither did it translate 
into metaphysical whimsicalities1 into a
 sickly sentimentalism1 or into a       
religious contemplation1 the real       
contrasts of the material interests of  
every day life3 on the contrary1 it     
exposed those contrasts in all their    
prosaic reality4 ,it did not construct  
the society of the future upon a plan   
harmoniously conceived in each of its   
parts4 ,it has no word of eulogy and    
exaltation1 of invocation and of regret1
 for the two goddesses of philosophic   
mythology1 justice and equality1 those  
two goddesses who cut so sad a figure in
 the practical affairs of everyday life1
 when we observe that the history of so 
many centuries maliciously amuses itself
 by nearly always contradicting their   
infallible suggestions4 ,once more these
 communists1 while declaring on the     

strength of facts which carry conviction
 that the mission of the proletarians is
 to be the grave diggers of the         
bourgeoisie1 still recognize the latter 
as the author of a social form which    
represents extensively and intensively  
an important stage of progress1 and     
which alone can furnish the field for   
the new struggles which already give    
promise of a happy issue for the        
proletariat4 ,never was funeral oration 
so magnificent4 ,there is in these      
praises addressed to the bourgeoisie a  
certain tragical humor1--they have been 
compared to dithyrambics4  ,the negative
 and antithetical definitions of other  
forms of socialism then current1 which  
have often re-appeared since1 even up to
 the present time1 although they are    
fundamentally beyond criticism both in  
their form and their aim1 nevertheless1 
do not pretend to be and are not the    
real history of socialism2 they furnish 
neither its outlines nor its plan for   
him who would write it4 ,history in     

reality does not rest upon the          
distinction between the true and the    
false1 the just and the unjust and still
 less upon the more abstract antithesis 
between the possible and the real as if 
the things were on one side and on      
another side were their shadows and     
their reflections in ideas4 ,history is 
all of a piece1 and it rests upon the   
process of formation and transformation 
of society2 and that evidently in a     
fashion altogether objective and        
independent of our approval or          
disapproval4 ,it is a dynamic of a      
special class to speak like the         
positivists who are so dainty with      
expressions of this sort but are often  
dominated by the new phrases which they 
have put out4 ,the different socialist  
forms of thought and action which have  
appeared and disappeared in the course  
of the centuries1 so different in their 
causes1 their aspects1 and their        
effects1 are all to be studied and      
explained by the specific and complex   

conditions of the social life in which  
they were produced4 ,upon a close       
examination it is seen that they do not 
form one single whole of continuous     
process because the series is frequently
 interrupted by changes in the social   
fabric and by the disappearance and     
breaking off of the tradition4 ,it is   
only since the ,french ,revolution that 
socialism presents a certain unity of   
process1 which appears more evident     
since #ahcj with the definite political 
supremacy of the capitalist class in    
,france and ,england and which finally  
becomes obvious1 we might say even      
palpable1 since the rise of the         
,international4 ,upon this road the     
,manifesto stands like a colossal guide 
post bearing a double inscription3 on   
one side the first sketch of the new    
doctrine which has now made the circle  
of the world2 on the other1 the         
definition of its relations to the forms
 which it excludes1 without giving1     
however1 any historic account of them4  

,the vital part1 the essence1 the       
distinctive character of this work are  
all contained in the new conception of  
history which permeates it and which in 
it is partially explained and developed4
 ,by the aid of this conception         
communism1 ceasing to be a hope1 an     
aspiration1 a remembrance1 a conjecture1
 an expedient1 found for the first time 
its adequate expression in the          
realization of its very necessity1 that 
is to say1 in the realization that it is
 the outcome and the solution of the    
struggles of existing classes4 ,these   
struggles have varied according to times
 and places and out of them history has 
developed2 but1 they are all reduced in 
our days to the single struggle between 
the capitalist bourgeoisie and the      
workingmen inevitably forced into the   
ranks of the proletariat4 ,the          
,manifesto gives the genesis of this    
struggle2 it details its evolutionary   
rhythm1 and predicts its final result4  
,in that conception of history is       

embodied the whole doctrine of          
scientific communism4 ,from that moment 
the theoretical adversaries of socialism
 have no longer had to discuss the      
abstract possibility of the democratic  
socialization of the means of           
production2#b as if it were possible in 
this question to rest their judgment    
upon inductions based upon the general  
and common aptitudes of what they       
characterize as human nature4           
,thenceforth1 the question was to       
recognize1 or not to recognize1 in the  
course of human events the necessity    
which stands over and above our sympathy
 and our subjective assent4 ,is or is   
not society in the countries most       
advanced in civilization organized in   
such a way that it will pass into       
communism by the laws inherent in its   
own future1 once conceding its present  
economic structure and the friction     
which it necessarily produces within    
itself1 and which will end by breaking  
and dissolving it8 ,that is the subject 

of all discussion since the appearance  
of this theory and thence follows also  
the rule of conduct which imposes itself
 upon the action of the socialist       
parties whether they be composed of     
proletarians alone or whether they have 
in their ranks men who have come out    
from the other classes and who join as  
volunteers the army of the proletariat4 
,that is why we voluntarily accept the  
epithet of scientific1 provided we do   
not thus confuse ourselves with the     
positivists1 sometimes embarrassing     
guests1 who assume to themselves a      
monopoly of science2 we do not seek to  
maintain an abstract and generic thesis 
like lawyers or sophists1 and we do not 
plume ourselves on demonstrating the    
reasonableness of our aims4 ,our        
intentions are nothing less than the    
theoretical expression and the practical
 explanation of the data offered us by  
the interpretation of the process which 
is being accomplished among us and about
 us and which has its whole existence in

 the objective relations of social life 
of which we are the subject and the     
object1 the cause and the effect4 ,our  
aims are rational1 not because they are 
founded on arguments drawn from the     
reasoning of reason1 but because they   
are derived from the objective study of 
things1 that is to say1 from the        
explanation of their process1 which is  
not1 and which cannot be1 a result of   
our will but which on the contrary      
triumphs over our will and subdues it4  
,not one of the previous or subsequent  
works of the authors of the ,manifesto  
themselves1 although they have a much   
more considerable scientific leaning1   
can replace the ,manifesto or have the  
same specific efficacy4 ,it gives us in 
its classic simplicity the true         
expression of this situation2 the modern
 proletariat exists1 takes its stand1   
grows and develops in contemporary      
history as the concrete subject1 the    
positive force whose necessarily        
revolutionary action must find in       

communism its necessary outcome4 ,and   
that is why this work while giving a    
theoretical base to its prediction and  
expressing it in brief1 rapid and       
concise formulae1 forms a storehouse1 or
 rather an inexhaustible mine of        
embryonic thoughts which the reader may 
fertilize and multiply indefinitely2 it 
preserves all the original and          
originating force of the thing which is 
but lately born and which has not yet   
left the field of its production4 ,this 
observation is intended especially for  
those who applying a learned ignorance1 
when they are not humbugs1 charlatans1  
or amiable dilettanti1 give to the      
doctrine of critical communism          
precursors1 patrons1 allies and masters 
of every class without any respect for  
common sense and the most vulgar        
chronology4 ,or again1 they try to bring
 back our materialistic conception of   
history into the theory of universal    
evolution which to the minds of many is 
but a new metaphor of a new metaphysics4

 ,or again they seek in this doctrine a 
derivative of ,darwinism which is an    
analogous theory only in a certain point
 of view and in a very broad sense2 or  
again they have the condescension to    
favor us with the alliance or the       
patronage of that positive philosophy   
which extends from ,comte1 that         
degenerate and reactionary disciple of  
the genial ,saint-,simon1 to ,spencer1  
that quintessence of anarchical         
capitalism1 which is to say that they   
wish to give us for allies our most open
 adversaries4   ,it is to its origin    
that this work owes its fertilizing     
power1 its classic strength1 and the    
fact that it has given in so few pages  
the synthesis of so many series and     
groups of ideas4#c  ,it is the work of  
two ,germans1 but it is not either in   
its form or its basis the expression of 
personal opinion4 ,it contains no trace 
of the imprecations1 or the anxieties1  
or the bitterness familiar to all       
political refuges and to all those who  

have voluntarily abandoned their country
 to breathe elsewhere freer air4        
,neither do we find in it the direct    
reproduction of the conditions of their 
own country1 then in a deplorable       
political state and which could not be  
compared to those of ,france and        
,england socially and economically1     
except as regards certain portions of   
their territory4 ,they brought to their 
work1 on the contrary1 the philosophic  
thought which alone had placed and      
maintained their country upon the level 
of contemporary history3--this          
philosophic thought which in their hands
 was undergoing that important          
transformation which permitted          
materialism1 already renewed by         
,feuerbach combined with dialectics1 to 
embrace and understand the movement of  
history in its most secret and until    
then unexplored causes1--unexplored     
because hidden and difficult to observe4
 ,both were communists and              
revolutionists1 but they were so neither

 by instinct1 by impulse nor by passion4
 ,they had elaborated an entirely new   
criticism of economic science and they  
had understood the connection and the   
historic meaning of the proletarian     
movement on both sides of the ,channel1 
in ,france and in ,england1 before they 
were called to give in the ,manifesto   
the programme and the doctrine of the   
,communist ,league4 ,this had its center
 in ,london and numerous branches on the
 continent2 it had behind it a life and 
development of its own4  ,engels had    
already published a critical essay in   
which passing over all subjective and   
one-sided corrections he brought out for
 the first time in an objective fashion 
the criticism of political economy and  
of the antitheses inherent in the data  
and the concepts of that economy itself1
 and he had become celebrated by the    
publication of a book on the condition  
of the ,english working class which was 
the first attempt to represent the      
movements of the working class as the   

result of the workings of the forces and
 means of production4#d ,marx1 in the   
few years preceding1 had become known as
 a radical publicist in ,germany1 ,paris
 and ,brussels4 ,he had conceived the   
first rudiments of the materialistic    
conception of history4 ,he had made a   
theoretically victorious criticism of   
the hypotheses of ,proudhon and the     
deductions from his doctrine1 and had   
given the first precise explanation of  
the origin of surplus value as a        
consequence of the purchase and the use 
of labor power1 that is to say the first
 germ of the conceptions which were     
later demonstrated and explained in     
their connection and their details in   
,capital4 ,both men were in touch with  
the revolutionists of the different     
countries of ,europe1 notably ,france1  
,belgium and ,england2 their ,manifesto 
was not the expression of their personal
 theory1 but the doctrine of a party    
whose spirit1 aim and activity already  
formed the ,international ,workingmen's 

,association4   ,these are the          
beginnings of modern socialism4 ,we find
 there the line which separates it from 
all the rest4  ,the ,communist ,league  
grew out of the ,league of the ,just2   
the latter in its turn had been formed  
with a clear consciousness of its       
proletarian aims through a gradual      
specialization of the generic group of  
the refugees1 the exiles4 ,as a type1   
bearing within itself in an embryonic   
design the form of all the later        
socialist and proletarian movements1 it 
had traversed the different phases of   
conspiracy and of equalitarian          
socialism4 ,it was metaphysical with    
,gruen and utopian with ,weitling4      
,having its principal seat at ,london it
 was interested in the ,chartist        
movement and had had some influence over
 it4 ,this movement showed by its       
disordered character1 because it was    
neither the fruit of a premeditated     
experience1 nor the embodiment of a     
conspiracy or of a sect1 how painful and

 difficult was the formation of a       
proletarian political party4 ,the       
socialist tendency was not manifested in
 ,chartism until the movement was near  
its end and was nearly finished 7though 
,jones and ,horner can never be         
forgotten74 ,the ,league everywhere     
carried an odor of revolution1 both     
because the thing was in the air and    
because its instinct and method of      
procedure tended that way3 and as long  
as the revolution was bursting forth    
effectively1 it provided itself1 thanks 
to the new doctrine of the ,manifesto1  
with an instrument of orientation which 
was at the same time a weapon for       
combat4 ,in fact1 already international1
 both by the quality and differences of 
origin of its members1 and still more by
 the result of the instinct and devotion
 of all1 it took its place in the       
general movement of political life as   
the clear and definite precursor of all 
that can to-day be called modern        
socialism1 if by modern we mean not the 

simple fact of extrinsic chronology but 
an index of the internal or organic     
process of society4  ,a long            
interruption from #aheb to #ahfd which  
was the period of political reaction and
 at the same time that of the           
disappearance1 the dispersion and the   
absorption of the old socialist schools1
 separates the ,international of the    
,arbeiterbildungsverein of ,london1 from
 the ,international properly so called1 
which1 from #ahfd to #ahgc1 strove to   
put unity into the struggle of the      
proletariat of ,europe and ,america4    
,the action of the proletariat had other
 interruptions especially in ,france1   
and with the exception of ,germany1 from
 the dissolution of the ,international  
of glorious memory up to the new        
,international which lives to-day       
through other means and which is        
developing in other ways1 both of them  
adapted to the political situation in   
which we live1 and based upon riper     
experience4 ,but just as the survivors  

of those who in ,december1 #ahdg1       
discussed and accepted the new doctrine1
 have re-appeared on the public scene in
 the great ,international1 and later    
again in the new ,international1 the    
,manifesto itself has also re-appeared  
little by little and has made the tour  
of the world in all the languages of the
 civilized countries1 something which it
 promised to do but could not do at the 
time of its first appearance4  ,there   
was our real point of departure2 there  
were our real precursors4 ,they marched 
before all the others1 early in the day1
 with a step rapid but sure1 over this  
exact road which we were to traverse and
 which we are traversing in reality4 ,it
 is not proper to give the name of our  
precursors to those who followed ways   
which they later had to abandon1 or to  
those who1 to speak without metaphor1   
formulated doctrines and started        
movements1 doubtless explicable by the  
times and circumstances of their birth1 
but which were later outgrown by the    

doctrine of critical communism1 which is
 the theory of the proletarian          
revolution4 ,this does not mean that    
these doctrines and these attempts were 
accidental1 useless and superfluous     
phenomena4 ,there is nothing irrational 
in the historic course of things because
 nothing comes into existence without   
reason1 and thus there is nothing       
superfluous4 ,we cannot even to-day     
arrive at a perfect understanding of    
critical communism without mentally     
retracing these doctrines and following 
the processes of their appearance and   
disappearance4 ,in fact these doctrines 
have not only passed1 they have been    
intrinsically outgrown both by reason of
 the change in the conditions of society
 and by reason of the more exact        
understanding of the laws upon which    
rest its formation and its process4     
,the moment at which they enter into the
 past1 that is to say1 that at which    
they are intrinsically outgrown1 is     
precisely that of the appearance of the 

,manifesto4 ,as the first index of the  
genesis of modern socialism1 this       
writing1 which gives only the most      
general and the most easily accessible  
features of its teaching1 bears within  
itself traces of the historic field     
within which it is born1 which was that 
of ,france1 ,england and ,germany4 ,its 
field for propaganda and diffusion has  
since become wider and wider1 and it is 
henceforth as vast as the civilized     
world4 ,in all countries in which the   
tendency to communism has developed     
through antagonisms under aspects       
different but every day more evident    
between the bourgeoisie and the         
proletariat1 the process of its first   
formation is wholly or partly repeated  
over and over4 ,the proletarian parties 
which are formed little by little have  
traversed anew the stages of formation  
which their precursors traversed at     
first2 but this process has become from 
country to country and from year to year
 always more rapid by reason of the     

greater evidence1 the pressing necessity
 and energy of the antagonisms1 and     
because it is easier to assimilate a    
doctrine and a tendency than to create  
both for the first time4 ,our co-workers
 of #ej years ago were also from this   
point of view international1 since by   
their example they started the          
proletariat of the different nations    
upon the general march which labor must 
accomplish4   ,but the perfect          
theoretical knowledge of socialism      
to-day1 as before1 and as it always will
 be1 lies in the understanding of its   
historic necessity1 that is to say1 in  
the consciousness of the manner of its  
genesis2 and this is precisely          
reflected1 as in a limited field of     
observation and in a hasty example1 in  
the formation of the ,manifesto4 ,it was
 intended for a weapon of war and thus  
it bears upon its own exterior the      
traces of its origin4 ,it contains more 
substantial declarations than           
demonstrations4 ,the demonstration rests

 entirely in the imperative force of its
 necessity4 ,but we may retrace the     
process of this formation and to retrace
 it is to understand truly the doctrine 
of the ,manifesto4 ,there is an analysis
 which while separating in theory the   
factors of an organism destroys them in 
so far as they are elements contributing
 to the unity of the whole4 ,but there  
is another analysis1 and this alone     
permits us to understand history1 which 
only distinguishes and separates the    
elements to find again in them the      
objective necessity of their            
co-operation toward the total result4   
,it is now a current opinion that modern
 socialism is a normal and thus an      
inevitable product of history4 ,its     
political action1 which may in future   
involve delays and set-backs but never  
henceforth a total absorption1 began    
with the ,international4 ,nevertheless  
the ,manifesto precedes it4 ,its        
teaching is of prime importance in the  
light which it throws on the proletarian

 movement1 which movement indeed had its
 birth and development independently of 
any doctrine4 ,it is also more than this
 light4 ,critical communism dates from  
the moment when the proletarian movement
 is not merely a result of social       
conditions1 but when it has already     
strength enough to understand that these
 conditions can be changed and to       
discern what means can modify them and  
in what direction4 ,it was not enough to
 say that socialism was a result of     
history4 ,it was also necessary to      
understand the intrinsic causes of this 
outcome and to what all its activity    
tended4 ,this affirmation1 that the     
proletariat is a necessary result of    
modern society1 has for its mission to  
succeed the bourgeoisie1 and to succeed 
it as the producing force of a new      
social order in which class antagonisms 
shall disappear1 makes of the ,manifesto
 a characteristic epoch in the general  
course of history4 ,it is a             
revolution--but not in the sense of an  

apocalypse or a promised millennium4 ,it
 is the scientific and reflected        
revelation of the way which our civil   
society is traversing 7if the shade of  
,fourier will pardon me674  ,the        
,manifesto thus gives us the inside     
history of its origin and thereby       
justifies its doctrine and at the same  
time explains its singular effect and   
its wonderful efficacy4 ,without losing 
ourselves in details1 here are the      
series and groups of elements which1    
reunited and combined in this rapid and 
exact synthesis1 give us the clue to all
 the later development of scientific    
socialism4   ,the immediate1 direct and 
appreciable material is given by ,france
 and ,england which had already had     
since #ahcj a working-class movement    
which sometimes resembles and sometimes 
differentiates itself from the other    
revolutionary movements and which       
extended from instinctive revolt to the 
practical aims of the political parties 
7,chartism and ,social ,democracy for   

example7 and gave birth to different    
temporary and perishable forms of       
communism and semi-communism like that  
to which the name of socialism was then 
given4  ,to recognize in these movements
 no longer the fugitive phenomenon of   
meteoric disturbances but a new social  
fact1 there was need of a theory which  
should explain them1--and a theory which
 should not be a simple complement of   
the democratic tradition nor the        
subjective correction of the            
disadvantages1 thenceforth recognized1  
of the economy of competition3 although 
many were then concerned with this4     
,this new theory was the personal work  
of ,marx and ,engels4 ,they carried over
 the conception of historical progress  
through the process of antitheses from  
the abstract form1 which the ,hegelian  
dialectic had already described in its  
most general features1 to the concrete  
explanation of the class struggle2 and  
in this historic movement where it had  
been supposed that we observed the      

passage from one form of ideas to       
another form they saw for the first time
 the transition from one form of social 
anatomy to another1 that is from one    
form of economic production to another  
form4  ,this historic conception1 which 
gave a theoretic form to this necessity 
of the new social revolution more or    
less explicit in the instinctive        
consciousness of the proletariat and in 
its passionate and spontaneous          
movements1 recognizing the intrinsic and
 imminent necessity of the revolution1  
changed the concept of it4 ,that which  
the sects of conspirators had regarded  
as belonging to the domain of the will  
and capable of being constructed at     
pleasure1 became a simple process which 
might be favored1 sustained and         
assisted4 ,the revolution became the    
object of a policy the conditions of    
which are given by the complex situation
 of society2 it therefore became a      
result which the proletariat must attain
 through struggles and various means of 

organization which the old tactics of   
revolts had not yet imagined4 ,and this 
because the proletariat is not an       
accessory and auxiliary means1 an       
excrescence1 an evil1 which can be      
eliminated from the society in which we 
are living but because it is its        
substratum1 its essential condition1 its
 inevitable effect and in turn the cause
 which preserves and maintains society  
itself2 and thus it cannot emancipate   
itself without at the same time         
emancipating every one1 that is to say1 
revolutionizing completely the form of  
production4  ,just as the ,league of the
 ,just had become ,the ,communist       
,league by stripping itself of the forms
 of symbolism and conspiracy and        
adopting little by little the means of  
propaganda and of political action from 
and after the check attending the       
insurrection of ,barbes and ,blanqui    
7#ahci71 so likewise the new doctrine1  
which the ,league accepted and made its 
own1 definitely abandoned the ideas     

which inspired the action of            
conspiracies1 and conceived as the      
outcome and objective result of a       
process1 that which the conspirators    
believed to be the result of a          
pre-determined plan or the emanation    
from their heroism4   ,at that point    
begins a new ascending line in the order
 of facts and another connection of     
concepts and of doctrines4  ,the        
communism of conspiracy1 the ,blanquism 
of that time1 carries us up through     
,buonarotti and also through ,bazard and
 the ,carbonari to the conspiracy of    
,baboeuf1 a true hero of ancient tragedy
 who hurled himself against fate because
 there was no connection between his aim
 and the economic condition of the      
moment1 and he was as yet incapable of  
bringing upon the political scene a     
proletariat having a broad class        
consciousness4 ,from ,baboeuf and       
certain less known elements of the      
,jacobin period1 past ,boissel and      
,fauchet we ascend to the intuitive     

,morelly and to the original and        
versatile ,mably and if you please to   
the chaotic ,testament of the cure      
,meslier1 an instinctive and violent    
rebellion of good sense against the     
savage oppression endured by the unhappy
 peasant4  ,these precursors of the     
socialism of violence1 protest and      
conspiracy were all equalitarians2 as   
were also most of the conspirators4     
,thus by a singular but inevitable error
 they took for a weapon of combat1      
interpreting it and generalizing it1    
that same doctrine of equality which    
developing as a natural right parallel  
to the formation of the economic theory1
 had become an instrument in the hands  
of the bourgeoisie which was winning    
step by step its present position to    
transform the society of privilege into 
that of liberalism1 free exchange and   
the civil code4#e  ,following this      
immediate deduction which at bottom was 
a simple illusion1 that all men being   
equal in nature should also be equal in 

their enjoyments1 it was thought that   
the appeal to reason carried with it all
 the elements of propaganda and         
persuasion1 and that the rapid1         
immediate and violent taking possession 
of the exterior instruments of political
 power was the only means to set to     
right those who resisted4  ,but whence  
come and how persist all these          
inequalities which appear so irrational 
in the light of a concept of justice so 
simple and so elementary8 ,the          
,manifesto was the clear negation of the
 principle of equality understood so    
naively and so clumsily4 ,while         
proclaiming as inevitable the abolition 
of classes in the future form of        
collective production1 it explains to us
 the necessity1 the birth and the       
development of these very classes as a  
fact which is not an exception1 or a    
derogation of an abstract principle1 but
 the very process of history4  ,even as 
the modern proletariat involves the     
bourgeoisie1 so the latter cannot exist 

without the former4 ,and both are the   
result of a process of formation which  
rests altogether upon the new mode of   
production of the objects necessary to  
life1 that is to say1 which rests       
altogether upon the manner of economic  
production4 ,the bourgeois society grew 
out of the corporative and feudal       
society and it grew out of it through   
struggle and revolution in order to take
 possession of the instruments and means
 of production which all culminate in   
the formation1 the development and the  
multiplication of capital4 ,to describe 
the origin and the progress of the      
bourgeoisie in its different phases1 to 
explain its successes in the colossal   
development of technique and in the     
conquest of the world market1 and to    
point out the political transformations 
which followed it1 which are the        
expression1 the defense and the result  
of these conquests is1 at the same time1
 to write the history of the            
proletariat4 ,the latter in its present 

condition is inherent in the epoch of   
bourgeois society and it has had1 it    
has1 and will have as many phases as    
that society itself up to the time of   
its extinction4 ,the antithesis of rich 
and poor1 of happy and unhappy1 of      
oppressors and oppressed is not         
something accidental which can easily be
 put on one side as was believed by the 
enthusiasts of justice4 ,still further  
it is a fact of necessary correlation1  
once granted the directing principle of 
the present form of production which    
makes the wageworker a necessity4 ,this 
necessity is double4 ,capital can only  
take possession of production by        
converting laborers into proletarians   
and it cannot continue to live1 to be   
fruitful1 to accumulate1 to multiply    
itself and to transform itself except on
 the condition of paying wages to those 
whom it has made proletarians4 ,the     
latter1 on their side1 can only live and
 reproduce their kind on the condition  
of selling themselves as labor power1   

the use of which is left to the         
discretion1 that is to say1 to the good 
pleasure of the possessors of capital4  
,the harmony between capital and labor  
is wholly contained in this fact that   
labor is the living force by which the  
proletarians continually put in motion  
and reproduce by adding to it the labor 
accumulated in the capital4 ,this       
connection resulting from a development 
which is the whole inner essence of     
modern history1 if it gives the key to  
comprehend the true reason of the new   
class struggle of which the communist   
conception has become the expression1 is
 of such a nature that no sentimental   
protest1 no argument based on justice   
can resolve it and disentangle it4  ,it 
is for these reasons which ,i have      
explained here as simply as possible    
that equalitarian communism remained    
vanquished4 ,its practical powerlessness
 blended with its theoretical inability 
to account for the causes of the wrongs 
or of the inequalities which it desired1

 bravely or stupidly1 to destroy or     
eliminate at a blow4   ,to understand   
history became thenceforth the principal
 task of the theorists of communism4    
,how could a cherished ideal be still   
opposed to the hard reality of history8 
,communism is not the natural and       
necessary state of human life in all    
times and in all places and the whole   
course of historic formations cannot be 
considered as a series of deviations and
 wanderings4 ,one does not reach        
communism nor return to it by ,spartan  
abnegation or ,christian resignation4   
,it can be1 still more it must be and it
 will be the consequence of the         
dissolution of our capitalist society4  
,but the dissolution cannot be          
inoculated into it artificially nor     
imported from without4 ,it will dissolve
 by its own weight as ,machiavelli would
 say4 ,it will disappear as a form of   
production which engenders of itself and
 in itself the constant and increasing  
rebellion of its productive forces      

against the conditions 7juridical and   
political7 of production and it         
continues to live only by augmenting    
7through competition which engenders    
crises1 and by a bewildering extension  
of its sphere of action7 the intrinsic  
conditions of its inevitable death4 ,the
 death of a social form like that which 
comes from natural death in any other   
branch of science becomes a             
physiological case4  ,the ,manifesto did
 not make1 and it was not its part to   
make the picture of a future society4   
,it told how our present society will   
dissolve by the progressive dynamics of 
its forces4 ,to make this understood it 
was necessary above all to explain the  
development of the bourgeoisie and this 
was done in rapid sketches1 a model     
philosophy of history1 which can be     
retouched1 completed and developed1 but 
which cannot be corrected4#f            
,saint-,simon and ,fourier1 although    
neither their ideas nor the general     
trend of their development were         

accepted1 found their justification4    
,idealists both1 they had by their      
heroic vision transcended the liberal   
epoch which in their horizon had its    
culminating point at the epoch of the   
,french revolution4 ,the former in his  
interpretation of history substituted   
social physics for economic law and     
politics1 and in spite of many          
idealistic and positivistic             
uncertainties1 he almost discovered the 
genesis of the third estate4 ,the other1
 ignorant of details which were still   
unknown or neglected1 in the exuberance 
of his undisciplined spirit imagined a  
great chain of historic epochs vaguely  
distinguished by certain indications of 
the directing principle of the forms of 
production and distribution4 ,he        
thereupon proposed to himself to        
construct a society in which the        
existing antitheses should disappear4   
,from all these antitheses he discovered
 by a flash of genius and he1 more than 
any other1 developed the vicious circle 

of production2 he there unconsciously   
reached the position of ,sismondi1 who  
at the same epoch1 but with other       
intentions and along different roads1   
studying crises and denouncing the      
disadvantages of the large scale        
industry and of unbridled competition1  
announced the collapse of the newly     
established economic science4 ,from the 
summit of his serene meditation on the  
future world of the harmonians he looked
 down with a serene contempt upon the   
misery of civilization and unmoved wrote
 the satire of history4 ,ignorant both1 
because idealists1 of the bitter        
struggle which the proletariat is called
 upon to maintain before putting an end 
to the epoch of exploitation and of     
antitheses1 they arrived through a      
subjective necessity at their           
conclusions1 in the one case            
scheme-making1 in the other utopianism4 
,but as by divination they foresaw some 
of the direct principles of a society   
without antitheses4 ,the former reached 

a clear conception of the technical     
government of society in which should   
disappear the domination of man over    
man1 and the other divined1 foresaw and 
prophesied along with the extravagances 
of his luxuriant imagination a great    
number of the important traits of the   
psychology and pedagogy of that future  
society in which according to the       
expression of the ,manifesto1 the free  
development of each is the condition of 
the free development of all4            
,saint-,simonism had already disappeared
 when the ,manifesto appeared4          
,fourierism1 on the contrary1 was       
flourishing in ,france and in           
consequence of its nature not as a party
 but as a school4  ,when the school     
attempted to realize its utopia by means
 of the law1 the ,parisian proletarians 
had already been beaten in those days of
 ,june by that bourgeoisie which through
 this victory was preparing a master for
 itself3 it was a military adventurer   
whose power lasted twenty years4   ,it  

is not in the name of a school1 but as  
the promise1 the threat1 and the desire 
of a party that the new doctrine of     
critical communism presented itself4    
,its authors and its adherents did not  
feed upon the utopian manufacture of the
 future but their minds were full of the
 experience and the necessity of the    
present4 ,they united with the          
proletarians whom instinct1 not as yet  
fortified by experience1 impelled to    
overthrow1 at ,paris and in ,england1   
the rule of the bourgeois class with a  
rapidity of movement not guided by      
well-considered tactics4 ,these         
communists disseminated their           
revolutionary ideas in ,germany3 they   
were the defenders of the ,june martyrs1
 and they had in the ,neue ,rheinische  
,zeitung a political organ1 extracts    
from which1 reproduced occasionally     
after so many years1 still carry        
authority4#g ,after the disappearance of
 the historic situations which in #ahdh 
had pushed the proletarians to the front

 of the political stage1 the doctrines  
of the ,manifesto no longer found either
 a foundation or a field for diffusion4 
,many years were required before it     
circulated again and that because many  
years were required before the          
proletariat could re-appear by other    
roads and under other methods as a      
political force upon the scene1 making  
of this doctrine its intellectual organ 
and directing its course by it4  ,but   
from the day when the doctrine appeared 
it made its anticipated criticism of    
that socialismus vulgaris which was     
flourishing in ,europe and especially in
 ,france from the coup d',etat to the   
,international2 the latter moreover in  
its short period of life had not time to
 vanquish and eliminate it4 ,this vulgar
 socialism found its intellectual food  
7when nothing even more incoherent and  
chaotic was at hand7 in the doctrine and
 especially in the paradoxes of         
,proudhon who had already been          
vanquished theoretically by ,marx#h but 

who was not vanquished practically until
 the time of the ,commune when his      
disciples1 and it was a salutary lesson 
in affairs1 were forced to act in       
opposition to their own doctrines and   
those of their master4  ,from the time  
of its appearance this new communist    
doctrine carried an implied criticism of
 all forms of ,state socialism from     
,louis ,blanc to ,lassalle4 ,this ,state
 socialism1 although mingled with       
revolutionary doctrines1 was then summed
 up in the empty dream1 in the          
abracadabra1 of the ,right to ,work4    
,this is an insidious formula if it     
implies a demand addressed to a         
government even of revolutionary        
bourgeois4 ,it is an economic absurdity 
if by it is meant to suppress the       
unemployment which ensues upon the      
variations of wages1 that is to say upon
 the conditions of competition4 ,it may 
be a tool for politicians1 if it serves 
as an expedient to calm a shapeless mass
 of unorganized proletarians4 ,this is  

very evident for any one who conceives  
clearly the course of a victorious      
proletarian revolution which cannot     
proceed to the socialization of the     
means of production by taking possession
 of them1 that is to say1 which cannot  
arrive at the economic form in which    
there is neither merchandise nor wage   
labor and in which the right to work and
 the duty of working are one and the    
same1 mingled in the common necessity of
 labor for all4  ,the mirage of the     
right to work ended in the tragedy of   
,june4 ,the parliamentary discussion of 
which it was the object in the sequel   
was nothing but a parody4 ,lamartine1   
that tearful rhetorician1 that great man
 for all proper occasions1 had          
pronounced the last1 or the next to the 
last of his celebrated phrases1         
,catastrophes are the experiences of    
nations1 and that sufficed for the irony
 of history4   ,the brevity and         
simplicity of the ,manifesto were wholly
 foreign to the insinuating rhetoric of 

faith or creed4 ,it was of the utmost   
inclusiveness by virtue of the many     
ideas which it for the first time       
reduced to a system and it was a series 
of germs capable of an immense          
development4 ,but it was not1 and it did
 not pretend to be a code of socialism1 
a catechism of critical communism1 or   
the handbook of the proletarian         
revolution4 ,we may leave its           
quintessence to the illustrious ,dr4    
,schaeffle1 to whom also we willingly   
leave the famous phrase1 ,the social    
question is a question of the stomach4  
,the ventre of ,dr4 ,schaeffle has for  
long years cut a fine enough figure in  
the world to the great advantage of the 
dilettanti in socialism and to the      
delight of the politicians4 ,critical   
communism1 in reality1 scarcely begun   
with the ,manifesto it needed to develop
 and it has developed effectively4  ,the
 sum total of the teachings customarily 
designated by the name of ,marxism did  
not arrive at maturity before the years 

#ahfj-ahgj4 ,it is certainly a long step
 from the little work ,wage ,labor and  
,capital#i in which is seen for the     
first time in precise terms how from the
 purchase and the use of the            
labor-commodity is obtained a product   
superior to the cost of production1 this
 being the clue to the question of      
surplus value--it is a long step from   
this to the complex and multiple        
developments of ,capital4 ,this book    
goes exhaustively into the genesis of   
the bourgeois epoch in all its inner    
economic structure1 and intellectually  
it transcends that epoch because it     
explains its course1 its particular laws
 and the antitheses which it organically
 produces and which organically dissolve
 it4  ,it is a long step also from the  
proletarian movement which succumbed in 
#ahdh to the present proletarian        
movement which through great            
difficulties after having re-appeared on
 the political scene has developed with 
continuity and deliberation4 ,until a   

few years ago this regularity of the    
forward march of the proletariat was    
observed and admired only in ,germany4  
,the social democracy there had normally
 increased as upon its own field 7from  
the ,workingmen's ,conference of        
,nuremburg1 #ahfh1 to our day74 ,but    
since then the same phenomenon has      
asserted itself in other countries1     
under various forms4  ,in this broad    
development of ,marxism and in this     
increase of the proletarian movement in 
the limited forms of political action1  
has there not been1 as some assert1 an  
alteration from the militant character  
of the original form of critical        
communism8 ,has there not been a passing
 from revolution to the self-styled     
evolution8 ,has there not been an       
acquiescence of the revolutionary spirit
 in the exigencies of the reform        
movement8  ,these reflections and these 
objections have arisen and arise        
continually both among the most         
enthusiastic and most passionate of the 

socialists and among the adversaries of 
socialism whose interest it is to give  
an appearance of uniformity to the      
special defeats1 checks and delays1 so  
as to affirm that communism has no      
future4   ,whoever compares the present 
proletarian movement and its varied and 
complicated course with the impression  
left by the ,manifesto when one reads it
 without being provided with knowledge  
from other sources1 may easily believe  
that there was something juvenile and   
premature in the confident boldness of  
those communists of fifty years ago4    
,there is in them the sound as of a     
battle cry and an echo of the vibrant   
eloquence of some of the orators of     
,chartism2 there is the declaration of a
 new '#ic with no room left for a new   
,thermidor4  ,and ,thermidor has        
re-appeared several times since in      
various forms1 more or less explicit or 
disguised1 and their authors have been  
since #ahdh ,french ex-radicals1 or     
,italian ex-patriots1 or ,german        

bureaucrats1 adorers of the god ,state  
and practically slaves of the god       
,mammon1 ,english parliamentarians      
broken by the artifices of the art of   
government1 or even politicians under   
the guise of anarchists4 ,many people   
believe that the constellation of       
,thermidor is destined never to         
disappear from the heaven of history1 or
 to speak in a more prosaic fashion1    
that liberalism1 that is to say a       
society where men are equal only in law1
 marks the extreme limit of human       
evolution beyond which nothing remains  
but a return backward4 ,that is the     
opinion of all those who see in the     
progressive extension of the bourgeois  
form over the whole world the reason and
 the end of all progress4 ,whether they 
are optimists or pessimists here are1   
for them1 the columns of ,hercules of   
the human race4 ,often it happens that  
this sentiment in its pessimistic form  
operates unconsciously upon some of     
those1 who with others unclassified1 go 

to swell the ranks of anarchism4  ,there
 are others who go further and who      
theorize upon the objective             
improbabilities of the assertions of    
critical communism4 ,that affirmation of
 the ,manifesto that the reduction of   
all class struggles to a single one     
carries within itself the necessity of  
the proletarian revolution1 would seem  
to them intrinsically false4 ,that      
doctrine would be without foundation    
because it assumes to draw a theoretical
 deduction and a practical rule of      
conduct from the prevision of a fact    
which1 according to these adversaries1  
would be a simple theoretical point     
which might be displaced and set ahead  
indefinitely4 ,the assumed inevitable   
collision between the productive forces 
and the form of production would never  
take place because it is reduced1 as    
they claim1 to an infinite number of    
particular cases of friction1 because it
 multiplies itself into the partial     
collisions of economic competition1 and 

because it meets with checks and        
hindrances in the expedients and attacks
 of the governmental art4 ,in other     
words1 our present society1 instead of  
breaking up and dissolving would in a   
continuous fashion repair the evils     
which it produced4 ,every proletarian   
movement which is not repressed by      
violence as was that of ,june1 #ahdh1   
and that of ,may1 #ahga1 would perish of
 slow exhaustion as happened with       
,chartism which ended in trade unionism1
 the war horse of this fashion of       
arguing1 the honor and glory of the     
economists and of the vulgar            
sociologists4 ,every modern proletarian 
movement would be regarded as meteoric  
and not organic1 it would be a          
disturbance and not a process1 and      
according to these critics1 in spite of 
ourselves1 we should be still utopians4 
,the historic forecast which is found in
 the doctrine of the ,manifesto and     
which critical communism has since      
developed by a broad and detailed       

analysis of the actual world1 has       
certainly taken on by reason of the     
circumstances in which it was produced a
 warlike appearance and a very          
aggressive form4 ,but it did not imply1 
any more than it implies now1 either a  
chronological datum or a prophetic      
picture of the social organization like 
those in the apocalypses and the ancient
 prophesies4  ,the heroic ,father       
,dolcino did not re-appear with the     
prophetic war cry of ,joachino del      
,fiore4 ,we did not celebrate anew at   
,muenster the resurrection of the       
,kingdom of ,jerusalem4 ,there were no  
more ,taborites nor millenarians4 ,nor  
was there another ,fourier waiting in   
his house at a fixed hour year after    
year for the candidate of humanity4 ,nor
 again1 was there an initiator of a new 
life1 beginning with artificial means to
 create the first nucleus of an         
association proposing to make man over1 
as was the case with ,beller1 ,owen1    
,cabet1 and the enterprise of the       

,fourierites in ,texas1 which was the   
tomb of utopianism1 marked by a singular
 epitaph3 the dumbness which succeeded  
the fiery eloquence of ,considerant4    
,neither is there here a sect which     
retires modestly and timidly from the   
world in order to celebrate in a closed 
circle the perfect idea of communism as 
in the socialist colonies of ,america4  
,here1 on the contrary1 in the doctrine 
of critical communism1 it is society as 
a whole which at a moment of its general
 process discovers the cause of its     
destined course and at a critical point 
asserts itself to proclaim the laws of  
its movement4 ,the foresight indicated  
by the ,manifesto was not chronological1
 it was not a prophecy nor a promise1   
but a morphological prevision4          
,beneath the noise of the passions over 
which our daily conversation extends    
itself1 beyond the visible movements of 
the persons who formed the material at  
which the historians stop1 beyond the   
juridical and political apparel of our  

civil society1 far enough from the      
meanings which religion and art give to 
life1 there remains1 grows and develops 
the elementary structure of society     
which supports all the rest4 ,the       
anatomical study of this underlying     
structure is economics4 ,and as human   
society has several times changed1      
partially or entirely1 in its most      
visible exterior form1 or in its        
ideological1 religious or artistic      
manifestations1 we must first find the  
cause and the reason of these changes1  
the only ones which historians relate1  
in the transformations more hidden1 and 
at first less visible1 of the economic  
processus of this structure4 ,we must   
set ourselves to the study of the       
differences which exist between the     
various forms of production when we have
 to deal with historic epochs clearly   
distinct and properly designated2 and   
when we have to explain the succession  
of these forms1 the replacing of one by 
the other1 we must study the causes of  

erosion1 and of the destruction of the  
form which disappears2 and finally when 
we wish to understand the historic fact 
determined and concrete1 we must study  
the frictions and the contrasts which   
take their rise from the different      
currents1 that is to say1 the classes1  
their subdivisions and their            
intersections which characterize a given
 society4  ,when the ,manifesto declared
 that all history up to the present time
 has been nothing but the history of    
class struggles and that these are the  
cause of all revolutions as also of all 
reactions1 it did two things at the same
 time1 it gave to communism the elements
 of a new doctrine and to the communists
 the guiding thread to discover in the  
confused events of political life the   
conditions of the underlying economic   
movement4  ,in these last fifty years   
the generic foresight of a new historic 
era has become for socialists the       
delicate art of understanding in every  
case what it is expedient to do1 because

 this new era is in itself in continual 
formation4 ,communism has become an art 
because the proletarians have become1 or
 are on the point of becoming1 a        
political party4 ,the revolutionary     
spirit is embodied to-day in the        
proletarian organization4 ,the desired  
union of communists and proletarians is 
henceforth an accomplished fact4#aj     
,these last fifty years have been the   
ever stronger proof of the ever growing 
revolt of the producing forces against  
the forms of production4 ,we utopians   
have no other answer to offer than this 
lesson from events to those who still   
speak of meteoric disturbances which1 as
 they would have it1 will disappear     
little by little and will all resolve   
themselves into the calm of this final  
epoch of civilization4 ,and this lesson 
suffices4   ,eleven years after the     
publication of the ,manifesto1 ,marx    
formulated in clear and precise fashion 
the directing principles of the         
materialistic interpretation of history 

in the preface to a book which is the   
forerunner of ,capital4#aa   ,the first 
work which ,i undertook for the purpose 
of solving the doubts which perplexed me
 was a critical re-examination of       
,hegel's ,philosophy of ,law4 ,the      
introduction to this work appeared in   
the ,german-,french ,year ,books1       
published in ,paris in #ahdd4  ,my      
investigation ended in the conviction   
that legal relations and forms of       
government cannot be explained either by
 themselves or by the so-called general 
development of the human mind1 but on   
the contrary1 have their roots in the   
conditions of man's physical existence1 
whose totality ,hegel1 following the    
,english and ,french writers of the     
eighteenth century1 summed up under the 
name of civil society2 and that the     
anatomy of civil society must be sought 
in political economy4  ,the study of the
 latter which ,i began at ,paris was    
continued at ,brussels whither ,i had   
betaken myself in consequence of an     

order of ,guizot expelling me from      
,france4  ,the general result which ,i  
arrived at and which1 once obtained1    
served as a guide for my subsequent     
studies1 can be briefly formulated as   
follows3  ,in making their livelihood   
together men enter into certain         
necessary involuntary relations with    
each other1 industrial relations which  
correspond to whatever stage society has
 reached in the development of its      
material productive forces4  ,the       
totality of these industrial relations  
constitutes the economic structure of   
society1 the real basis upon which the  
legal and political superstructure is   
built1 and to which definite forms of   
social consciousness correspond4  ,the  
method of producing the material        
livelihood determines the social1       
political and intellectual life process 
in general4  ,it is not men's           
consciousness which determines their    
life2 on the contrary1 it is their      
social life which determines their      

consciousness4  ,at a certain stage of  
their development the material          
productive forces of society come into  
conflict with the old conditions of     
production or1 to use a legal           
expression1 with the old property       
relations under which these forces have 
hitherto been exerted4 ,from forms of   
development of the productive forces    
these relations turn into fetters of    
production4 ,then begins an epoch of    
social revolution4 ,with the change of  
the economic basis the whole vast       
superstructure undergoes sooner or later
 a revolution4  ,in considering such    
revolutions one must constantly         
distinguish between the industrial      
revolution1 to be carefully posited     
scientifically1 which takes place in the
 economic conditions of production1 and 
the legal1 political1 religious1        
artistic or philosophical1 in short     
ideological1 forms wherein men become   
conscious of this conflict and fight it 
out4 ,as little as we judge an          

individual by what he himself thinks he 
is1 just as little can we judge such a  
revolutionary epoch by its own          
consciousness4 ,we must rather explain  
this consciousness out of the           
antagonisms of men's industrial life1   
out of the conflict existing between the
 forces of social production and the    
relations of social production4  ,a form
 of society never breaks down until all 
the productive forces are developed for 
which it affords room4 ,new and higher  
relations of production are never       
established1 until the material         
conditions of life to support them have 
been prepared in the lap of the old     
society itself4 ,therefore mankind      
always sets for itself only such tasks  
as it is able to perform2 for upon close
 examination it will always be found    
that the task itself only arises where  
the material conditions for its solution
 are already at hand or are at least in 
process of growth4  ,we may in broad    
outlines characterize the ,asiatic1 the 

antique1 the feudal and the modern      
capitalist methods of production as     
progressive epochs in the economic      
evolution of society4  ,the industrial  
relations arising out of the            
capitalistic method of production       
constitute the last of the antagonistic 
forms of social production2 antagonistic
 not in the sense of an individual      
antagonism1 but of an antagonism growing
 out of the social conditions of        
individuals4  ,but the productive forces
 which are developed in the lap of      
capitalistic society create at the same 
time the material conditions needed for 
the abolition of this antagonism4 ,the  
capitalist form of society therefore1   
brings to a close this prelude to the   
history of human society4   ,marx had   
some years before left the political    
arena and he did not return to it until 
later with the ,international4 ,the     
reaction had triumphed in ,italy1       
,austria1 ,hungary and ,germany over the
 patriotic1 liberal or democratic       

revolution4 ,the bourgeoisie on its side
 had overcome the proletarians of       
,france and ,england4 ,the indispensable
 conditions for the development of a    
democratic and proletarian movement     
suddenly disappeared4 ,the battalion    
small in numbers indeed of the          
,manifesto communists who had taken part
 in the revolution and who had          
participated in all the acts of         
resistance and popular rebellion against
 reaction saw its activity crushed by   
the memorable process of ,cologne4 ,the 
survivors of the movement tried to make 
a new start at ,london1 but soon ,marx1 
,engels and others separated themselves 
from the revolutionaries and retired    
from the movement4 ,the crisis was      
passed4 ,a long period of repose        
followed4 ,this was shown by the slow   
disappearance of the ,chartist movement1
 that is to say1 the proletarian        
movement of the country which was the   
spinal column of the capitalist system4 
,history had for the moment discredited 

the illusions of the revolutionaries4   
,before giving himself almost entirely  
to the long incubation of the already   
discovered elements of the critique of  
political economy1 ,marx illustrated in 
several works the history of the        
revolutionary period from #ahdh to #ahej
 and especially the class struggles in  
,france1 showing thus that if the       
revolution in the forms which it had    
taken on at that moment had not         
succeeded1 the revolutionary theory of  
history was not contradicted for all    
that4#ab ,the suggestions given in the  
,manifesto found here their complete    
development4  ,later the #ahth ,brumaire
 of ,louis ,bonaparte#ac was the first  
attempt to apply the new conception of  
history to a series of facts contained  
within precise limits of time4 ,it is   
extremely difficult to rise from the    
apparent movement to the real movement  
of history and to discover their        
intimate connection4 ,there are indeed  
great difficulties in rising from the   

phenomena of passion1 oratory1          
,parliaments1 elections and the like to 
the inner social gearing to discover in 
the latter the different interests of   
the large and small bourgeois1 of the   
peasants1 the artisans1 the laborers1   
the priests1 the soldiers1 the bankers1 
the usurers and the mob4 ,all these     
interests act consciously or            
unconsciously1 jostling each other1     
eliminating each other1 combining and   
fusing1 in the discordant life of       
civilized man4  ,the crisis was passed  
and this was precisely true in the      
countries which constituted the historic
 field from which critical communism    
proceeded4 ,all that the critical       
communists could do was to understand   
the reaction in its hidden economic     
causes because1 for the moment1 to      
understand the reaction was to continue 
the work of the revolution4 ,the same   
thing happened under other conditions   
and other forms #bj years later when    
,marx1 in the name of the ,international

 made in the ,civil ,war in ,france an  
apology for the ,commune which was at   
the same time its objective criticism4  
,the heroic resignation with which ,marx
 after #ahej abandoned political life   
was shown again when he retired from the
 ,international after the congress at   
the ,hague in #ahgb4 ,these two facts   
have their value for biography because  
they give glimpses of his personal      
character4 ,with him1 in fact1 ideas1   
temperament1 policy and thought were one
 and the same4 ,but1 on the other hand1 
these facts have a much greater bearing 
for us4 ,critical communism does not    
manufacture revolutions1 it does not    
prepare insurrections1 it does not      
furnish arms for revolts4 ,it mingles   
itself with the proletarian movement1   
but it sees and supports that movement  
in the full intelligence of the         
connection which it has1 which it can   
have1 and which it must have1 with all  
the relations of social life as a whole4
 ,in a word it is not a seminary in     

which superior officers of the          
proletarian revolution are trained1 but 
it is neither more nor less than the    
consciousness of this revolution and    
especially the consciousness of its     
difficulties4  ,the proletarian movement
 has grown in a colossal fashion during 
these last thirty years4 ,in the midst  
of numberless difficulties1 through     
gains and losses1 it has little by      
little taken on a political form4 ,its  
methods have been elaborated and        
gradually applied4 ,all this is not the 
work of the magic action of the doctrine
 scattered by the persuasive virtue of  
written and spoken propaganda4 ,from    
their first beginnings the communists   
had this feeling that they were the     
extreme left of every proletarian       
movement1 but in proportion as the      
latter developed and specialized it     
became their necessity and duty to      
assist1 7through the elaboration of     
programmes1 and through their           
participation in the political action of

 the parties7 in the various            
contingencies of the economic           
development and of the political        
situation growing out of it4  ,in the   
fifty years which separate us from the  
publication of the ,manifesto the       
specialization and the complexity of the
 proletarian movement have become such  
that there is henceforth no mind capable
 of embracing it in its completeness1 of
 understanding it in its details and    
grasping its real causes and exact      
relations4 ,the single ,international1  
from #ahfd to #ahgc1 necessarily        
disappeared after it had fulfilled its  
task4 ,the preliminary equalization of  
the general tendencies and of the ideas 
common and indispensable to all the     
proletariat1 and no one can assume or   
will assume to re-constitute anything   
like it4  ,two causes1 notably1         
contributed in a high degree to this    
specialization1 this complexity of the  
proletarian movement4 ,in many countries
 the bourgeoisie felt the need of       

putting an end in the interest of its   
own defense to some of the abuses which 
had arisen in consequence of the        
introduction of the industrial system4  
,thence arose labor legislation1 or as  
it has been pompously called social     
legislation4 ,this same bourgeoisie in  
its own interest or1 under the pressure 
of circumstances has been obliged1 in   
many countries to increase the generic  
conditions of liberty1 and notably to   
extend the right of suffrage4 ,these two
 circumstances have drawn the           
proletariat into the circle of daily    
political life4 ,they have considerably 
increased its chance for action and the 
agility and suppleness thus acquired    
permit it to struggle with the          
bourgeoisie in elective assembles4 ,and 
as the processus of things determines   
the processus of ideas1 this practical  
multiform development of the proletariat
 is accompanied by a gradual development
 of the doctrines of critical communism1
 as well in the manner of understanding 

history or contemporary life as in the  
minute description of the most          
infinitesimal parts of economics3 in a  
word1 it has become a science4   ,have  
we not there1 some ask1 a deviation from
 the simple and imperative doctrine of  
the ,manifesto8 ,others again say1 have 
we not lost in intensity and precision  
what we have gained in extension and    
complexity8  ,these questions1 in my    
opinion1 arise from an inexact          
conception of the present proletarian   
movement and an optical illusion as to  
the degree of energy and revolutionary  
valor of the former movements4          
,whatever be the concessions that the   
bourgeoisie can make in the present     
economic order even if it be a very     
great reduction in the hours of labor1  
it always remains true that the         
necessity for exploitation upon which   
the whole present social order rests    
imposes limits beyond which capital as a
 private instrument of production has no
 more reason for existence4 ,if a       

concession to-day can allay one form of 
discontent in the proletariat1 the      
concession itself can do nothing less   
than to give rise to the need of new and
 ever increasing concessions4 ,the need 
of labor legislation arose in ,england  
before the ,chartist movement and it    
developed afterwards along with it4 ,it 
had its first successes in the period   
which immediately followed the fall of  
,chartism4 ,the principles and the      
reasons of this movement in their causes
 and their effects were studied in a    
critical manner by ,marx in ,capital and
 they afterwards passed1 through the    
,international1 into the programmes of  
the different socialist parties4        
,finally this whole process1            
concentrating itself into the demand for
 eight hours1 became with the #ast of   
,may an international marshalling of the
 proletariat1 and a means for estimating
 its progress4 ,on the other hand1 the  
political struggle in which the         
proletariat takes part democratizes its 

habits2 still more a real democracy     
takes birth which1 with time1 will no   
longer be able to adapt itself to the   
present political form4 ,being the organ
 of a society based on exploitation it  
is constituted as a bureaucratic        
hierarchy1 as a judicial bureaucracy and
 a mutual aid society of the capitalists
 for the defense of their special       
privileges1 the perpetual income from   
the public debt1 the rent of land and   
the interest on capital in all its      
forms4 ,consequently the two facts1     
which according to the discontented and 
the hypercritical seem to make us       
deviate infinitely from the lines laid  
down by communism1 become1 on the       
contrary1 new means and new conditions  
which confirm these lines4 ,the apparent
 deviations from the revolution are1 at 
bottom1 the very thing which is         
hastening it4  ,moreover1 we must not   
exaggerate the significance of the      
revolutionary faith of the communists of
 fifty years ago4 ,given the political  

situation of ,europe1 if they had a     
faith1 it was that they were precursors1
 and this they have been2 they hoped    
that the political conditions of ,italy1
 ,austria1 ,hungary1 ,germany and       
,poland might approximate to modern     
forms1 and this has happened later1 in  
part1 and through other means2 if they  
had a hope1 it was that the proletarian 
movement of ,france and ,england might  
continue to develop4 ,the reaction which
 intervened upset many things and       
stopped more than one development which 
had already begun4 ,it upset also the   
old revolutionary tactic1 and in these  
last years a new tactic has arisen4     
,therein lies all the change4#ad   ,the 
,manifesto was designed for nothing else
 than the first guiding thread to a     
science and a practice which nothing but
 experience and time could develop4 ,it 
gives only the scheme and the rhythm of 
the general march of the proletarian    
movement4  ,it is perfectly evident that
 the communists were influenced by the  

experience of the two movements which   
they had before their eyes1 that of     
,france1 and especially the ,chartist   
movement which the manifestation of     
,april #ajth was soon to strike with    
paralysis4 ,but this scheme does not fix
 in any invariable fashion a tactic of  
war1 which indeed had already been made 
frequently4 ,the revolutionists had     
often indeed explained in the form of   
catechism what ought to be a simple     
consequence of the development of       
events4  ,this scheme became more vast  
and complex with the development and    
extension of the bourgeois system4 ,the 
rhythm of the movement has become more  
varied and slower because the laboring  
mass has entered on the scene as a      
distinct1 political party1 which fact   
changes the manner and the measure of   
their action and consequently their     
movement4  ,just as in view of the      
improvement of modern weapons the tactic
 of street riots has become inopportune1
 and just as the complexity of the      

modern state shows the insufficiency of 
a sudden capture of a municipal         
government to impose upon a whole people
 the will and the ideas of a minority1  
no matter how courageous and            
progressive1 even so1 on its side1 the  
mass of the proletarians no longer holds
 to the word of command of a few        
leaders1 nor does it regulate its       
movements by the instructions of        
captains who might upon the ruins of one
 government raise up another4 ,the      
laboring mass where it has developed    
politically has made and is making its  
own democratic education4 ,it is        
choosing its representatives and        
submitting their action to its          
criticism4 ,it examines and makes its   
own the ideas and the propositions which
 these representatives submit to it4 ,it
 already knows1 or it begins to         
understand according to the situation in
 the various countries1 that the        
conquest of the political power cannot  
and should not be made by others in its 

name1 and especially that it cannot be  
the consequence of a single blow4 ,in a 
word it knows1 or it is beginning to    
understand that the dictatorship of the 
proletariat which shall have for its    
task the socialization of the means of  
production cannot be the work of a mass 
led by a few and that it must be1 and   
that it will be1 the work of the        
proletarians themselves when they have  
become in themselves and through long   
practice a political organization4  ,the
 development and the extension of the   
bourgeois system have been rapid and    
colossal in these last fifty years4 ,it 
already invades sacred and ancient      
,russia and it is creating1 not only in 
,america1 ,australia and in ,india1 but 
even in ,japan1 new centers of modern   
production1 thus complicating the       
conditions of competition and the       
entanglements of the world market4 ,the 
consequences of political changes have  
been produced1 or will not be long to   
wait for4 ,equally rapid and colossal   

has been the progress of the            
proletariat4 ,its political education   
takes each day a new step toward the    
conquest of political power4 ,the       
rebellion of the productive forces      
against the form of production1 the     
struggle of living labor against        
accumulated labor1 becomes every day    
more evident4 ,the bourgeois system is  
henceforth upon the defensive and it    
reveals its decadence by this singular  
contradiction2 the peaceful world of    
industry has become a colossal camp in  
which militarism develops4 ,the peaceful
 period of industry has become by the   
irony of things the period of the       
continuous invention of new engines of  
war4  ,socialism has forced itself into 
the situation4 ,those semi-socialists1  
even those charlatans who encumber with 
their presence the press and the        
meetings of our party and who often are 
a nuisance to us1 are a tribute which   
vanity and ambitions of every sort      
render in their fashion to the new power

 which rises on the horizon4 ,in spite  
of the foreseen antidote which          
scientific socialism is1 the truth of   
which many people have not come to      
understand1 there is a group of quacks  
on the social question1 all having some 
particular specific to eliminate such or
 such a social evil3 land               
nationalization1 monopoly of grains in  
the hands of the ,state1 democratic     
taxes1 statization of mortgages1 general
 strike1 etc4 ,but social democracy     
eliminates all these fantasies because  
the consciousness of their situation    
leads the proletarians when once they   
have become familiar with the political 
arena to understand socialism in an     
integral fashion4 ,they come to         
understand that they should look for    
only one thing1 the abolition of wage   
labor2 that there is but one form of    
society which renders possible and even 
necessary the elimination of            
classes1--the association which does not
 produce commodities1 and that this form

 of society is no longer the ,state1 but
 its opposite1 that is to say1 the      
technical and pedagogical administration
 of human society1 the self-government  
of labor4 ,behind the ,jacobins are the 
gigantic heroes of #agic and their      
caricatures of #ahdh4   ,social         
democracy6 ,but is not that1 say some1  
an evident attenuation of the communist 
doctrine as it is formulated in the     
,manifesto in terms so ringing and so   
decisive8  ,this is not the moment to   
recall that the phrase social democracy 
has had in ,france many significations  
from #ahcg to #ahdh1 all of which were  
based upon a vague sentimentalism4      
,neither is it necessary to explain how 
the ,germans have been able in this     
nomenclature to sum up all the rich and 
vast development of their socialism from
 the episode of ,lassalle now passed    
over and transformed up to our own days4
 ,it is certain that social democracy   
can signify1 has signified and signifies
 many things which have not been1 are   

not1 and never will be1 either critical 
communism or the conscious march toward 
the proletarian revolution4 ,it is also 
certain that contemporary socialism even
 in the countries where its development 
is most advanced1 carries with it a     
great deal of dross which it throws off 
little by little along the road4 ,it is 
certain also1 in fine1 that this broad  
designation of social democracy serves  
as an escutcheon and a buckler to many  
intruders4 ,but here we need to fix our 
attention only upon certain points of   
capital importance4  ,we must insist    
upon the second term of the expression  
in order to avoid any equivocation4     
,democratic was the constitution of the 
,communist ,league2 democratic was its  
fashion of welcoming and discussing each
 new teaching2 democratic was its       
intervention in the revolution of #ahdh 
and its participation in the rebellious 
resistance against the invasion of      
reaction2 democratic finally was the    
very way in which the ,league was       

dissolved4 ,in this first type of our   
present parties1 in this first cell so  
to speak1 of our complex organism1      
elastic and highly developed1 there was 
not only the consciousness of the       
mission to be accomplished as precursor1
 but there was already the form and the 
method of association which alone are   
suitable for the first initiators of the
 proletarian revolution4 ,it was no     
longer a sect2 that form was already1 in
 fact1 outgrown4 ,the immediate and     
fantastic domination of the individual  
was eliminated1 what predominated was a 
discipline which had its source in the  
experience of necessity and in the      
precise doctrine which must proceed from
 the reflex consciousness of this       
necessity4 ,it was the same with the    
,international1 which appeared          
authoritarian only to those who could   
not make their own authority prevail in 
it4 ,it must be the same1 and it is so1 
in the working class parties and where  
this character is not or cannot yet be  

marked1 the proletarian agitation still 
elementary and confused simply engenders
 illusions and is only a pretext for    
intrigues1 and when it is not so1 then  
we have a passover where men of         
understanding touch elbows with the     
madman and the spy2 as for example the  
society of ,the ,international ,brothers
 which attached itself like a parasite  
to the ,international and discredited   
it2 or again the co-operative which     
degenerates into a business and sells   
itself to capitalists2 the labor party  
which remains outside politics and which
 studies the variations of the market to
 introduce its tactic of strikes into   
the sinuosities of competition2 or again
 a group of malcontents1 for the most   
part social outcasts and little         
bourgeois1 who give themselves up to    
speculations on socialism considered as 
one of the phases of political fashion4 
,social democracy has met all these     
impedimenta upon its way and it has been
 obliged to relieve itself of them as it

 will have to do again from one time to 
another4 ,the art of persuasion does not
 always suffice4 ,oftener it was        
necessary and it is necessary to resign 
ourselves and wait until the hard school
 of disillusion serves to instruct1     
which it does better than reasonings can
 do4   ,all these intrinsic difficulties
 of the proletarian movement1 which the 
wily bourgeoisie oftener than not stirs 
up of itself and which it makes the most
 of1 form a considerable part of the    
internal history of socialism during    
these last years4  ,socialism has not   
found impediments merely in the general 
conditions of economic competition and  
in the resistance of the political      
power1 but also in the very conditions  
of the proletarian mass and in the      
mechanism sometimes obscure although    
inevitable of its slow1 varied1 complex 
movements1 often antagonistic and       
contradictory4 ,that prevents many      
people from seeing the increasing       
reduction of all class struggles to the 

single struggle between the capitalists 
and the proletarianized workers4  ,even 
as the ,manifesto did not write1 as the 
utopians did1 the ethics and the        
psychology of the future society1 just  
so it did not give the mechanism of that
 formation and of the development in    
which we find ourselves4 ,it is surely  
enough that these few pioneers have     
opened the road4 ,we must walk upon it  
to arrive at understanding and          
experience4 ,moreover man is            
distinctively the experimental animal2  
that is why he has a history1 or rather 
that is why he makes his own history4   
,upon this road of contemporary         
socialism which constitutes its         
development because it is its           
experience1 we have met the mass of the 
peasants4  ,socialism which at first    
kept itself practically and             
theoretically to the study and          
experience of the antagonisms between   
capitalists and proletarians in the     
circle of industrial production properly

 so called1 has turned its activity     
toward that mass in which peasant       
stupidity blossoms4 ,to capture the     
peasants is the question of the hour1   
although the quintessential ,schaeffle  
long ago mobilized the anti-collectivist
 brains of the peasants for the defense 
of the existing order4 ,the elimination 
and the capture of domestic industry by 
capital1 the passage more and more rapid
 of agrarian industry into the          
capitalist form1 the disappearance of   
small proprietorship1 or its lessening  
through mortgages1 the disappearance of 
the communal domaines1 usury1 taxes and 
militarism1 all this is beginning to    
work miracles even in those brains      
assumed to be props of the existing     
order4  ,the ,germans have been the     
pioneers in this field4 ,they were      
brought to it by the very fact of their 
immense expansion2 from the cities they 
have gone to the smallest centers and   
they thus arrive inevitably at the      
frontiers of the country4 ,their        

attempts will be long and difficult2    
this fact explains1 excuses1 and will   
excuse1 the errors which have been and  
will be committed4#ae ,as long as the   
peasant shall not be gained over we     
shall always have behind us this peasant
 stupidity which unconsciously repeats1 
and that because it is stupid1 the      
errors of the #ahth ,brumaire and the   
#b;d of ,december4 ,the development of  
modern society in ,russia will probably 
proceed on parallel lines with this     
conquest of the country districts4 ,when
 that country shall have entered into   
the liberal era with all its            
imperfections and all its disadvantages1
 with all the purely modern forms of    
exploitation and of proletarization1 but
 also with the compensations and the    
advantages of the political development 
of the proletariat1 social democracy    
will no longer have to fear the threat  
of unforeseen perils from without1 and  
it will at the same time have triumphed 
over the internal perils by the capture 

of the peasants4   ,the example of      
,italy is instructive4 ,this country    
after having opened the capitalist era  
dropped out for several centuries from  
the current history4 ,it is a typical   
case of decadence which can be studied  
in a precise fashion from original      
documents in all its phases4 ,it partly 
returned into history at the time of the
 ,napoleonic domination4 ,it reconquered
 its unity and became a modern state    
after the period of the reaction and    
conspiracies1 and under circumstances   
known to all1 and ,italy has ended by   
having all the vices of parliamentarism1
 of militarism and of finance without   
having at the same time the forms of    
modern production and the resulting     
capacity for competition on equal terms4
 ,it cannot compete with countries where
 industry is more advanced by reason of 
the absolute lack of coal and scarcity  
of iron1 the lack of technical          
ability1--and it is waiting1 or hoping  
now1 that the application of electricity

 may permit it to regain the time lost4 
,it is this which gave the impulse to   
different attempts from ,biella to      
,schio4 ,a modern state in a society    
almost exclusively agricultural and in a
 country where agriculture is in great  
part backward1 it is that which gives   
birth to this general sentiment of      
universal discontent4  ,thence come the 
incoherence and the inconsistency of the
 parties1 the rapid oscillations from   
demagogy to dictatorship1 the mob1 the  
multitude1 the infinite army of the     
parasites of politics1 the makers of    
fantastic projects4 ,this singular      
social spectacle of a development       
prevented1 retarded1 embarrassed and    
thus uncertain1 is brought out in bold  
relief by a penetrating spirit which1 if
 it is not always the fruit and the     
expression of a modern1 broad and real  
culture nevertheless bears within itself
 as the relic of an excellent           
civilization the mark of great cerebral 
refinement4 ,italy has not been for     

reasons easy to guess a suitable field  
for the indigenous formation of         
socialist ideas and tendencies4 ,the    
,italian ,philippe ,buonaroti1 at first 
the friend of the younger ,robespierre1 
become the companion of ,babeuf and     
later attempted to re-establish         
,babeufism in ,france1 after #ahcj4     
,socialism made its first appearance in 
,italy at the time of the               
,international1 in the confused and     
incoherent form of ,bakuninism2 it was  
not1 moreover1 a labor movement1 but it 
was the work of the small bourgeois and 
instinctive revolutionists4#af ,in these
 last years socialism has fixed itself  
in a form which almost reproduces the   
general type of social democracy4#ag    
,now in ,italy the first sign of life   
which the proletariat gave is in the    
shape of the rising of the ,sicilian    
peasants followed by other revolts of   
the same kind on the continent to which 
others will perhaps succeed in the      
future4 ,is it not very significant8    

,after this incursion into the history  
of contemporary socialism we gladly     
return to our precursors of fifty years 
ago1 who put on record in the ,manifesto
 how they took possession of an advance 
post on the road of progress4 ,and that 
is true not merely of the theorizers1   
that is to say1 ,marx and ,engels4 ,both
 of these men would have exercised1     
under other circumstances and at all    
times either by tongue or pen1 a        
considerable influence over politics and
 science such was the force and         
originality of their minds and the      
extent of their knowledge even if they  
had never met on their way the          
,communist ,league4 ,but ,i am referring
 to all the unknown according to the    
exclusive and vain jargon of bourgeois  
literature3--of the shoemaker1 ,bauer1  
the tailors1 ,lessner and ,eccarius1 the
 miniature painter1 ,pfaender1 the      
watchmaker1 ,moll1#ah of ,lochner1 etc41
 and many others who were the first     
conscious initiators of our movement4   

,the motto1 ,workingmen of all          
countries1 unite1 remains as their      
monument4 ,the passage of socialism from
 utopia to science marks the result of  
their work4 ,the survival of their      
instinct and of their first impulse in  
the work of to-day is the ineffaceable  
title which these precursors have       
acquired to the gratitude of all        
socialists4  ,as an ,italian1 ,i return 
so much the more willingly to these     
beginnings of modern socialism because  
for me1 at least1 this recent warning of
 ,engels' is not without importance4    
,thus the discovery that everywhere and 
always political conditions and events  
find their explanation in economic      
conditions would not have been made by  
,marx in #ahde1 but rather by ,loria in 
#ahhf4 ,he has at least succeeded in    
impressing this belief upon his         
compatriots1 and since his book has     
appeared in ,french even upon some      
,frenchmen and he may now go on inflated
 with pride and vanity as if he had     

discovered an epoch-making historic     
theory until the ,italian socialists    
have time to despoil the illustrious    
,mr4 ,loria of the peacock feathers     
which he has stolen4#ai   ,i would      
willingly close here1 but more remains  
to be said4  ,on all sides and from all 
camps protests arise and objections are 
urged against historical materialism4   
,and some times these voices are swelled
 here and there by newly converted      
socialists1 socialists who are          
philosophical1 socialists who are       
sentimental and sometimes hysterical4   
,then reappears1 as a warning1 the      
question of the belly4 ,others devote   
themselves to exercise of logical       
gymnastics with abstract categories of  
egoism and altruism2 for others again   
the inevitable struggle for existence   
always turns up at the right moment4    
,morality6 ,but it is high time that we 
understand the lesson of this morality  
of the bourgeois epoch in the fable of  
the bees by ,mandeville1 who was        

contemporary with the first projection  
of classic economics4  ,and has not the 
politics of this morality been explained
 in classic phrases that can never be   
forgotten by the first great political  
writer of the capitalist epoch          
,machiavelli1 who did not invent        
,machiavellism1 but who was its         
secretary and faithful and diligent     
editor4 ,and as for the logical tourney 
between egoism and altruism1 has it not 
been in full view from the time of the  
,reverend ,malthus up to that empty1    
prolix and tiresome reasoner1 the       
indispensable ,spencer8 ,struggle for   
existence6 ,but could you wish to       
observe1 study and understand a struggle
 more important for us than the one     
which has its birth and is taking on    
gigantic proportions in the proletarian 
agitation8 ,perhaps you would reduce the
 explanation of this struggle which is  
developing and working in the           
supernatural domain of society1 which   
man himself has created in the course of

 history1 through his labor1 through    
improved processes and through social   
institutions1 and which man himself can 
change through other forms of labor1    
processes and institutions1--you would  
perhaps reduce it to the simple         
explanation of the more general struggle
 in which plant and animals1 and men    
themselves in so far as they are        
animals1 are contending in the bosom of 
nature4   ,but let us return to our     
subject4  ,critical communism has never 
refused1 and it does not refuse1 to     
welcome the multiple and valuable       
suggestions1 ideological1 ethical1      
psychologic and pedagogic which may come
 from the knowledge and from the study  
of all forms of communism from ,phales  
of ,chalcedon down to ,cabet4#bj ,more  
than this1 it is by the study and the   
knowledge of these forms that the       
consciousness of the separateness of    
scientific socialism from all the rest  
becomes developed and fixed4 ,and in    
making this study who is there who will 

refuse to recognize that ,thomas ,more  
was a heroic soul and a great writer on 
socialism8 ,who will not find in his    
heart a large tribute of admiration for 
,robert ,owen who first gave to the     
ethics of communism this indisputable   
principle1 that the character and the   
morals of men are the necessary result  
of the conditions in which they live and
 of the circumstances which surround    
them8 ,and the partisans of critical    
communism believe it is their duty1     
traversing history in thought1 to claim 
fellowship with all the oppressed1      
whatever may have been their destiny1   
which was that of remaining oppressed   
and of opening the way after an         
ephemeral success for the rule of new   
oppressors4  ,but the partisans of      
critical communism differentiate        
themselves clearly on one point from all
 other forms or manners of communism1 or
 of socialism1 ancient1 modern or       
contemporaneous1 and this point is of   
capital importance4  ,they cannot admit 

that the ideologies of the past have    
remained without effect and that the    
past attempts of the proletariat have   
been always overcome by pure chance1 by 
pure accident1 by the effect of a       
caprice of circumstances4 ,all these    
ideologies although they reflected in   
fact the sentiment directly due to      
social antitheses1 that is to say1 the  
real class struggles1 with a lofty sense
 of justice and a profound devotion to  
an ideal1 nevertheless all reveal       
ignorance of the true causes and of the 
effective nature of the antitheses      
against which they hurled themselves by 
an act of revolt spontaneous and often  
heroic4 ,thence their utopian character4
 ,we can moreover explain why the       
oppressive conditions of other epochs   
although they were more barbarous and   
cruel did not bring that accumulation of
 energy1 that concentration of force1 or
 that continuity of resistance which is 
seen to be realizing itself and         
developing in the proletariat of our    

time4 ,it is the change of society in   
its economic structure2 it is the       
formation of the proletariat in the     
bosom of the great industry and of the  
modern state4 ,it is the appearance of  
the proletariat upon the political      
scene1--it is the new things1 in fine1  
which have engendered the need of new   
ideas4 ,thus critical communism is      
neither moralizer1 nor preacher1 nor    
herald1 nor utopian--it already holds   
the thing itself in its hands and into  
the thing itself it has put its ethics  
and its idealism4  ,this orientation    
which seems harsh to the sentimentalists
 because it is too true1 too realistic  
and too real1 permits us to retrace the 
history of the proletariat and of the   
other oppressed classes which preceded  
it4 ,we see their different phases2 we  
take account of the failures of         
,chartism1 of the ,conspiracy of ,equals
 and we explore still further back to   
attempts at relief1 to acts of          
resistance1 and to wars1--to the famous 

peasants' war in ,germany1 to the       
,jacquerie and to ,father ,dolcino4 ,in 
all these facts and in all these events 
we discover forms and phenomena relating
 to the future of the bourgeoisie in    
proportion as it tears to pieces1       
overthrows1 triumphs over and issues    
from the feudal system4 ,we can do the  
same with the class struggles of the    
ancient world but with less clearness4  
,this history of the proletariat and of 
the other oppressed classes1 of the     
vicissitudes of their struggles and     
their revolts1 is already a sufficient  
guide to assist us in understanding why 
the ideologies of the communism of other
 epochs were premature4  ,if the        
bourgeoisie has not yet arrived         
everywhere at the final stage of its    
evolution1 it surely has arrived in     
certain countries at its accomplishment4
 ,in fact1 in the most advanced         
countries it is subjecting the various  
older forms of production1 either       
directly or indirectly1 to the action   

and to the law of capital4 ,and thus it 
simplifies1 or it tends to simplify1 the
 different class struggles of former    
times1 which then obscured each other by
 their multiplicity1 into this single   
struggle between capital which is       
converting into merchandise all the     
products of human labor indispensable to
 life and the mass of proletarians which
 sells its labor power1--now also become
 simple merchandise4 ,the secret of     
history is simplified4 ,it is all       
prosaic4 ,and just as the present class 
struggle is the simplification of all   
other1 so likewise1 the communism of the
 ,manifesto simplifies into rigid and   
general theoretical formulas the        
ideologic1 ethic1 psychologic and       
pedagogic suggestion of the other forms 
of communism not by denying but by      
exalting them4 ,all is prosaic and      
communism itself partakes of this       
character1 it is now a science4  ,thus  
there are in the ,manifesto neither     
rhetoric nor protestations4 ,it does not

 lament over pauperism to eliminate it4 
,it sheds tears over nothing4 ,the tears
 are transformed of themselves into a   
spontaneous revolutionary force4 ,ethics
 and idealism consist henceforth in     
this1 to put the thought of science at  
the service of the proletariat4 ,if this
 ethics does not appear moral enough for
 the sentimentalists1 usually hysterical
 and silly1 let them go and borrow      
altruism from its high priest ,spencer  
who will give a vague and insipid       
definition of it1 such as will satisfy  
them4   ,but1 again1 should the economic
 factor serve alone to explain the whole
 of history6  ,historic factors6 ,but   
that is an expression of empiricists or 
ideologists who repeat ,herder4 ,society
 is a complex whole or an organism      
according to the expression of some who 
waste their time in discussions over the
 value and the analogical use of this   
expression4 ,this complexus has formed  
itself and has changed several times4   
,what is the explanation of this change8

  ,even long before ,feuerbach gave a   
final blow to the theological           
explanation of history 7man makes       
religion and not religion man7 the old  
,balzac#ba had made a satire of it by   
making men the puppets of ,god4 ,and had
 not ,vico already recognized that      
,providence does not act in history from
 without8 ,and this same ,vico1 a       
century before ,morgan1 had he not      
reduced history to a process which man  
himself makes through successive        
experimentation consisting in the       
invention of language1 religion1 customs
 and laws8 ,had not ,lessing affirmed   
that history is an education of the     
human race8 ,had not ,rousseau seen that
 ideas are born from needs8 ,had not    
,saint ,simon guessed when he did not   
lose himself in the distinction between 
organic and inorganic epochs the real   
genesis of the ,third ,estate1 and did  
not his ideas translated into prose make
 of ,augustin ,thierry a reconstructor  
of historical research8 ,in the first   

fifty years of this century and notably 
in the period from #ahcj to #ahej the   
class struggles which the ancient       
historians and those of ,italy during   
the ,renaissance had described so       
clearly1 instructed by the experience of
 these struggles in the narrow domain of
 their own urban republic had grown and 
had reached on both sides of the        
,channel greater proportions and an     
evidence always more palpable4 ,born in 
the midst of the great industry1        
illuminated by the recollection and by  
the study of the ,french ,revolution    
they have become intuitively instructive
 because they found with more or less   
clearness and consciousness their actual
 and suggested expression in the        
programmes of the political parties3    
free exchange or tariffs on grain in    
,england1 and so on4 ,the conception of 
history changed to the observer in      
,france1 on the right wing as on the    
left wing of the literary parties1 from 
,guizot to ,louis ,blanc and to the     

modest ,cabet4 ,sociology was the need  
of the time and if it sought in vain its
 theoretic expression in ,auguste       
,comte1 a belated scholastic1 it found  
its artist in ,balzac who was the actual
 inventor of class psychology4 ,to put  
into the classes and into their         
frictions the real subject of history   
and the movement of this in their       
movement1--this is what was then on the 
point of being studied and discovered1  
and it was necessary to fix a theory of 
this in precise terms4  ,man has made   
his history not by a metaphorical       
evolution nor with a view of walking on 
a line of preconceived progress4 ,he has
 made it by creating his own conditions1
 that is to say1 by creating through his
 labor an artificial environment1 by    
developing successively his technical   
aptitudes and by accumulating and       
transforming the products of his        
activity in this new environment4 ,we   
have but one single history and we      
cannot compare real history1 which is   

actually made1 with another which is    
simply possible4 ,where shall we find   
the laws of this formation and of this  
development8 ,the very ancient          
formations are not evident at first     
sight4 ,but bourgeois society because it
 is born recently and has not yet       
reached its full development1 even in   
all parts of ,europe1 bears within      
itself the embryonic traces of its      
origin and its processus1 and it puts   
them in full evidence in countries where
 it is in process of birth before our   
eyes1 as for example1 in ,japan4 ,in so 
far as it is society which transforms   
all the products of human labor into    
commodities by means of capital1 society
 which assumes the proletariat or       
creates it and which bears within itself
 the anxiety1 the trouble and the       
uncertainty of continuous innovations1  
it is born in determined times according
 to clear methods which can be indicated
 although they may be varied4 ,in fact  
in different countries it has different 

modes of development4 ,in ,italy1 for   
example1 it begins before all the others
 and then stops4 ,in ,england it is the 
product of three centuries of economic  
expropriation of the old forms of       
production1 or of the old               
proprietorship1 to speak the language of
 the jurists4 ,in one country it        
elaborates itself little by little      
combining itself with pre-existing      
forces1 as was the case in ,germany1 and
 it undergoes their influences through  
adaptation2 in another country it breaks
 its envelope and crushes out resistance
 violently1 as happened in ,france1     
where the great revolution gives us the 
most intense and the most bewildering   
example of historic action that is      
known1 and thus forms the greatest      
school of sociology4  ,as ,i have       
already indicated this formation of     
modern or bourgeois history has been    
summed up in rapid and masterly strokes 
in the ,manifesto1 which has given its  
general anatomical profile with its     

successive aspects1 the trade guild1    
commerce1 manufacture and the great     
industry and has also indicated some of 
the organs and appliances of a derived  
and complex character1 law1 political   
forms1 etc4 ,the elements of the theory 
which was to explain history by the     
principle of the class struggle were    
already implicitly contained in it4     
,this same bourgeois society which      
revolutionized the earlier forms of     
production had thrown light upon itself 
and its processus in creating the       
doctrine of its structure1 economics4   
,in fact it has not developed in the    
unconsciousness which characterized     
primitive societies but in the full     
light of the modern world beginning with
 the ,renaissance4   ,economics1 as is  
known1 was born by fragments1 and its   
origin was associated with that of the  
first bourgeoisie1 which was that of    
commerce and the great geographical     
discoveries1 that is to say1 it was     
contemporary with the first and second  

phases of mercantilism4 ,and it was born
 to answer special questions3 for       
example1 is interest legitimate8 ,is it 
advantageous for states and for nations 
to accumulate money8 ,it continued to   
grow1 it occupied itself with the most  
complex sides of the problem of wealth2 
it developed in the passage from        
mercantilism to manufacture and then    
more rapidly and more resolutely in the 
passage from the latter to the great    
industry4 ,it was the intellectual soul 
of the bourgeoisie which was conquering 
society4 ,it had already as discipline  
almost defined its general lines on the 
eve of the ,french ,revolution2 it was  
the sign of the rebellion against the   
old forms of feudalism1 the guild1      
privilege1 limitations of labor1 that is
 to say it was the sign of liberty4 ,the
 theory of natural right which developed
 from the precursors of ,grotius to     
,rousseau1 ,kant1 and the ,constitution 
of #ic1 was nothing else than a         
duplicate and the ideological complement

 of economics1 to the extent that often 
the thing and its complement are        
confounded in one in the mind and in the
 postulates of writers2 of this we have 
a typical example in the ,physiocrats4  
,in so far as it was a doctrine it      
separated1 distinguished and analyzed   
the elements and the forms of the       
processus of production1 of circulation 
and of distribution and reduced them all
 into categories3 money1 money capital1 
interest1 profit1 land rent1 wages1 etc4
 ,it marched1 sure of itself1           
accumulating its analyses from ,petty to
 ,ricardo4 ,the sole mistress of the    
field1 it met only rare objections4 ,it 
started from two hypotheses which it did
 not take the trouble to justify since  
they appeared so evident2 namely1 that  
the social order which it illustrated   
was the natural order1 and that private 
property in the means of production was 
one and the same thing with human       
liberty2 all of which made wage labor   
and the inferiority of the wage laborers

 into necessary conditions4 ,in other   
terms1 it did not recognize the historic
 character of the forms which it        
studied4 ,the antitheses which it met on
 its way in its attempt at              
systematization1 after several vain     
attempts it tried to eliminate logically
 as was the case with ,ricardo in his   
struggle against the income from land   
rents4  ,the beginning of the nineteenth
 century is marked by violent crises and
 by those first labor movements which   
have their immediate origin in the      
distress attending lockouts4 ,the ideal 
of the natural order is overthrown4     
,wealth has engendered poverty4 ,the    
great industry in changing all social   
relations has increased vices1 maladies 
and subjection4 ,it has1 in a word1     
caused degeneration4 ,progress has      
engendered retrogression4 ,what must be 
done that progress may engender nothing 
else but progress1 that is to say1      
prosperity1 health1 security1 education 
and intellectual development equal for  

all8 ,with this question ,owen is wholly
 concerned and he shares with ,fourier  
and ,saint ,simon this characteristic   
that he no longer appeals to            
self-sacrifice and to religion1 and that
 he wishes to resolve and surmount the  
social antitheses without diminishing   
the technical and industrial energy of  
man1 but rather to increase this4 ,it is
 by this road that ,owen became a       
communist and he is the first who became
 so in the environment created by modern
 industry4 ,the antithesis rests        
entirely on the contradiction between   
the mode of production and the mode of  
distribution4 ,this antithesis must1    
then1 be suppressed in a society which  
produces collectively4 ,owen becomes    
utopian4 ,this perfect society must     
needs be realized experimentally and to 
this he devotes himself with a heroic   
constancy and unequalled self-sacrifice 
bringing a mathematical precision even  
into his thoughts of its details4  ,the 
antithesis between production and       

distribution once discovered1 there     
arose in ,england from ,thompson to     
,bray a series of writers of a socialism
 which is not strictly utopian1 but     
which should be qualified as one-sided  
for its object is to correct the        
manifest vices of society by as many    
appropriate remedies4#bb  ,in fact the  
first stage of all those who are on the 
road toward socialism is the discovery  
of the contradiction between production 
and distribution4 ,then1 these ingenuous
 questions immediately arise3 ,why not  
abolish poverty8 ,why not eliminate     
lockouts8 ,why not suppress the middle  
man8 ,why not favor the direct exchange 
of products in consideration of the     
labor that they contain8 ,why not give  
the worker the entire product of his    
labor1 etc48 ,these demands reduce the  
things1 tenacious and resistant1 of real
 life1 into as many reasonings1 and they
 have for their object to combat the    
capitalist system as if it were a       
machine from which one can take away or 

to which one can add pieces1 wheels and 
gearings4  ,the partisans of critical   
communism have broken definitely with   
all these tendencies4 ,they have been   
the successors and the continuers of    
classical economics4#bc ,what is the    
doctrine of the structure of present    
society8 ,no one can combat this        
structure in practice1 in politics or in
 revolution without first taking an     
exact account of its elements and its   
relations and making a fundamental study
 of the doctrine which explains it4     
,these forms1 these elements and these  
relations arise in certain historic     
conditions but they constitute a system 
and a necessity4 ,how can it be hoped to
 destroy such a system by an act of     
logical negation and how eliminate it by
 reasoning8 ,eliminate pauperism8 ,but  
it is a necessary condition of          
capitalism4 ,give the worker the entire 
product of his labor8 ,but what would   
become of the profit of capital1 and    
where and how could the money expended  

in the purchase of commodities be       
increased if among all the commodities  
which it meets and with which it makes  
exchanges there were not a particular   
one which returns to the buyer more than
 it costs him2 and is not this commodity
 precisely the labor power of the wage  
worker8 ,the economic system is not a   
tissue of reasonings but it is a sum and
 a complexus of facts which engenders a 
complex tissue of relations4 ,it is a   
foolish thing to assume that this system
 of facts which the ruling class has    
established with great pains through the
 centuries by violence1 by sagacity1 by 
talent and by science will confess      
itself vanquished1 will destroy itself  
to give way to the demands of the poor  
and to the reasonings of their          
advocates4 ,how demand the suppression  
of poverty without demanding the        
overthrow of all the rest8 ,to demand of
 this society that it shall change its  
law which constitutes its defense is to 
demand an absurd thing4 ,to demand of   

this ,state that it shall cease to be   
the buckler and the defense of this     
society and of this law is plunging into
 absurdities4#bd ,the one-sided         
socialism which without being clearly   
utopian starts from the hypothesis that 
society admits of certain errata without
 revolution1 that is to say without a   
fundamental change in the general       
elementary structure of society itself1 
is a mere piece of ingenuity4 ,this     
contradiction with the rigid laws of the
 process of things is shown in all its  
evidence in ,proudhon1 who1 reproducing 
without knowing it1 or copying directly1
 some of the one-sided ,english         
socialists1 wished to arrest and change 
history1 armed with a definition and a  
syllogism4  ,the partisans of critical  
communism recognized that history has   
the right to follow its course4 ,the    
bourgeois phase can be outgrown and it  
will be4 ,but as long as it exists it   
has its laws4 ,the relativity of these  
consists in the fact that they grow and 

develop in certain determined           
conditions1 but their relativity is not 
simply the opposite of necessity1 a mere
 appearance1 a soap-bubble4 ,these laws 
may disappear and they will disappear by
 the very fact of the change of society1
 but they do not yield to the arbitrary 
suggestion which demands a change1      
proclaims a reform1 or formulates a     
programme4 ,communism makes common cause
 with the proletariat because in this   
resides the revolutionary force which1  
bursts1 breaks1 shakes and dissolves the
 present social form and creates in it1 
little by little1 new conditions2 or to 
be more exact1 the very fact of its     
movement shows to us that these new     
conditions are already born4  ,the      
theory of the class struggle was found4 
,it was seen to appear both in the      
origins of the bourgeoisie 7whose       
intrinsic processus was already         
illustrated by the science of           
economics71 and in this new appearance  
of the proletariat4 ,the relativity of  

economic laws was discovered1 but at the
 same time their relative necessity was 
understood4 ,herein lies the whole      
method and justification of the new     
materialistic conception of history4    
,those deceive themselves who1 calling  
it the economic interpretation of       
history1 think they understand it       
completely4 ,that designation is better 
suited1 and is only suited1 to certain  
analytic attempts1#be which1 taking     
separately and in a distinct fashion on 
the one side the economic forms and     
categories1 and on the other1 for       
example1 law1 legislation1 politics1    
customs1--proceed to study the          
reciprocal influences of the different  
sides of life considered in an abstract 
fashion4 ,quite different is our        
position4 ,ours is the organic          
conception of history4 ,the totality of 
the unity of social life is the subject 
matter present to our minds4 ,it is     
economics itself which dissolves in the 
course of one process1 to reappear in as

 many morphological stages1 in each of  
which it serves as a substructure for   
all the rest4 ,finally1 it is not our   
method to extend the so-called economic 
factor isolated in an abstract fashion  
over all the rest1 as our adversaries   
imagine1 but it is1 before everything   
else1 to form an historic conception of 
economics and to explain the other      
changes by means of its changes4        
,therein lies our answer to all the     
criticisms which come to us from all the
 domains of learned ignorance1 not      
excepting the socialists who are        
insufficiently grounded and who are     
sentimental or hysterical4 ,and we      
explain our position thus as ,marx has  
done in his ,capital1 not the first book
 of critical communism1 but the last    
great book of bourgeois economics4   ,at
 the moment when the ,manifesto was     
written the historic horizon did not go 
beyond the classic world1 the scarcely  
studied ,german antiquities and the     
,biblical tradition which had only      

lately been reduced to the prosaic      
conditions of all profane history4 ,our 
historic horizon is now quite another   
thing1 since it extends to the ,aryan   
antiquities and to the ancient deposits 
of ,egypt and ,mesopotamia which precede
 all the ,semitic traditions4 ,and it   
extends still further back into         
prehistory1 that is to say1 into1       
unwritten history4 ,morgan has given us 
a knowledge of ancient society1 that is 
to say a pre-political society1 and the 
key to understand how from it came all  
the later forms marked by monogamy1 the 
development of the paternal family1 the 
appearance of property1 first of the    
gens1 then of the family1 lastly        
individual1 and by the successive       
establishment of the alliances between  
gentes which are the origin of the      
,state4 ,all this is illustrated by the 
knowledge of the process of technique in
 the discovery and in the use of the    
means and instruments of labor and by   
the understanding of the effect of this 

process upon the social complexus1      
urging it in certain directions and     
making it traverse certain stages4      
,these discoveries may still be         
corrected at certain points1 notably by 
the study of the different specific     
fashions according to which in different
 parts of the world the passage from    
barbarism to civilization has been      
effected4 ,but1 henceforth1 one fact is 
indisputable1 namely1 that we have      
before our eyes the general embryogenic 
record of human development from        
primitive communism to those complex    
formations as at ,athens or at ,rome    
with their constitutions of citizens    
arranged in classes according to census 
which not long ago constituted the      
columns of ,hercules for research into  
written tradition4 ,the classes which   
the ,manifesto assumed have been later  
resolved into their process of formation
 and in this can already be recognized  
the plexus of reasons and of different  
economic causes for the categories of   

the economic science of our bourgeois   
epoch4 ,the dream of ,fourier to find a 
place for an epoch of civilization in   
the series of a long and vast process   
has been realized4 ,a scientific        
solution has been found for the problem 
of the origin of inequality among men   
which ,rousseau had tried to solve by   
arguments of an original dialectic1     
relying however upon too few real data4 
,at two points1 the extreme points for  
us1 the human process is palpable4 ,one 
of these is the origin of the           
bourgeoisie1 so recent and in the full  
light of the science of economics2 the  
other is the ancient formation of the   
society divided into classes1 which     
marks the passage from higher barbarism 
to civilization 7the epoch of the       
,state7 to use expressions employed by  
,morgan4 ,all that is found between     
these two epochs is what has1 up to this
 time1 formed the subject matter of the 
chroniclers1 the historians properly    
so-called1 the jurists1 the theologians 

and the philosophers4 ,to traverse and  
reanimate all this domain with the new  
historic conception is not an easy      
thing4 ,we must not be over-hasty in    
tabulating it4 ,at the very beginning we
 must understand the economics relative 
to each epoch1#bf in order to explain   
specifically the classes which develop  
in it1 avoiding hypothetical and        
uncertain data and taking care not to   
carry over our own conditions into each 
epoch4 ,for that1 skilled fingers are   
needed4 ,thus1 for example1 what the    
,manifesto says of the first origin of  
the bourgeoisie proceeding from the     
serfs of the ,middle ,ages incorporated 
little by little into the cities is not 
a general truth4 ,this mode of origin is
 peculiar to ,germany and to the other  
countries which reproduce its process4  
,it is not the case either in ,italy1   
nor in ,southern ,france1 nor in ,spain1
 which were the fields upon which began 
the first history of the bourgeoisie1   
that is to say1 of modern civilization4 

,in this first phase are found all the  
premises of the whole capitalist society
 as ,marx informed us in a note to the  
first volume of ,capital4#bg ,this first
 phase which reaches its perfect form in
 the ,italian municipalities forms the  
pre-historic background for that        
capitalist accumulation which ,marx has 
explained with so many characteristic   
details in the evolution of ,england4   
,but ,i will stop there4  ,the          
proletarians can have in view nothing   
but the future4 ,that with which all    
scientific socialists are primarily     
concerned is the present in which are   
spontaneously developed and in which are
 ripening the conditions of the future4 
,the knowledge of the past is           
practically of use and of interest only 
in so far as it throws light upon and   
explains the present4 ,for the moment it
 is enough to say that the partisans of 
critical communism fifty years ago      
conceived the elements of the new and   
definite philosophy of history4 ,soon   

this fashion of seeing will impose      
itself because it will be impossible to 
think the contrary2 and this discovery  
will have the fate of ,columbus' egg4   
,and perhaps before an army of          
scientists has made an application of   
this conception to the continuous       
narration of the whole history1 the     
success of the proletariat will have    
become such that the bourgeois epoch    
will appear to all as something that    
must be left behind because it will     
nearly be so in reality4 ,to understand 
is to leave behind 7,hegel74   ,when1   
fifty years ago1 the ,manifesto made of 
the proletarians1 of the unfortunates   
who excited pity1 the predestined       
grave-diggers of the bourgeoisie1 the   
circumference of this burial place must 
have appeared very small to the         
imagination of the writers who scarcely 
concealed in the gravity of their style 
the idealism of their intellectual      
passion4 ,the probable circumference in 
their imagination then embraced only    

,france and ,england1 and it would      
scarcely have touched the frontiers of  
other countries1 for instance1 ,germany4
 ,to-day the circumference appears to us
 immense by reason of the rapid and     
colossal extension of the bourgeois form
 of production which by inevitable      
reaction enlarges1 makes universal and  
multiplies the movement of the          
proletariat and immensely expands the   
scene upon which is projected the       
picture of the coming communism4 ,the   
burial place extends as far as the eye  
can reach4 ,the more productive forces  
this magician calls forth1 the more he  
excites and prepares forces that must   
rebel against himself4  ,all those who  
were communists ideological1 religious  
and utopian1 or even prophetic and      
apocalyptic in the past have always     
believed that the reign of justice1     
equality and happiness was destined to  
have the world for its theatre4 ,to-day 
the world is invaded by civilization and
 everywhere is developing that society  

which lives upon class antagonisms and  
class domination1 the form of bourgeois 
production4 7,japan may serve us for an 
example47 ,the coexistence of the two   
nations in one and the same state1 which
 the divine ,plato had already          
described1 is perpetuated4 ,the earth   
will not be won over to communism       
to-morrow4 ,but as the confines of the  
bourgeois world enlarge1 more numerous  
are those who enter into it1 abandoning 
and leaving behind the lower forms of   
production1--and thus the attempt of    
communism gains in firmness and         
precision2 especially because in the    
domain and struggle of competition1 the 
deviations due to conquest and          
colonization are diminishing4 ,the      
proletarian ,international1 while       
embryonic in the ,communist ,league of  
fifty years ago1 henceforth becomes     
,interoceanic and it affirms on the     
first of every ,may that the            
proletarians of the whole world are     
really and actively united4 ,the future 

grave-diggers of the bourgeoisie and    
their descendants to many generations   
will ever remember the date of the      
,communist ,manifesto4  ,,footnotes3  #a
 ,i refer to that form which the        
,manifesto designates ironically under  
the name of ,german or ',true'          
,socialism4 ,this paragraph1 which is   
unintelligible for those who are not    
well versed in the ,german philosophy of
 that epoch1 notably in certain of its  
tendencies marked by acute degeneracy1  
has1 with good reason1 been suppressed  
in the ,spanish translation4  #b ,it is 
better to use the expression democratic 
socialization of the means of production
 than that of collective property       
because the latter implies a certain    
theoretical error in that1 to begin     
with1 it substitutes for the real       
economic fact a juridical expression and
 moreover in the mind of more than one  
it is confused with the increase of     
monopolies1 with the increasing         
statization of public utilities and with

 all the other fantasmagoria of the ever
 recurring ,state socialism1 the whole  
effect of which is to increase the      
economic means of oppression in the     
hands of the oppressing class4  #c      
,twenty-five octavo pages in the        
original edition 7,london1 ,february1   
#ahdh7 for a copy of which ,i am        
indebted to the special kindness of     
,engels4 ,i should say here in passing  
that ,i have resisted the temptation to 
affix any bibliographical notes1        
references and citations1 for ,i should 
then have been making a work of         
scholarship1 or a book1 rather than a   
simple essay4 ,i hope the reader will   
take my word for it that there are in   
this essay no allusions1 or statements  
of fact or opinion1 which ,i could not  
substantiate with authorities4  #d ,the 
,umrisse zu einer ,kritik der           
,national-oekonomie appeared in the     
,german-,french ,year ,book1 ,paris1    
#ahdd1 pp4 #he-aad2 and his book on ,the
 ,condition of the ,working ,class in   

,england at ,leipzig in #ahde4  #e ,in  
these last years many jurists have      
thought they found in the re-adjustment 
of the civil ,code a practical means for
 ameliorating the condition of the      
proletariat4 ,but why have they not     
asked the pope to become the head of the
 free thought league8 ,the most         
delightful of these is that ,italian    
author who occupying himself with the   
class struggle asks that by the side of 
the code which establishes the rights of
 capital another be elaborated which    
should guarantee the rights of labor4   
#f ,this development has been given in  
,marx's ,capital which can be considered
 as a philosophy of history4  #g ,it was
 not until after the publication of the 
,italian edition of this essay that ,i  
had at my disposal for some months a    
complete collection of the ,neue        
,rheinische ,zeitung for which ,i owe   
hearty thanks to the ,partei-,archiv of 
,berlin4 ,the impression derived from   
this reading surpasses expectation4 ,it 

is desirable either that this journal   
which now has become very rare1 be      
reprinted entire or that the most       
important articles and letters in it be 
reproduced4  #h ,misere de la           
,philosophie1 by ,karl ,marx1 ,paris and
 ,brussels1 #ahdg2 new edition1 ,paris1 
,giard and ,briere1 #ahif4  #i ,this is 
made up of articles which appeared in   
#ahdi in the ,neue ,rheinische ,zeitung 
and which reproduced the lectures given 
by ,marx to the ,german ,workingmen's   
,circle of ,brussels in #ahdg4 ,it has  
since been published as a propaganda    
leaflet4  #aj ,see ,chapter ,,ii4 of the
 ,manifesto4  #aa ,zur ,kritik der      
politischen ,oekonomie1 ,berlin1 #ahei1 
pp4 ,,iv4-,,vi4 of the preface4         
7,instead of retranslating this extract 
from the ,french ,i have availed myself 
of the assistance of ,comrade ,hitch1   
who has translated direct from the      
,german of ,marx4 ,c4 ,h4 ,k47  #ab     
,these articles which appeared in the   
,neue ,rheinische ,politischokonomische 

,review1 ,hamburg1 #ahej1 have recently 
been brought together into a pamphlet by
 ,engels 7,berlin1 #ahie7 under the     
title of ,die ,klassenkampfe in         
,frankreich #ahdh bis #ahej4 ,the little
 work has a preface by ,engels4  #ac    
,appeared for the first time in ,new    
,york in #aheb in a review4 ,several    
editions have since been made in        
,germany4 ,a ,french translation        
appeared in #ahia published by ,delory1 
,lille4  #ad ,in the preface to the     
,class ,struggle in ,france in #ahdh-ej 
and elsewhere ,engels treated           
fundamentally the objective development 
of the new revolutionary tactic4 7,it is
 well to remember that the first        
,italian edition of this essay appeared 
,june #ahth1 and the second1 ,october   
#ae1 #ahie47  #ae ,in my opinion this is
 the case in ,france4 ,the recent       
discussions of the agrarian programme   
submitted to the deliberations of the   
social democracy in ,germany confirm the
 reasons which ,i have indicated4  #af  

,it was otherwise in ,germany4 ,after   
#ahcj socialism was imported there and  
became a current literature2 it         
underwent philosophical alterations of  
which ,gruen was the typical            
representative4 ,but already before the 
new doctrine socialism had received a   
characteristic imprint which was        
proletarian1 thanks to the propaganda   
and the writings of ,weitling4 ,as ,marx
 said in #ahdd in the ,paris ,vorwaerts1
 it was the giant in the cradle4  #ag   
,it is what many people call ,marxism4  
,marxism is and remains a doctrine4     
,parties can draw neither their name nor
 their justification from a doctrine4 ,i
 am no ,marxist said--guess who8 ,marx  
himself4  #ah ,it is he who established 
the first relations between ,marx and   
the ,league and who served as           
intermediary in the publication of the  
,manifesto4 ,he fell in the insurrection
 of #ahdi at ,murg4  #ai ,marx's        
,capital1 ,vol4 ,,iii41 ,hamburg1 #ahid1
 pp4 xix-xx4 ,the date of #ahde refers  

principally to the book ,die heilige    
,familie1 ,frankfort1 #ahde1 which was  
produced in collaboration by ,marx and  
,engels4 ,this book is indispensable to 
an understanding of the theoretical     
origin of historical materialism4  #bj  
,i stop with ,cabet who lived at the    
epoch of the ,manifesto4 ,i do not think
 ,i ought to go as far as the sporadic  
forms of ,bellamy and ,hertzka4  #ba    
,the ,balzac of the #agth century4  #bb 
,it is these writers whom ,menger       
thought he had discovered as the authors
 of scientific socialism4  #bc ,it is   
for this reason that certain critics1   
,wieser for example1 propose to abandon 
,ricardo's theory of value because it   
leads to socialism4  #bd ,thus there    
arises notably in ,france the illusion  
of a social monarchy which1 succeeding  
the liberal epoch1 should solve         
harmoniously what is called the social  
question4 ,this absurdity reproduces    
itself in infinite varieties of         
socialism of the pulpit and ,state      

socialism4 ,to the different forms of   
ideological and religious utopianism is 
joined a new form of bureaucratic and   
fiscal utopianism1 the ,utopia of the   
idiots4  #be ,for example in the essays 
of ,th4 ,rogers4  #bf ,who would have   
thought a few years ago of the discovery
 and the authentic interpretation of an 
ancient ,babylonian law8  #bg ,note     
#ahi1 p4 #gdj1 of the #crd ,german      
edition4     ,,part ,,ii  ,,historical  
,,materialism4   ,i4  ,this class of    
studies1 like many others1 but this more
 than any other1 is confronted with a   
great difficulty1 indeed an irksome     
hindrance1 in that vice of minds        
educated by literary methods alone which
 is ordinarily called verbalism4 ,this  
bad habit creeps into and spreads itself
 through all domains of knowledge2 but  
in studies which relate to the so-called
 moral world1 that is to say1 to the    
historico-social complexus1 it very     
often happens that the cult and the     
dominion of words succeed in corrupting 

and blotting out the real and living    
sense of things4  ,in the field where a 
long observation1 repeated experiences1 
the certain use of improved instruments1
 the general or partial application of  
the calculus have resulted in putting   
the mind into a constant and methodical 
relation with things and their          
variations1 as in the natural sciences  
properly so-called1--there the myth and 
superstition of words are left behind   
and vanquished2 there the questions of  
terminology no longer have more than the
 secondary value of pure convention4 ,in
 the study of human relations and       
actions1 on the contrary1 the passions1 
the interests1 the prejudices of school1
 sect1 class and religion1 the literary 
abuse of the traditional means of       
representing thought1 and scholasticism1
 ever vanquished and always reborn1     
conceal the actual things1 or transform 
them involuntarily into terms1 into     
words1 into abstract and conventional   
fashions of speech4  ,we must1 first of 

all1 take account of this difficulty    
when we use the expression or the       
formula materialistic conception of     
history4 ,many have imagined1 do        
imagine1 and will imagine that it is    
possible and convenient to penetrate    
into the sense of the phrase by the     
simple analysis of the words which      
compose it instead of arriving at it    
from the context of an explanation1 from
 the genetic study of the formation of  
the doctrine1#bh or from the polemical  
writings in which its partisans refute  
the objections of its opponents4        
,verbalism tends always to shut itself  
up in purely formal definitions2 it     
gives rise in the minds to this         
erroneous belief1 that it is an easy    
thing to reduce into terms and into     
simple and palpable expressions the     
agitated and immense complexus of nature
 and history and that it is easy to     
picture the multiform and complicated   
interlacings of causes and effects2 in  
clearer terms1 it obliterates the       

meaning of the problems because it sees 
in them nothing but questions of        
nomenclature4   ,if1 moreover1 it then  
happens that verbalism finds a support  
in certain theoretical hypotheses1 for  
example1 that matter indicates something
 which is below or opposed to another   
higher or nobler thing which is called  
spirit2 or if it happens to be at one   
with that literary habit which opposes  
the word materialism1 understood in a   
disparaging sense1 to all that1 in a    
word1 is called idealism1 that is to    
say1 to the sum total of the            
anti-egoistic inclinations and acts2    
then our embarrassment is extreme6 ,then
 we are told that in this doctrine it is
 attempted to explain the whole of man  
by the mere calculation of his material 
interests and that no value whatever is 
allowed to any ideal interest4 ,the     
inexperience1 the incapacity and the    
haste of certain partisans and          
propagandists of this doctrine have also
 been a cause of these confusions4 ,in  

their eagerness to explain to others    
what they themselves only half          
understand1 at a time when the doctrine 
itself is only in its beginnings and    
still has need of many developments1    
they have believed they could apply it1 
such as it was1 to whatever historic    
fact they were considering1 and they    
have almost reduced it to tatters1      
exposing it thus to the easy criticism  
and the ridicule of people on the watch 
for scientific novelties1 and other idle
 persons of the same type4   ,since it  
has been my privilege in these first    
pages simply to rebut these prejudices  
7in a preliminary fashion7 and unmask   
the intentions and the tendencies       
underlying them1 it must be remembered  
that the meaning of this doctrine ought1
 before all else1 to be drawn from the  
position which it takes and occupies    
with regard to the doctrines against    
which it is in reality opposed1 and     
particularly with regard to the         
ideologies of every sort2--that the     

proof of its value consists exclusively 
in the more suitable and more           
appropriate explanation of the          
succession of human events which is     
derived from it2--that this doctrine    
does not imply a subjective preference  
for a certain quality or a certain sum  
of human interests opposed by free      
choice to other interests1 but that it  
merely affirms the objective            
co-ordination and subordination of all  
interests in the development of all     
society2 and this it affirms1 thanks to 
that genetic processus which consists in
 going from the conditions to the       
conditioned1 from the elements of       
formation to the things formed4   ,let  
the verbalists reason as they like over 
the value of the word matter in so far  
as it implies or recalls a metaphysical 
conception1 or in so far as it is the   
expression of the last hypothetical     
substratum of experience4 ,we are not   
here in the domain of physics1 chemistry
 or biology2 we are only searching for  

the explicit conditions of human        
association in so far as it is no longer
 simply animal4 ,it is not for us to    
support our inductions or our deductions
 upon the data of biology1 but1 on the  
contrary1 to recognize before all else  
the peculiarities of human association1 
which form and develop through the      
succession and the growing perfection of
 the activity of man himself in given   
and variable conditions1 and to find the
 relations of co-ordination and         
subordination of the needs which are the
 substratum of will and action4 ,it is  
not proposed to discover an intention   
nor to formulate a criticism2 it is     
merely the necessity arising from the   
facts that must be put in evidence4     
,and as men1 not by free choice1 but    
because they could not act otherwise1   
satisfy first certain elementary needs1 
which1 in their turn1 give rise to      
others in their upward development1 and 
as for the satisfaction of their needs1 
whatever they may be1 they invent and   

employ certain means and certain tools  
and associate themselves in certain     
definite fashions1 the materialism of   
historical interpretation is nothing    
else than an attempt to reconstruct by  
thought with method the genesis and the 
complexity of the social life which     
develops through the ages4 ,the novelty 
of this doctrine does not differ from   
that of all the other doctrines which   
after many excursions through the       
domains of the imagination have finally 
arrived1 very painfully1 at reaching the
 prose of reality and halting there4    
,,ii4  ,there is a certain affinity1    
apparently at least1 between that formal
 vice of verbalism and another defect of
 the mind1 whose origins may1 however1  
be varied4 ,in consideration of some of 
its most common and popular effects ,i  
will call it phraseology1 although this 
word is not an exact expression of the  
thing and does not set forth its origin4
  ,for long centuries men have written  
on history1 have explained it1 have     

illustrated it4 ,the most varied        
interests1 from the interests more      
immediately practical to the interests  
purely aesthetic1 have moved different  
writers to conceive and to execute this 
type of composition4 ,these different   
types have always taken birth in        
different countries long after the      
origins of civilization1 of the         
development of the state and of the     
passage from the primitive communist    
society to the society which rests upon 
class differences and class antagonisms4
 ,the historians1 even if they have been
 as artless as ,herodotus1 were always  
born and formed in a society having     
nothing ingenuous in it1 but very       
complicated and complex1 and at a time  
when the reasons for this complication  
and complexity were unknown and their   
origins forgotten4 ,this complexity1    
with all the contrasts which it bears   
within itself and which it reveals later
 and makes burst forth in its various   
vicissitudes1 stood forth before the    

narrators as something mysterious and   
calling for an explanation1 and if the  
historian wished to give some sequence  
and a certain connection to the things  
narrated1 he was obliged to add certain 
general views to the simple narration4  
,from the jealousy of the gods of       
,father ,herodotus to the environment of
 ,m4 ,tame1 an infinite number of       
concepts serving as means of explanation
 and as complements to the things       
related have been imposed upon the      
narrators by the natural voices of their
 immediate thought4 ,class tendencies1  
religious ideas1 popular prejudices1    
influences or imitations of a current   
philosophy1 excursions of imagination   
and a desire to give an artistic        
appearance to facts known only in a     
fragmentary fashion1 all these causes   
and other analogous causes have         
contributed to form the substratum of   
the more or less artless theory of      
events which is implicitly at the bottom
 of the narration1 or which serves at   

least to flavor and adorn it4 ,whether  
men speak of chance or of destiny1      
whether they appeal to the providential 
direction of human events1 or adhere to 
the word and concept of chance1 the only
 divinity left in the rigid and often   
coarse conception of ,machiavelli1 or   
whether they speak1 as is frequent      
enough at the present time1 of the logic
 of events1 all these conceptions were  
and are effects and results of ingenuous
 thought1 of immediate thought1 of      
thought which cannot justify to itself  
its course1 and its products1 either by 
the paths of criticism or by the methods
 of experience4 ,to fill up with        
conventional causes 7e4 g41 chance7 or  
with a statement of theoretical         
plausibility 7e4 g41 the inevitable     
course of events which sometimes is     
confused in the mind with the notion of 
progress7 the gaps of our knowledge as  
to the fashion in which things have been
 actually produced by their own         
necessity without care for our free will

 and our consent1 that is the motive and
 the result of this popular philosophy1 
latent or explicit1 in the chroniclers1 
which by reason of its superficial      
character dissolves as soon as          
scientific criticism appears4   ,in all 
these concepts and all these imaginings 
which in the light of criticism appear  
as simple provisional devices and       
effects of an unripe thought1 but which 
often seem to cultured people the non   
plus ultra of intelligence1--in all     
these a great part of the human         
processus is revealed and reflected2    
and1 consequently1 we should not        
consider them as gratuitous inventions  
nor as products of a momentary illusion4
 ,they are a part and a moment in the   
development of what we call the human   
mind4 ,if later it is observed that     
these concepts and these imaginings are 
mingled and confounded in the accepted  
opinions of cultured people1 or of those
 who pass for such1 they make up an     
immense mass of prejudices and they     

constitute an impediment which ignorance
 opposes to the clear and complete      
vision of the real things4 ,these       
prejudices turn up again as etymological
 derivations in the language of         
professional politicians1 of so-called  
publicists and journalists of every     
kind1 and offer the support of rhetoric 
to self-styled public opinion4   ,to    
oppose and then to replace this mirage  
of uncritical conceptions1 these idols  
of the imagination1 these effects of    
literary artifice1 this conventionalism 
by the real subjects1 or the forces     
which are positively acting--that is to 
say1 men in their various and           
diversified social relations1--this is  
the revolutionary enterprise and the    
scientific aim of the new doctrine which
 renders objective and ,i might say     
naturalizes the explanation of the      
historical processus4   ,a certain      
definite nation1 that is to say1 not a  
certain mass of individuals1 but a      
plexus of men organized in such and such

 a fashion by natural relations of      
consanguinity1 or following such or such
 an artificial or customary order of    
relationship and affinity1 or by reason 
of permanent proximity2--this nation1 on
 a certain circumscribed and limited    
territory1 having such and such         
fertility1 productive in such and such a
 manner acquired through certain        
definite forms by continuous            
labor2--this nation1 thus distributed   
over this territory and thus divided and
 articulated by the effect of a definite
 division of labor which is scarcely    
beginning to give birth to or which has 
already developed and ripened such and  
such a division of classes1 or which has
 already disintegrated or transformed a 
whole series of classes2--this nation   
which possesses such and such           
instruments from the flint stone to the 
electric light and from the bow and     
arrow to the repeating rifle1 which     
produces according to a certain fashion 
and shares its products1 conformably to 

its way of producing2--this nation1     
which by all these relations constitutes
 a society in which either by habits of 
mutual accommodation or by explicit     
conventions1 or by acts of violence     
suffered and endured1 has already given 
birth1 or is on the point of giving     
birth to legal-political relations which
 result in the formation of the         
state2--this nation1 which by the       
organization of the state1 which is only
 a means for fixing1 defending and      
perpetuating inequalities1 by reason of 
the antagonisms which it bears within   
itself1 renders continuously unstable   
the organization itself1 whence result  
the political movements and revolutions1
 and therefore the reasons for progress 
and retrogression3--there is the sum of 
what is at the bottom of all history4   
,and there is the victory of realistic  
prose over all the fantastic and        
ideological combinations4  ,certainly it
 requires some resignation to see things
 as they are1 passing beyond the        

phantoms which for centuries have       
prevented right vision4 ,but this       
revelation of realistic doctrine was not
 and is not designed to be the rebellion
 of the material man against the ideal  
man4 ,it has been and is1 on the        
contrary1 the discovery of the          
principles and the motives which are    
real and which belong to all human      
development1 including all that we call 
the ideal in positive conditions1       
determined by facts which carry in      
themselves the reasons and the law and  
the rhythm of their own development4    
,,iii4  ,but it would be a complete     
error to believe that the writers who   
narrate1 explain1 or illustrate have    
themselves invented and given life to   
this enormous mass of unripe concepts1  
imaginings1 and explanations which1     
thanks to the force of prejudice1       
concealed for centuries the real truth4 
,it may happen1 and it certainly does   
happen1 that some of these concepts are 
the fruit and the product of personal   

views1 or of literary currents formed in
 the narrow professional circle of the  
universities and academies4 ,the people 
in this case are absolutely ignorant of 
them4 ,but the important fact is that   
history itself has put on these veils2  
that is to say1 that the very actors and
 workers of the historic events--great  
masses of people1 directing and ordering
 classes1 masters of state1 sects or    
parties1 in the narrowest sense of the  
word1 if we make exception for an       
occasional moment of lucid              
interval--never had up to the end of the
 past century a consciousness of their  
own work1 unless it be through some     
ideological envelope which prevented any
 sight of the real causes4 ,already at  
the distant epoch when barbarism was    
passing over into civilization1 that is 
to say1 when the first discoveries of   
agriculture1 the stable establishment of
 a population upon a definite territory1
 the first division of labor in society1
 the first alliances of different       

gentes1 gave the conditions in which    
developed property and the state1 or at 
least the city1--even then1 at the epoch
 of all the first social revolutions1   
men ideally transformed their work1     
seeing in it the miraculous acts of gods
 and heroes4 ,so much so that1 while    
acting as they could and as they must1  
granted the necessity and the fact of   
their relative economic development1    
they conceived an explanation of their  
own work as if it did not belong to     
them4 ,this ideological envelope of     
human works has changed since then more 
than once in form1 in appearance1 in    
combinations and in relations in the    
course of the centuries1 from the       
immediate production of the ingenuous   
myths up to the complicated theological 
systems and to ,the ,city of ,god of    
,st4 ,augustine--from the superstitious 
credulity in miracles down to the       
bewildering miracles of the             
metaphysicians1 that is to say1 down to 
the ,idea which for the decadents of    

,hegelianism engenders of itself1 in    
itself1 by its own disaggregation the   
most incongruous variations of social   
life in the course of history4  ,now1   
precisely because the visual angle of   
ideological interpretation has not been 
finally outgrown until very lately1 and 
because it is only in our days that a   
sum total of the real and really acting 
relations has been clearly distinguished
 from the ingenuous reflections of myth 
and the more artificial reflections of  
religion and metaphysics1 our doctrine  
states a new problem and carries within 
itself grave difficulties for whoever   
wishes to fit it for providing a        
specific explanation of the history of  
the past4   ,the problem consists in    
this3 that our doctrine necessitates a  
new criticism of the sources of history4
 ,and ,i do not wish to be understood as
 speaking exclusively of the criticism  
of documents in the proper and ordinary 
sense of the word1 because as for this  
we may content ourselves with what is   

delivered to us ready made by the       
critics1 the scholars1 and the          
professional philologists4 ,but ,i would
 speak of that immediate source which is
 behind the so called documents properly
 and which1 before expressing itself and
 fixing itself in these1 resides in the 
spirit and in the form of the           
consciousness in which the actors       
accounted to themselves for the motives 
of their own work4 ,this spirit1 that is
 to say1 this consciousness1 is often   
inadequate to the causes which we are   
now in a position to discover1 from     
which it follows that the actors seem to
 us enveloped1 as it were1 in a circle  
of illusions4 ,to strip the historic    
facts from these envelopes which clothe 
the very facts while they are           
developing--this is to make a new       
criticism of the sources in the         
realistic sense of the word and not in  
the formal documentary sense4 ,it is1 in
 short1 to make react upon the knowledge
 of past conditions the consciousness of

 which we are now capable1 and thereby  
to reconstruct them anew4   ,but this   
revision of the most direct sources1 if 
it marks the extreme limit of the       
historic self-consciousness which may be
 reached1 may be an occasion for falling
 into a serious error4 ,as we place     
ourselves at a point of view which is   
beyond the ideological views to which   
the actors in history were indebted for 
a consciousness of their work and in    
which they often found both the motives 
and the justification of their action1  
we may falsely believe that these       
ideological views were a pure           
appearance1 a simple artifice1 a pure   
illusion in the vulgar sense of the     
word4 ,martin ,luther1 like the other   
great reformers1 his contemporaries1    
never knew1 as we know to-day1 that the 
,reformation was but an episode in the  
development of the ,third ,estate1 and  
an economic revolt of the ,german nation
 against the exploitation of the ,papal 
court4 ,he was what he was1 as an       

agitator and a politician1 because he   
was wholly taken up with the belief     
which made him see in the class movement
 which gave an impulse to the agitation 
a return to true ,christianity and a    
divine necessity in the vulgar course of
 events4 ,the study of remote effects1  
that is to say1 the increasing strength 
of the bourgeoisie of the cities against
 the feudal lords1 the increase of the  
territorial dominion of the princes at  
the expense of the inter-territorial and
 super-territorial power of the emperor 
and the pope1 the violent repression of 
the movement of the peasants and the    
more properly proletarian movement of   
the ,anabaptists permit us now to       
reconstruct the authentic history of the
 economic causes of the ,reformation1   
particularly in the final proportions   
which it took1 which is the best of     
proofs4 ,but that does not mean that we 
are privileged to detach the fact       
arrived at from the mode of its         
realization and to analyze the          

circumstantial integrality by a         
posthumous analysis altogether          
subjective and simplified4 ,the inner   
causes1 or1 as would be said now1 the   
profane and prosaic motives of the      
,reformation1 appear to us clearly in   
,france1 where it was not victorious2   
clearly again in the ,low ,countries1   
where1 apart from the differences of    
nationality1 the contrasts of economic  
interests are shown strikingly in the   
struggle against ,spain2 very clearly   
again in ,england1 where the religious  
renovation realized1 thanks to political
 violence1 placed in full light the     
passage to those conditions which are   
for our modern bourgeoisie the          
forerunners of capitalism4 ,post factum1
 and after the tardy realization of     
unforeseen consequences1 the history of 
the real movements which were the inner 
causes of the ,reformation1 in great    
part unknown to the actors themselves1  
will appear in full light4 ,but that the
 fact came about precisely as it did    

come about1 that it took on certain     
determined forms1 that it clothed itself
 in certain vestments1 that it painted  
itself in certain colors1 that it put in
 movement certain passions1 that it     
displayed a special degree of           
fanaticism1--in these consist its       
specific character1 which no analytic   
ability can make otherwise than as it   
was4 ,only the love of paradox          
inseparable from the zeal of the        
passionate popularizers of a new        
doctrine can have brought some to       
believe that to write history it was    
sufficient to put on record merely the  
economic moment 7often still unknown and
 often unknowable71 and thereupon to    
cast to the earth all the rest as a     
useless burden with which men had       
capriciously loaded themselves1 as a    
superfluity1 a mere trifle1 or even1 as 
it were1 something not existent4   ,from
 the fact that history must be taken in 
its entirety and that in it the kernel  
and the husk are but one1 as ,goethe    

said of all things1 three consequences  
follow3--  ,first1 it is evident that in
 the domain of historico-social         
determinism1 the linking of causes to   
effects1 of conditions to the things    
conditioned1 of antecedents to          
consequents1 is never evident at first  
sight in the subjective determinism of  
individual psychology4 ,in this last    
domain it was a relatively easy thing   
for abstract and formal philosophy to   
discover1 passing above all the baubles 
of fatalism and free will1 the evidence 
of the motive in every volition1        
because1 in fine1 there is no wish      
without its determining motive4 ,but    
beneath the motives and the wish there  
is the genesis of both1 and to          
reconstruct this genesis we must leave  
the closed field of consciousness to    
arrive at the analysis of the simple    
necessities1 which1 on the one side1 are
 derived from social conditions1 and on 
the other side are lost in the obscure  
background of organic dispositions1 in  

ancestry and in atavism4 ,it is not     
otherwise with historical determinism1  
where1 in the same way1 we begin with   
motives religious1 political1 aesthetic1
 passionate1 etc41 but where we must    
subsequently discover the causes of     
these motives in the material conditions
 underlying them4 ,now the study of     
these conditions should be so specified 
that we may perceive indubitably not    
only what are the causes1 but again by  
what mediations they arrive at that form
 which reveals them to the consciousness
 as motives whose origin is often       
obliterated4  ,and thence follows       
indubitably this second consequence that
 in our doctrine we have not to         
re-translate into economic categories   
all the complex manifestations of       
history1 but only to explain in the last
 analysis 7,engels7 all the historic    
facts by means of the underlying        
economic structure 7,marx71 which       
necessitates analysis and reduction and 
then interlinking and construction4  ,it

 results from this1 in the third place1 
that1 passing from the underlying       
economic structure to the picturesque   
whole of a given history1 we need the   
aid of that complexus of notions and    
knowledge which may be called1 for lack 
of a better term1 social psychology4 ,i 
do not mean by that to allude to the    
fantastic existence of a social psyche  
nor to the concept of an assumed        
collective spirit which by its own laws1
 independent of the consciousness of    
individuals and of their material and   
definable relations1 realizes itself and
 shows itself in social life4 ,that is  
pure mysticism4 ,neither do ,i wish to  
allude to those attempts at             
generalization which fill up treatises  
on social psychology and the general    
idea of which is to transport and apply 
to a subject which is called social     
consciousness the known categories and  
forms of individual psychology4 ,nor    
again do ,i wish to allude to that mass 
of semi-organic and semi-psychological  

denominations by the aid of which some  
attribute to the social being1 as       
,schaeffle does1 a brain1 a spinal      
column1 sensibility1 sentiment1         
conscience1 will1 etc4 ,but ,i wish to  
speak of more modest and more prosaic   
things1 that is to say1 of those        
concrete and precise states of mind     
which make us know as they really were  
the plebeians of ,rome at a certain     
epoch1 the artisans of ,florence at the 
moment when the movement of the ,ciompi 
burst forth1 or those peasants of       
,france within whom was engendered1 to  
follow ,taine's expression1 the         
spontaneous anarchy of #aghi1 those     
peasants who finally became free        
laborers and small proprietors1 or1     
aspiring to property1 transformed       
themselves rapidly from victors over the
 foreigner into automatic instruments of
 reaction4 ,this social psychology1     
which no one can reduce to abstract     
canons because1 in most cases1 it is    
merely descriptive1 this is what the    

chroniclers1 the orators1 the artists1  
the romancers and the ideologists of    
every sort have seen and up to now have 
conceived as the exclusive object of    
their studies4 ,in this1 psychology1    
which is the specific consciousness of  
men in given social conditions1 the     
agitators1 orators and propagandists    
trust to-day1 and to it they appeal4 ,we
 know that it is the fruit1 the outcome1
 the effect of certain social conditions
 actually determined2--this class1 in   
this situation1 determined by the       
functions which it fulfills1 by the     
subjection in which it is held1 by the  
dominion which it exercises2--and       
finally1 these classes1 these functions1
 this subjection and this dominion      
involve such and such a determined form 
of production and distribution of the   
immediate means of life1 that is to say1
 a determined economic structure4 ,this 
social psychology1 by its nature always 
circumstantial1 is not the expression of
 the abstract and generic process of the

 self-styled human intellect4 ,it is    
always a specified formation from       
specified conditions4 ,we hold this     
principle to be indisputable1 that it is
 not the forms of consciousness which   
determine the human being1 but it is the
 manner of being which determines the   
consciousness 7,marx74  ,but these forms
 of consciousness1 even as they are     
determined by the conditions of life1   
constitute in themselves also a part of 
history4 ,this does not consist only in 
the economic anatomy1 but in all that   
combination which clothes and covers    
that anatomy even up to the multicolored
 reflections of the imagination4 ,in    
other words1 there is no fact in history
 which does not recall by its origin the
 conditions of the underlying economic  
structure1 but there is no fact in      
history which is not preceded1          
accompanied and followed by determined  
forms of consciousness1 whether it be   
superstitious or experimental1 ingenuous
 or reflective1 impulsive or            

self-controlled1 fantastic or reasoning4
   ,,iv4  ,i was saying a moment ago    
that our doctrine makes history         
objective and in a certain sense        
naturalizes it1 going from the          
explanation of the data1 evident at     
first sight1 of the personalities acting
 with design1 and of the auxiliary      
conceptions of the action1 to the causes
 and the motives of the will and the    
action1 in order to find thereupon the  
co-ordination of these causes and of    
these motives in the pre-elementary     
processus of the production of the      
immediate means of existence4  ,now this
 term naturalizing has led more than one
 mind into confusing this order of      
problems with another order of problems1
 that is to say1 into extending to      
history the laws and the manners of     
thinking which have already appeared    
suitable to the study and explanation of
 the material world in general and of   
the animal world in particular4 ,and    
because ,darwinism succeeded in         

carrying1 thanks to the principle of the
 transformation of species1 the last    
citadel of the metaphysical fixity of   
things1 and in discerning1 in the       
organisms1 phases1 as it were1 and      
moments of a real and proper natural    
history1 it has been imagined that it   
was a commonplace and simple enterprise 
to borrow for an explanation of the     
future and the history of human life the
 concepts1 the principles and the       
methods of examination to which that    
animal life is subjected which in       
consequence of the immediate conditions 
of the struggle for existence is        
unfolding to topographical environments 
not modified by the action of labor4    
,darwinism1 political and social1 has1  
like an epidemic1 for many years invaded
 the mind of more than one thinker1 and 
many more of the advocates and          
declaimers of sociology1 and it has been
 reflected as a fashionable habit and a 
phraseological current even in the daily
 language of the politicians4  ,it seems

 at first sight that there is something 
immediately evident and instinctively   
plausible in this fashion of reasoning1 
which it may be said is principally     
distinguished by its abuse of analogy   
and by its haste in drawing conclusions4
 ,man is without doubt an animal1 and he
 is linked by connections of descent and
 affinity to other animals4 ,he has no  
privileges of origin or of elementary   
structure1 and his organism is merely   
one particular case of general          
physiology4 ,his first immediate field  
was that of simple nature not modified  
by work1 and from thence are derived the
 imperious and inevitable conditions of 
the struggle for existence1 with the    
consequent forms of adaptation4 ,thence 
are born races in the true and authentic
 sense of the word2 that is to say1 in  
so far as they are immediate            
determinations of black1 white1 yellow1 
woolly-haired1 straight-haired1 etc41   
and not secondary historico-social      
formations1 that is to say1 peoples and 

nations4 ,thence are born the primitive 
instincts of sociability and in life in 
promiscuity arise the first rudiments of
 sexual selection4  ,but if we can      
reconstruct in imagination the primitive
 savage1 by combining our conjectures1  
it is not given us to have an empirical 
intuition of him1 just as it is not     
given us to determine the genesis of    
that hiatus1 that is to say1 that break 
in continuity1 thanks to which human    
life is found detached from animal life 
to rise1 in the sequel1 to an ever      
higher level4 ,all men who live at this 
moment on the earth's surface and all   
those who1 having lived in the past1    
were the objects of any trustworthy     
observation1 are found1 and were found1 
already sufficiently removed from the   
moment when purely animal life had      
ceased4 ,a certain social life with     
customs and institutions1 even if it be 
of the most elementary form that we     
know1 that is to say1 of the ,australian
 tribes1 divided into classes and       

practising the marriage of all the men  
of one class with all the women of      
another class1 separates human life by a
 great interval from animal life4 ,if we
 consider the maternal gens1 of which   
the classic type1 the ,iroquois type1   
has1 thanks to ,morgan's work1          
revolutionized prehistoric science1     
while giving us at the same time the key
 to the origins of history properly so  
called1 we have a form of society       
already much advanced by the complexity 
of its relations4 ,at that stage of     
social life which1 according to our     
knowledge1 seems very elementary1 that  
is to say1 in the ,australian society1  
not only does a very complicated        
language differentiate men from all     
other animals 7and language is a        
condition and an instrument1 a cause and
 an effect of sociability71 but the     
specialization of human life1 apart from
 the discovery of fire1 is manifested by
 the use of many other artificial means 
by which the needs of life are          

satisfied4 ,a certain territory acquired
 for the common use of a tribe1 a       
certain art of hunting--the use of      
certain instruments of defense and      
attack and the possession of certain    
utensils for preserving the things      
acquired--and then the ornamentation of 
the body1 etc41 all this means that at  
bottom this life rests upon an          
artificial1 although very elementary1   
basis1 upon which men endeavor to fix   
themselves and adapt themselves1--upon a
 basis which is after all the condition 
of all further progress4 ,according as  
this artificial basis is more or less   
formed1 the men who have produced it and
 who live in it are considered more or  
less savage or barbarous4 ,this first   
formation constitutes what we may call  
pre-history4  ,history1 according to the
 literary use of the word1 namely1 that 
part of the human processus whose       
traditions are fixed in the memory1     
begins at a moment when the artificial  
basis has been formed for a considerable

 length of time4 ,for example1 the      
canalization of ,mesopotamia gives us   
the ancient pre-,semitic ,babylonian    
state1 while the extremely ancient      
,egyptian civilization rests upon the   
application of the ,nile to agriculture4
 ,upon this artificial basis1 which     
appears in the extreme horizon of known 
history1 lived1 as now1 not shapeless   
masses of individuals1 but organized    
groups whose organization was fixed by a
 certain distribution of tasks1 that is 
to say1 of labor and by consecutive     
methods of co-ordination and            
subordination4 ,these relations1 these  
connections1 these ways of living were  
not and are not the result of the       
crystallization of customs under the    
immediate action of the animal struggle 
for existence4 ,what is more1 they      
presuppose the discovery of certain     
instruments1 and1 for example1 the      
domestication of certain animals1 the   
working of minerals and even of iron1   
the introduction of slavery1 etc41      

instruments and methods of economy which
 have first differentiated communities  
from each other and have subsequently   
differentiated the component parts of   
these communities themselves4 ,in other 
words1 the works of men in so far as    
they live together react upon the men   
themselves4 ,their discoveries1 and     
their inventions1 by creating artificial
 ways of living1 have produced not only 
habits and customs 7clothing1 cooking of
 food1 etc471 but relations and bonds of
 coexistence proportioned and adapted to
 the mode of production and reproduction
 of the means of immediate life4  ,at   
the dawn of traditional history         
economics is already operating4 ,men are
 working to live1 on a foundation which 
has been in great part modified by their
 work and with tools which are          
completely their work4 ,and from that   
moment they have struggled among        
themselves to conquer each from the     
other a superior position in the use of 
these artificial means2 that is to say1 

they have struggled among themselves    
whether as serfs and masters1 subjects  
and lords1 conquered and conquerors1    
exploited and exploiters1 both where    
they have progressed and where they have
 retrograded and where they have halted 
in a form which they have not been      
capable of outgrowing1 but never have   
they returned to the animal life by the 
complete loss of their artificial       
foundation4   ,historical science has1  
then1 as its first and principal object 
the determination and the investigation 
of this artificial foundation1 its      
origin1 its composition1 its changes and
 its transformations4 ,to say that all  
this is only a part and a prolongation  
of nature1 is to say a thing which by   
its too abstract and too generic        
character has no longer any meaning4    
,the human race1 in fact1 lives only in 
earthly conditions1 and we cannot       
suppose it to be transplanted elsewhere4
 ,under these conditions it has found   
from its very first beginnings down to  

the present day the immediate means     
necessary for the development of labor1 
that is to say1 for its material        
progress as for its inner formation4    
,these natural conditions were and they 
are always indispensable to the sporadic
 agriculture of the nomads1 who         
sometimes cultivated the earth merely   
for the pasturage of animals1 as well as
 for the refined products of intensive  
modern horticulture4 ,these earthly     
conditions1 precisely as they have      
furnished the different sorts of stones 
suited for the fabrication of the first 
weapons1 furnish now also1 with coal1   
the elements of the great industry2     
precisely as they gave the first        
laborers osiers and willows to plait1   
they give now all the materials         
necessary to the complicated technique  
of electricity4  ,it is not1 however1   
the natural materials themselves which  
have progressed4 ,on the contrary1 it is
 only men who progress1 through         
discovering little by little in nature  

the conditions which permit them to     
produce in more and more complex forms1 
thanks to the labor accumulated in      
experience4 ,this progress does not     
consist merely in the sort of progress  
with which subjective psychology is     
concerned that is to say1 the inner     
modifications which would be the proper 
and direct development of the intellect1
 the reasoning and the thought4         
,moreover1 this inner progress is but a 
secondary and derived product1 in       
proportion as there is already a        
progress realized in the artificial     
foundation which is the sum of the      
social relations resulting from the     
forms and the distributions of labor4   
,it is1 then1 a meaningless affirmation 
to say that all this is but a simple    
prolongation of nature1 unless one      
wishes to employ this word in so generic
 a sense that it no longer indicates    
anything precise and distinct2 that     
which is not realized by the work of    
man4  ,history is the work of man in so 

far as man can create and improve his   
instruments of labor1 and with these    
instruments can create an artificial    
environment whose complicated effects   
react later upon himself1 and which by  
its present state and its successive    
modifications is the occasion and the   
condition of his development4 ,there    
are1 then1 no reasons for carrying back 
that work of man which is history to the
 simple struggle for existence4 ,if this
 struggle modifies and improves the     
organs of animals1 and if in given      
circumstances and methods it produces   
and develops new organs1 it still does  
not produce that continuous1 perfected  
and traditional movement which is the   
human processus4 ,our doctrine must not 
be confounded with ,darwinism1 and it   
need not invoke anew the conception of a
 mythical1 mystical or metaphorical form
 of fatalism4 ,if it is true in effect  
that history rests1 before all else1    
upon the development of technique1 that 
is to say1 if it is true that the       

successive discovery of tools gives rise
 to the successive distributions of     
labor1 and therewith to the inequalities
 whose sum total1 more or less stable1  
forms the social organism1 it is equally
 true that the discovery of these       
instruments is at once the cause and the
 effect of these conditions and of those
 forms of the inner life to which1      
isolating them by psychological         
abstraction1 we give the name of        
imagination1 intellect1 reason1 thought1
 etc4 ,by producing successively the    
different social environment1 that is to
 say1 the successive artificial         
foundations1 man has produced himself1  
and in this consists the serious kernel1
 the concrete reason1 the positive      
foundation of that which by various     
fantastic combinations and by a varied  
logical architecture has suggested to   
the ideologists the notion of the       
progress of the human mind4             
,nevertheless1 this expression of       
naturalizing history1 which1 understood 

in too broad and too generic a sense1   
may be the occasion of the equivocations
 of which we have spoken1 when it is1 on
 the contrary1 employed with proper     
precaution and in a tentative fashion1  
sums up briefly the criticism of all the
 ideological views which1 in the        
interpretation of history1 start from   
this hypothesis1 that human work or     
activity are one and the same with free 
will1 free choice and voluntary designs4
  ,it was easy and convenient for the   
theologians to carry back the course of 
human events to a preconceived plan or  
design1 because they passed directly    
from the facts of experience to an      
assumed mind which ruled the universe4  
,the jurists1 who first had occasion to 
discover in the institutions which      
formed the object of their studies a    
certain guiding thread through the forms
 which manifestly succeeded each other1 
carried over1 as they still carry over  
as cheerfully1 the reasoning faculty    
which is their own quality1 to serve as 

an explanation for the whole vast social
 fabric1 however complicated4 ,the men  
of politics1 who naturally take their   
point of departure in this datum of     
experience1 that the officers of the    
state1 whether by the acquiescence of   
the subject masses or profiting by the  
antitheses of interests of the different
 social groups1 may set aims for        
themselves and realize them voluntarily 
and in a deliberate fashion1--these men 
are brought to see in the succession of 
human events only a variation of these  
designs1 these projects and these       
intentions4 ,now our conception1 while  
revolutionizing in their foundations the
 hypotheses of the theologians1 the     
jurists and the politicians1 terminates 
in this affirmation1 that human labor   
and activity in general are not always  
one and the same thing in the course of 
history with the will which acts with   
design1 with preconceived plans and with
 its free choice of means2 that is to   
say1 that they are not one and the same 

thing with the reasoning faculty4 ,all  
that has happened in history is the work
 of man1 but it was not1 and is not1    
with rare exceptions1 the result of a   
critical choice or of a reasoning       
desire4 ,moreover1 it was and is through
 necessity that1 determined by external 
needs and occasions1 this activity      
engenders an experience and a           
development of internal and external    
organs4 ,among these organs we must     
include intelligence and reason which   
also are the result and consequence of  
repeated and accumulated experience4    
,the integral formation of man in his   
historical development is henceforth no 
longer a hypothetical datum nor a simple
 conjecture4 ,it is an intuitive and    
palpable truth4 ,the conditions of the  
processus which engenders a step of     
progress are henceforth reducible into a
 series of explanations2 and up to a    
certain point we have under our eyes the
 schedule of all historical             
developments1 morphologically conceived4

 ,this doctrine is the clear and        
definite negation of all ideology1      
because it is the explicit negation of  
every form of rationalism1 understanding
 by this word this concept1 that things 
in their existence and their development
 answer to a norm1 an ideal1 a measure1 
an end1 in an implicit or explicit      
fashion4 ,the whole course of human     
events is a sum1 a succession of series 
of conditions which men have made and   
laid down for themselves through the    
experience accumulated in their changing
 social life1 but it represents neither 
the tendency to realize a predetermined 
end nor the deviation of a first        
principle from perfection and felicity4 
,progress itself implies merely that    
empirical and circumstantial notion of a
 thing which is at present defined in   
our mind1 because1 thanks to the        
development thus far realized1 we are in
 a position to estimate the past and to 
foresee1 at least in a certain sense and
 in a certain measure1 the future4   ,v4

  ,in this fashion a serious ambiguity  
is dissolved and the errors carried with
 it are removed4 ,reasonable and well   
founded is the tendency of those who aim
 to subordinate the sum total of human  
events in their course to the rigorous  
conception of determinism4 ,there is1 on
 the contrary1 no reason for confusing  
this derived1 reflex and complex        
determinism with the determinism of the 
immediate struggle for existence which  
is produced and developed on a field not
 modified by the continued action of    
labor4 ,legitimate and well founded1 in 
an absolute fashion1 is the historical  
explanation which proceeds in its course
 from the volitions which have          
voluntarily regulated the different     
phases of life1 to the motives and      
objective causes of every choice1       
discovered in the conditions of         
environment1 territory1 accessible means
 of existence and conditions of         
experience4 ,but there is1 on the       
contrary1 no foundation for that opinion

 which tends to the negation of every   
volition by consequence of a theoretical
 view which would substitute automatism 
for voluntarism4 ,there is nothing in   
it1 as a matter of fact1 but a pure and 
simple conceit4  ,wherever the means of 
production have developed1 to a certain 
point1 wherever the artificial          
foundation has acquired a certain       
consistency1 and wherever the social    
differentiations and their resulting    
antitheses have created the need1 the   
possibility and the conditions of an    
organization more or less stable or     
unstable1 there1 always and necessarily1
 appear premeditated designs1 political 
views1 plans of conduct1 systems of law 
and finally maxims and general and      
abstract principles4 ,in the circle of  
these products1 and of these derived and
 complex developments of the second     
degree1 spring up also the sciences and 
arts1 philosophy and learning1 and      
history as a literary fashion of        
production4 ,this circle is what the    

rationalists and the ideologists1       
ignorant of its real foundations1 have  
called1 and call1 in an exclusive       
fashion1 civilization4 ,and1 in fact1 it
 has happened1 and it happens1 that some
 men1 and especially professional       
scientists1 lay or clerical1 have found1
 and find1 the means of intellectual    
livelihood in the closed circle of the  
reflex and secondary products of        
civilization1 and that they have been   
able and are able consequently to submit
 all the rest to the subjective view    
which they have elaborated under these  
conditions2 that is1 the origin and     
explanation of all the ideologies4 ,our 
doctrine has definitely outgrown the    
visual angle of ideology4 ,the          
premeditated designs1 the political     
views1 sciences1 systems of law1 etc41  
instead of being the means and the      
instrument of the explanation of        
history1 are precisely what require to  
be explained1 because they are derived  
from determined conditions and          

situations4 ,but that does not mean that
 they are pure appearances1 soap        
bubbles4 ,if they are things which have 
been developed and derived1 that does   
not imply that they are not real things2
 and that is so true that they have     
been1 for centuries1 to the unscientific
 consciousness1 and to the scientific   
consciousness still on the way towards  
its formation1 the only ones which      
really existed4   ,but that is not all4 
,our doctrine1 like others1 may lead to 
reverie and offer an occasion and a     
theme for a new inverted ideology4 ,it  
was born on the battlefield of          
communism4 ,it assumes the appearance of
 the modern proletariat on the political
 stage1 and it assumes that alignment   
upon the origins of our present society 
which has permitted us to reconstruct in
 a critical manner the whole genesis of 
the bourgeoisie4 ,it is a doctrine      
revolutionary from two points of view2  
because it has found the reasons and the
 methods of development of the          

proletarian revolution which is in the  
making1 and because it proposes to find 
the causes and the conditions of        
development of all other social         
revolutions which have taken place in   
the past1 in the class antagonisms which
 arrived at a certain critical point1 by
 reason of the contradiction between the
 forms of production and the development
 of the producing forces4 ,and this is  
not all4 ,in the light of this doctrine 
what is essential in history is summed  
up in these critical moments1 and it    
abandons1 momentarily at least1 what    
unites these different moments to the   
learned ministrations of the            
professional narrators4 ,as a           
revolutionary doctrine it is1 before all
 else1 the intellectual consciousness of
 the actual proletarian movement in     
which1 according to our assertion1 the  
future of communism is preparing long   
beforehand2 so much so that the open    
adversaries of socialism reject it as an
 opinion1 which1 under a scientific     

mask1 is only working out another       
utopia4  ,thus it may happen1 and that  
has already resulted1 that the          
imagination of people unfamiliar with   
the difficulties of historic research1  
and the zeal of fanatics1 find a        
stimulus and an opportunity even in     
historic materialism for forming a new  
ideology and drawing from it a new      
philosophy of systematic history1 that  
is to say1 history conceived as schemes 
or tendencies and designs4 ,and no      
precaution can suffice4 ,our intellect  
is rarely contented with purely critical
 research2 it is always attempting to   
convert into an element of pedantry and 
into a new scholasticism every discovery
 of thought4 ,in a word1 even the       
materialistic conception of history may 
be converted into a form of             
argumentation for a thesis and serve to 
make new fashions with the ancient      
prejudices like that of a history based 
on syllogisms1 demonstrations and       
deductions4  ,to guard against this1 and

 especially to avoid the reappearance in
 an indirect and disguised fashion of   
any form whatever of finality1 it is    
necessary to resolve positively upon two
 things3 ,first1 that all known historic
 conditions are circumstanced1 and1     
second1 that progress has thus far been 
circumscribed by various obstacles and  
that for this reason it has always been 
partial and limited4   ,only a part1    
and1 until recent times1 only a small   
part of the human race1 has traversed   
completely all the stages of the        
processus by the effect of which the    
most advanced nations have arrived at   
modern civil society1 with the advanced 
technical forms founded upon the        
discoveries of science and with all the 
consequences1 political1 intellectual1  
moral1 etc41 which correspond to this   
development4 ,by the side of the        
,english1--to take the most striking    
example--who1 transporting ,european    
manners with them to ,new ,holland1 have
 created there a center of production   

which already holds a notable place in  
the competition of the world's market1  
there still live1 like fossils of       
prehistoric times1 the ,australian      
aborigines1 capable only of             
disappearing1 but incapable of adapting 
themselves to a civilization which was  
not imported among them1 but next to    
them4 ,in ,america1 and especially in   
,north ,america1 the series of events   
which have brought on the development of
 modern society began with the          
importation from ,europe of domestic    
animals and agricultural tools1 the use 
of which in ancient times gave birth to 
the slow moving civilization of the     
,mediterranean2 but this movement       
remained entirely inside the circle of  
those descended from the conquerors and 
colonists1 while the aborigines are lost
 in the mass through the intermingling  
of races or perish and disappear        
completely4 ,western ,asia and ,egypt1  
which already in very ancient times1 as 
the first cradle of all our             

civilization1 gave birth to the great   
semi-political formations which marked  
the first phases of certain and positive
 history1 have appeared to us for       
centuries as crystallizations of social 
forms incapable of moving on of         
themselves to new phases of development4
 ,upon them is the age-long weight of   
the barbaric camp--the dominion of the  
,turk4 ,into this stiffened mass is     
introduced by secret ways a modern      
administration1 and in the name of      
business interests the railroads and the
 telegraphs push in1--bold outposts of  
the conquering ,european bank4 ,all this
 stiffened mass has no hope of resuming 
life1 heat and motion except by the ruin
 of the ,turkish dominion1 for which are
 being substituted in the different     
methods of direct and indirect conquest 
the dominion and the protectorate of the
 ,european bourgeoisie4 ,that a process 
of transformation of backward nations or
 of nations arrested in their march1 can
 be realized and hastened under external

 influences1 ,india stands as a proof4  
,this country1 with its own life still  
surviving1 re-enters vigorously under   
the action of ,england into the         
circulation of international activity   
even with its intellectual products4    
,these are not the only contrasts in the
 historic physiognomy of our            
contemporaries4 ,and while in ,japan1 by
 an acute and spontaneous phenomenon of 
imitation1 there has developed1 in less 
than thirty years1 a certain            
assimilation of western civilization    
which is already moving normally the    
country's own energies1 the forcible law
 of ,russian conquest is dragging into  
the circle of modern industry1 and even 
into great industry1 certain notable    
portions of the country beyond the      
,caspian1 as an outpost of the          
approaching acquisition to the sphere of
 capitalism of ,central ,asia and ,upper
 ,asia4 ,the gigantic mass of ,china    
appeared to us but a few years ago as   
motionless in the hereditary            

organization of its institutions1 so    
slow is every movement there1 while for 
ethnic and geographical reasons almost  
all ,africa remained impenetrable1 and1 
it seemed1 even up to the last attempts 
at conquest and colonization1 that it   
was destined to offer only its borders  
to the process of civilization1 as if we
 were still in the times not even of the
 ,portuguese1 but of the ,greeks and    
,carthaginians4  ,these differentiations
 of men on the track of written and     
unwritten history seem to us easily     
explicable when they can be referred to 
the natural and immediate conditions    
which impose limits upon the development
 of labor4 ,this is the case with       
,america1 which up to the arrival of the
 ,europeans had but one cereal1 maize1  
and but one domestic animal for labor1  
the llama1 and we can rejoice that the  
,europeans imported with themselves and 
their tools the ox1 the ass and the     
horse1 corn1 cotton1 sugarcane1 coffee  
and finally the vine and the orange     

tree1 creating there a new world of that
 glorious society which produces        
merchandise and which with an           
extraordinary swiftness of movement has 
already traversed the two phases of the 
blackest slavery and the most democratic
 wage system4 ,but where there is a real
 halt and even an attested              
retrogression1 as in ,western ,asia1 in 
,egypt1 in the ,balkan ,peninsula and in
 ,northern ,africa1--and this arrest    
cannot be attributed to the change of   
natural conditions1--we find the problem
 before us which is awaiting its        
solution from the direct and explicit   
study of the social structure studied in
 the internal modes of its development1 
as in the interlacings and complications
 of the different nations upon that     
field which is ordinarily called the    
scene of historic struggles4   ,this    
same civilized ,europe1 which by the    
continuity of its tradition1 presents   
the most complete diagram of its        
processus1 so much so that upon this    

model have been conceived and           
constructed1 thus far1 all the systems  
of historical philosophy1 this ,western 
and ,central ,europe1 which produced the
 epoch of the bourgeoisie and has sought
 and is seeking to impose that form of  
society upon the whole world by         
different modes of conquest1 direct or  
indirect1--this ,europe is not          
completely uniform in the degree of its 
development1 and its various            
agglomerations1 national1 local and     
political1 appear disturbed1 as it were1
 over a decidedly sloping ladder4 ,upon 
these differences depend the conditions 
of relative superiority and inferiority 
of one country to another and the       
reasons1 more or less advantageous or   
disadvantageous1 for economic exchange2 
and thereon have depended1 and still    
depend1 not only the frictions and the  
struggles1 the treaties and the wars1   
but also everything that with more or   
less precision the political writers    
have been able to relate to us since the

 ,renaissance1 and certainly with       
increasing evidence1 from ,louis ,,xiv4 
and ,colbert to our own time4  ,this    
,europe in itself is highly variegated4 
,here is the consummate flower of       
industrial and capitalist production1   
namely1 ,england1 while at other points 
survives the artisan1 vigorous or       
rickety1 at ,paris and at ,naples1 to   
grasp the fact in its extreme points4   
,here the land is almost industrialized1
 as in ,england2 and elsewhere          
vegetates1 in various traditional forms1
 the stupid peasant1 as in ,italy and in
 ,austria1 and in the latter country    
more than in the former4 ,in one country
 the political life of the state--suited
 to the prosaic consciousness of a      
bourgeoisie which knows its business    
because it has conquered the space that 
it occupies--is exerted in the surest   
and most open fashion of an explicit    
class domination 7it will be understood 
that ,i am speaking of ,france74        
,elsewhere1 and particularly in         

,germany1 the old feudal customs1 the   
hypocrisy of ,protestantism and the     
cowardice of a bourgeoisie which        
exploits favorable economic             
circumstances without bringing to them  
either intelligence or revolutionary    
courage1 strengthen the existing state  
by preserving the lying appearances of  
an ethical mission to be accomplished4  
7,with how many unpalatable sauces this 
state ethics1 ,prussian into the        
bargain1 has been served up by the heavy
 and pedantic ,german professors67 ,here
 and there modern capitalist production 
is edging its way into countries which  
from other points of view do not enter  
into our movement and especially into   
its political side1 as is the case with 
unhappy ,poland2 or again this form only
 penetrates indirectly1 as in the       
,slavonic countries4 ,but now comes the 
sharpest contrast1 which seems destined 
to put under our eyes1 as in an epitome1
 all the phrases1 even the most extreme1
 of our history4  ,russia could not have

 advanced1 as it is now advancing1      
toward the great industry1 without      
drawing from ,western ,europe1 and      
especially from our charming ,french    
,chauvinism1 that money which she would 
in vain have sought within her own      
borders1 that is to say1 from the       
conditions of her obese territorial     
mass1 where vegetate in ancient economic
 forms fifty million peasants4 ,russia1 
in order to become an economic modern   
society ripening the conditions of a    
corresponding political revolution1 and 
preparing the means which will          
facilitate the addition of a large part 
of ,asia to the capitalist movement1 has
 been led to destroy the last relics of 
agrarian communism 7whether its origins 
be primitive or secondary7 which had    
been preserved within herself up to this
 point in such characteristic forms and 
on so large a scale4 ,russia must       
capitalize herself1 and to this end she 
must1 to start with1 convert land into  
merchandise capable of producing        

merchandise1 and at the same time       
transform into miserable proletarians   
the excommunists of the land4 ,and1 on  
the contrary1 in ,western and ,central  
,europe we find ourselves at the        
opposite point of the series of         
development which has scarcely begun in 
,russia4 ,here1 with us1 where the      
bourgeoisie1 with varied fortunes and   
triumphing over such a variety of       
difficulties1 has already traversed so  
many stages of its development1 it is   
not the recollection of primitive or    
secondary communism1 which scarcely     
survives through learned combinations in
 the heads of scholars1 but the very    
form of bourgeois production1 which     
engenders in the proletarians the       
tendency to socialism1 which presents   
itself in its general outlines as an    
indication of a new phase of history and
 not as the repetition of what is       
inevitably perishing in the ,slavonic   
countries under our eyes4   ,who could  
fail to see in these illustrations1     

which ,i have not sought out1 but which 
have come almost by chance1 and which   
can be indefinitely prolonged in a      
volume of economic-political geography  
of the present world1 the evident proof 
of the manner in which historic         
conditions are all circumstanced in the 
forms of their development8 ,not only   
races and peoples1 nations and states1  
but parts of nations and various regions
 of states1 even orders and classes1 are
 found1 as it were1 upon so many rounds 
of a very long ladder1 or1 rather1 upon 
the various points of a complicated and 
slowly developing curve4 ,historic time 
has not marched uniformly for all men4  
,the simple succession of generations   
has never been the index of the         
constancy and intensity of the          
processus4 ,time as an abstract measure 
of chronology and the generations which 
succeed one another in approximate      
periods give no criterion and furnish no
 indication of law or of process4 ,the  
developments thus far have been varied  

because the things accomplished in one  
and the same unit of time were varied4  
,between these varied forms of          
development there is an affinity or     
rather a similarity of movements1 that  
is1 an analogy of type1 or again an     
identity of form2 thus the advance forms
 may by simple contact or by violence   
accelerate the development of backward  
forms4 ,but the important thing is to   
comprehend that progress1 our notion of 
which is not merely empirical1 but      
always circumstanced and thus limited1  
is not suspended over the course of     
human events like a destiny or a fate1  
nor like a commandment4 ,and for this   
reason our doctrine cannot serve to     
represent the whole history of the human
 race in a unified perspective which    
repeats1 mutatis mutandis1 the historic 
philosophy from thesis to conclusion1   
from ,st4 ,augustine to ,hegel1 or1     
better1 from the prophet ,daniel to ,m4 
,de ,rougemont4  ,our doctrine does not 
pretend to be the intellectual vision of

 a great plan or of a design1 but it is 
merely a method of research and of      
conception4 ,it is not by accident that 
,marx spoke of his discovery as a       
guiding thread1 and it is precisely for 
this reason that it is analogous to     
,darwinism1 which also is a method1 and 
is not and cannot be a modern repetition
 of the constructed or constructive     
natural philosophy as used by ,shelling 
and his school4   ,the first to discover
 in the notion of progress an indication
 of something circumstantial and        
relative was the genial ,saint ,simon1  
who opposed his way of seeing to the    
doctrine of the eighteenth century      
represented by the party of ,condorcet4 
,to that doctrine1 which may be called  
unitary1 equalitarian1 formal1 because  
it regards the human race as developing 
upon one line of process1 ,saint ,simon 
opposes the conception of the faculties 
and of the aptitudes which substitute   
themselves and compensate for each      
other1 and thus he remains an           

ideologist4  ,to penetrate the true     
reasons for the relativity of progress  
another thing was necessary4 ,it was    
necessary1 first of all1 to renounce    
those prejudices which are involved in  
the belief that the obstacles to the    
uniformity of human development rest    
exclusively upon natural and immediate  
causes4 ,these natural obstacles are    
either sufficiently problematical1 as is
 the case with races1 no one of which   
shows the privilege of birth in its     
history1 or they are1 as is the case in 
geographical differences1 insufficient  
to explain the development of the       
completely different historico-social   
conditions on one and the same          
geographical field4 ,and as the historic
 movement dates precisely from the time 
when the natural obstacles have already 
been in great part either vanquished or 
notably circumscribed1 thanks to the    
creation of an artificial field upon    
which it has been given to men to       
develop themselves further1 it is       

evident that the successive obstacles to
 the uniformity of progress must be     
sought in the proper and intrinsic      
conditions of the social structure      
itself4  ,this structure has thus far   
started in forms of political           
organization1 the object of which is to 
try to hold in equilibrium the economic 
inequalities2 consequently this         
organization1 as ,i have said more than 
once1 is constantly unstable4 ,from the 
point where there is a known history2 it
 is the history of society tending to   
form the state1 or having already       
constructed it completely4 ,and the     
state is this struggle1 within and      
without1 because it is1 above all1 the  
organ and the instrument of a larger or 
smaller part of society against all the 
rest of society itself1 in so far as the
 latter rests upon the economic         
domination of man over man in a more or 
less direct and explicit fashion1       
according as the different degree of the
 development of production1 of its      

natural means and its artificial        
instruments1 requires either chattel    
slavery1 or the serfdom of the soil1 or 
the free wage system4 ,this society of  
antitheses1 which forms a state1 is     
always1 although in different forms and 
various modes1 the opposition of the    
city to the country1 of the artisan to  
the peasant1 of the proletarian to the  
employer1 of the capitalist to the      
laborer1 and so on ad infinitum1 and it 
always ends1 with various complications 
and various methods1 in an hierarchy1   
whether it be in a fixed scaffolding of 
privilege1 as in the ,middle ,ages1 or  
whether1 under the disguised forms of   
supposed equal rights for all1 it be    
produced by the automatic action of     
economic competition1 as in our time4   
,to this economic hierarchy corresponds1
 according to various modes1 in         
different countries1 in different times1
 in different places1 what ,i may call  
almost a hierarchy of souls1 of         
intellects1 of minds4 ,that is to say1  

that culture1 which1 for the idealists1 
constitutes the sum of progress1 has    
been and is by the necessities of the   
case very unequally distributed4 ,the   
greater portion of mankind1 by the      
quality of their occupations1 are       
composed of individuals who are         
disintegrated1 broken into fragments and
 rendered incapable of a complete and   
normal development4 ,to the economics of
 classes and to the hierarchy of social 
positions corresponds the psychology of 
classes4 ,the relativity of progress is 
then for us the inevitable consequence  
of class distinctions4 ,these           
distinctions constitute the obstacles   
which explain the possibility of        
relative retrogression1 up to the point 
of degeneracy and of the dissolution of 
an entire society4 ,the machines1 which 
mark the triumph of science1 become1 by 
reason of the antithetic conditions of  
the social plexus1 instruments which    
impoverish millions and millions of     
artisans and free peasants4 ,the        

progress of technique1 which fills the  
towns with merchandise1 makes more      
miserable and abject the condition of   
the peasants1 and in the cities         
themselves it further humbles the       
condition of the humble4 ,all the       
progress of science has served thus far 
to differentiate a class of scientists  
and to keep ever further from culture   
the masses who1 attached to their       
ceaseless daily toil1 are thus feeding  
the whole of society4  ,progress has    
been and is1 up to the present time1    
partial and one-sided4 ,the minorities  
which share in it call this human       
progress2 and the proud evolutionists   
call this human nature which is         
developing4 ,all this partial progress1 
which has thus far developed upon the   
oppression of man by man1 has its       
foundation in the conditions of         
opposition1 by which economic           
distinctions have engendered all the    
social distinctions2 from the relative  
liberty of the few is born the servitude

 of the greater number1 and law has been
 the protector of injustice4 ,progress1 
thus seen and clearly appreciated1      
appears to us as the moral and          
intellectual epitome of all human       
miseries and of all material            
inequalities4  ,to discover this        
inevitable relativity it was necessary  
that communism1 born at first as an     
instinctive movement in the soul of the 
oppressed1 should become a science and a
 political party4 ,it was then necessary
 that our doctrine should give the      
measure of value for all past history1  
by discovering in every form of social  
organization1 antithetical in its origin
 and organization1 as they have all been
 up to this time1 the innate incapacity 
for producing the conditions of a       
universal and uniform human progress1   
that is to say1 by discovering the      
fetters which turn each benefit into an 
injury4   ,,vi4  ,there is one question 
which we cannot evade3 ,what has given  
birth to the belief in historic factors8

  ,that is an expression familiar to    
many and often found in the writings of 
many scholars1 scientists and           
philosophers1 and of those commentators 
who1 by their reasonings or by their    
combinations1 add a little to simple    
historic narration and utilize this     
opinion as an hypothesis to find a      
starting point in the immense mass of   
human facts1 which1 at first sight and  
after first examination1 appear so      
confused and irreducible4 ,this belief1 
this current opinion1 has become for    
reasoning historians1 or even for       
rationalists1 a semi-doctrine1 which has
 recently been urged several times1 as a
 decisive argument1 against the unitary 
theory of the materialistic conception4 
,and indeed1 this belief is so deeply   
rooted and this opinion so widespread1  
of history being only intelligible as   
the juncture and the meeting of various 
factors1 that1 in consequence1 many of  
those who speak of social materialism1  
whether they be its partisans or        

adversaries1 believe that they save     
themselves from embarrassment by        
affirming that this whole doctrine      
consists in the fact that it attributes 
the preponderance or the decisive action
 to the economic factor4  ,it is very   
important to take account of the fashion
 in which this belief1 this opinion1 or 
this semi-doctrine takes its rise1      
because real and fruitful criticism     
consists principally in knowing and     
understanding the motive of what we     
declare an error4 ,it does not suffice  
to reject an opinion by characterizing  
it as false doctrine4 ,error always     
arises from some ill-understood side of 
an incomplete experience1 or from some  
subjective imperfection4 ,it does not   
suffice to reject the error2 we must    
overcome it1 explain it and outgrow it4 
,every historian1 at the beginning of   
his work1 performs1 so to speak1 an act 
of elimination4 ,first1 he makes        
erasures1 as it were1 in a continuous   
series of events2 then he dispenses with

 numerous and varied suppositions and   
precedents2 more than this1 he tears up 
and decomposes a complicated tissue4    
,thus1 to begin with1 he must fix a     
point1 a line1 a boundary1 as he        
chooses2 he must say1 for example3 ,i   
wish to relate the beginning of the war 
between the ,greeks and the ,persians1  
or to inquire how ,louis ,,xvi4 was     
brought to convene the ,states ,general4
 ,the narrator finds himself1 in a word1
 confronted with a complexus of         
accomplished facts and of facts on the  
point of being produced1 which in their 
totality present a certain aspect4 ,upon
 the attitude which he takes depends the
 form and the style of every narration1 
because to compose it he must take his  
point of departure from things already  
accomplished1 in order to see henceforth
 how they have continued to develop4    
,yet into this complexus he must        
introduce a certain degree of analysis1 
resolving it into groups and into       
aspects of facts1 or into concurrent    

elements1 which afterwards appear at a  
certain moment as independent           
categories4 ,it is the state in a       
certain form and with certain powers2 it
 is the laws1 which determine1 by what  
they command or what they prohibit1     
certain relations2 it is the manners and
 customs which reveal to us tendencies1 
needs1 ways of thinking1 of believing1  
of imagining2 altogether it is a        
multitude of men living and working     
together1 with a certain distribution of
 tasks and occupations2 he observes then
 the thoughts1 the ideas1 the           
inclinations1 the passions1 the desires1
 the aspirations which arise and develop
 from this varied mode of coexistence   
and from its frictions4 ,let a change be
 produced1 and it will show itself in   
one of the sides or one of the aspects  
of the empirical complexus1 or in all of
 these within a longer or a shorter     
time2 for example1 the state extends its
 boundaries1 or changes its internal    
limits as regards society by increasing 

or diminishing its powers and its       
attributes1 or by changing the mode of  
action of one or the other2 or1 again1  
the law modifies its dispositions1 or it
 expresses and affirms itself through   
new organs2 or1 again1 finally1 behind  
the change of exterior and daily habits1
 we discover a change in the sentiments1
 the thoughts and the inclinations of   
the men variously distributed in the    
different social classes1 who mingle1   
change1 replace each other1 disappear or
 reappear4 ,all this may be sufficiently
 understood1 in its exterior forms and  
outlines1 through the usual endowments  
of normal intelligence which is not yet 
aided1 corrected or completed by science
 strictly so-called4 ,assembling within 
precise limits a conception of such     
facts is the true and proper object of  
narration1 which is so much the clearer1
 more vivid and more exact1 as it takes 
the form of a monograph2 witness        
,thucydides in the ,peloponnesian war4  
,society already evolved in a certain   

fashion1 society already arrived at a   
certain degree of development1 society  
already so complicated that it conceals 
the economic substructure which supports
 all the rest1 has not revealed itself  
to the simple narrators1 except in these
 visible facts1 in these most apparent  
results1 and in these most significant  
symptoms which are the political forms1 
the legal dispositions and the partisan 
passions4 ,the narrator1 both because he
 lacks any theoretical doctrine         
regarding the true sources of the       
historic movement1 and by the very      
attitude which he takes on the subject  
of the things which he unites according 
to the appearances which they have come 
to assume1 cannot reduce them to unity1 
unless it be as a result of a single1   
immediate intuition1 and if he is an    
artist1 this intuition takes on a color 
in his mind and transforms itself there 
into dramatic action4 ,his task is      
finished if he succeeds in massing a    
certain number of facts and events in   

certain limits and confines over which  
the observer may look as on a clear     
perspective2 in the same way1 purely    
descriptive geography has accomplished  
its task1 if it sums up in a vivid and  
clear design a concourse of physical    
causes which determine the immediate    
aspect of the ,gulf of ,naples1 for     
example1 without going back to its      
genesis4  ,it is in this need of graphic
 narration that arises the first        
intuitive1 palpable1 and1 ,i might      
almost say1 aesthetic and artistic      
occasion for all those abstractions and 
those generalizations1 which are finally
 summed up in the semi-doctrine of the  
so-called factors4  ,here are two       
notable men1 the ,gracchi1 who wished to
 put an end to the process of           
appropriation of the public land and to 
prevent the agglomeration of the        
latifundium1 which was diminishing or   
causing to completely disappear the     
class of small proprietors1 that is to  
say1 of the free men1 who are the       

foundation and the condition of the     
democratic life of the ancient city4    
,what were the causes of their failure8 
,their aim is clear1 their spirit1 their
 origin1 their character1 their heroism 
are manifest4 ,they have against them   
other men with other interests and with 
other designs4 ,the struggle appears to 
the mind at first merely as a struggle  
of intentions and passions1 which       
unfolds and comes to an end by the aid  
of means which are permitted by the     
political form of the state and by the  
use or abuse or the public powers4 ,here
 is the situation3 the city ruling in   
different manners over other cities or  
over territories which have lost all    
character of autonomy2 within this city 
a very decided differentiation between  
rich and poor2 and facing the           
comparatively small group of the        
oppressors and the all-powerful1 stands 
the immense mass of the proletarians1   
who are on the point of losing or who   
have already lost the consciousness and 

the political strength of a body of     
citizens1 the mass which therefore      
suffers itself to be deceived and       
corrupted1 and which will soon decay    
till it is but a servile accessory to   
its aristocratic exploiters4 ,there is  
the material of the narrator1 and he    
cannot take account of the fact         
otherwise than in the immediate         
conditions of the fact itself4 ,the     
complete whole is directly seen and     
forms the stage on which the events     
unfold1 but if the narration is to have 
solidity1 vividness and perspective     
there must be points of departure and   
ways of interpretation4  ,in this       
consists the first origin of those      
abstractions1 which little by little    
take away from the different parts of a 
given social complexus their quality of 
simple sides or aspects of a whole1 and 
it is their ensuing generalization which
 little by little leads to the doctrine 
of factors4   ,these factors1 to express
 it in another way1 arise in the mind as

 a sequence of the abstraction and      
generalization of the immediate aspects 
of the apparent movement1 and they have 
an equal value with that of all other   
empirical concepts4 ,whatever be the    
domain of knowledge in which they arise1
 they persist until they are reduced and
 eliminated by a new experience1 or     
until they are absorbed by a conception 
more general1 genetic1 evolutionary or  
dialectic4 ,was it not necessary that in
 the empirical analysis and in the      
immediate study of the causes and the   
effects of certain definite phenomena1  
for example the phenomena of heat1 the  
mind should first stop at this          
presumption and this persuasion1 that it
 could and should attribute them to a   
subject1 which if it was never for any  
physicist a true and substantial entity1
 was certainly considered as a definite 
and specific force1 namely1 heat4 ,now  
we see that at a given moment1 as a     
result of new experiences1 this heat is 
resolved in given conditions into a     

certain quantity of motion4 ,still      
further1 our thought is now on the way  
toward resolving all these physical     
factors into the flux of one universal  
energy1 in which the hypotheses of the  
atoms1 in the extent to which it is     
necessary1 loses all residue of         
metaphysical survival4  ,was it not     
inevitable1 as a first step of knowledge
 in what concerns the problem of life1  
to spend a considerable time in the     
separate study of the organs and to     
reduce them to systems8 ,without this   
anatomy1 which seems too material and   
too gross1 no progress in these studies 
would have been possible2 and           
nevertheless1 above the unknown genesis 
and co-ordination of such an analytic   
multiplicity1 there were evolving1      
uncertain and vague1 the generic        
conceptions of life1 soul1 etc4 ,in     
these mental creations have long been   
seen that biological unity which has    
finally found its object in the certain 
beginning of the cell and in its        

processus of immanent multiplication4   
,more difficult certainly was the way   
which the thought had to traverse to    
reconstruct the genesis of all the facts
 of psychic life1 from the most         
elementary successions up to the most   
complex derived products4 ,not only for 
reasons of theoretical difficulties1 but
 in consequence of popular prejudices1  
the unity and continuity of psychic     
phenomena appeared1 up to the time of   
,herbart1 as separated and divided into 
so many factors1 faculties of the soul4 
,the interpretation of the              
historico-social processus met the same 
difficulties2 it also was obliged to    
stop at first in the provisional view of
 factors4 ,and that being so1 it is easy
 for us now to find again the first     
origin of that opinion in the necessity 
that the historians have of finding in  
the facts that they relate with more or 
less artistic talent and in different   
professional views1 certain points of   
immediate orientation1 such as may be   

offered by the study of the apparent    
movement of human events4   ,but in this
 apparent movement1 there are the       
elements of a more exact view4 ,these   
concurrent factors1 which abstract      
thought conceives and then isolates1    
have never been seen acting each for    
itself4 ,on the contrary1 they act in   
such a manner that it gives birth to the
 concept of reciprocal action4          
,moreover1 these factors themselves     
arise at a given moment1 and it is not  
until later that they acquired that     
physiognomy which they have in the      
particular narration4 ,this ,state1 it  
is well known1 arose at a given moment4 
,as for every rule of law1 it may either
 be remembered or conjectured that it   
went into effect under such or such     
circumstances4 ,as for many customs1 it 
may be remembered that they were        
introduced at a given moment2 and the   
simplest comparisons of the facts in    
different times or different places     
would show how society1 as a whole1 and 

in its character of being an aggregation
 of different classes1 had taken and    
took continuously various forms4  ,the  
reciprocal action of the different      
factors1 without which not even the     
simplest narration would be possible1   
like the more or less exact information 
upon the origins and the variations of  
the factors themselves1 called for      
research and thought more than did the  
constructive narration of those great   
historians who are real artists4 ,and1  
in effect1 the problems which arise     
spontaneously from the data of history1 
combined with other theoretical         
elements1 gave birth to the different   
so-called practical disciplines1 which  
in a more or less rapid fashion and with
 varying success1 have developed from   
the ancients up to our days1 from ethics
 to the philosophy of law1 from politics
 to sociology1 from law to economics4   
,now with the rise and formation of so  
many disciplines1 through the inevitable
 division of labor1 points of view have 

been multiplied out of all proportion4  
,it is certain that for the first and   
immediate analysis of the multiple      
aspects of the social complexus1 a long 
labor of partial abstraction was        
necessary3 which has always inevitably  
resulted in one-sided views4 ,this can  
be shown1 in a clearer and more evident 
manner than for any other domain1 in    
that of law and its various             
generalizations1 including the          
philosophy of law4 ,by reason of these  
abstractions1 which are inevitable in   
particular and empirical analysis1 and  
by the effect of the division of labor1 
the different sides and different       
manifestations of the social complexus  
were1 from time to time1 fixed and      
stratified in general conceptions and   
categories4 ,the works1 the effects1 the
 emanations1 the effusions of human     
activity1--law1 economic forms1         
principles of conduct1 etc41--were1 so  
to speak1 translated and transformed    
into laws1 into imperatives and into    

principles which remained placed above  
man himself4 ,and from time to time it  
has been necessary to discover anew this
 simple truth3 that the only permanent  
and sure fact1 that is to say1 the only 
datum from which departs and to which   
returns every practical detail of       
discipline1 is men grouped in a         
determined social form by means of      
determined connections4 ,the different  
analytical disciplines1 which illustrate
 the facts that develop in history1 have
 finally given rise to the need of a    
common and general social science1 which
 renders possible the unification of the
 historic processus1 and the            
materialistic doctrine marks precisely  
the final term1 the apex of this        
unification4  ,but that has not been1   
nor ever will be1 lost time which is    
expended in the preliminary and lateral 
analysis of complex facts4 ,to the      
methodical division of labor we owe     
precise learning1 that is to say1 the   
mass of knowledge passed into the sieve1

 systematized1 without which social     
history would always be wandering in a  
purely abstract domain1 in questions of 
form and terminology4 ,the separate     
study of the historico-social factors   
has served1 like any other empirical    
study which does not transcend the      
apparent movement of things1 to improve 
the instrument of observation and to    
permit us to find again in the facts    
themselves1 which have been artificially
 abstracted1 the keystones which bind   
them into the social complexus4 ,the    
different disciplines which are         
considered as isolated and independent  
in the hypotheses of the concurrent     
factors in the formation of history1    
both by reason of the degree of         
development which they have reached1 the
 materials which they have gathered1 and
 the methods which they have elaborated1
 have to-day become quite indispensable 
for us1 if one desires to reconstruct   
any portion out of past times4 ,where   
would our historic science be without   

the one-sidedness of philology1 which is
 the fundamental instrument of all      
research1 and where should we have found
 the guiding thread of a history of     
juridical institutions1 which returns   
again from itself to so many other facts
 and to so many other combinations1     
without the obstinate faith of the      
,romanists in the universal excellence  
of the ,roman law1 which engendered with
 generalized law and with the philosophy
 of law so many problems which serve as 
points of departure for sociology8   ,it
 is thus1 after all1 that the historic  
factors1 of which so many speak1 and    
which are mentioned in so many works1   
indicate something which is much less   
than the truth1 but much more than      
simple error1 in the ordinary sense of a
 blunder1 of an illusion4 ,they are the 
necessary product of a knowledge which  
is in the course of development and     
formation4 ,they arise from the         
necessity of finding a point of         
departure in the confused spectacle     

which human events present to him who   
wishes to narrate them2 and they serve  
thenceforth1 so to speak1 as a title1   
category or index to that inevitable    
division of labor1 by the extension of  
which the historico-social material has1
 up to this time1 been theoretically    
elaborated4 ,in this domain of          
knowledge1 as well as in that of the    
natural sciences1 the unity of real     
principle and the unity of formal       
treatment are never found at the first  
start1 but only after a long and        
troublous road4 ,so that again from this
 point of view the analogy affirmed by  
,engels between the discovery of        
historical materialism and that of the  
conservation of energy appears to us    
excellent4  ,the provisional            
orientation1 according to the convenient
 system of what are called factors1 may1
 under given circumstances1 be useful   
also to us who profess an altogether    
unitary principle of historic           
interpretation1 if we do not wish simply

 to rest in the domain of theory1 but   
wish to illustrate1 through personal    
research1 a definite period of history4 
,as in that case we must proceed to     
direct and detailed research1 we must   
first of all follow the groups of facts 
that seem pre-eminent1 independent1 or  
detached in the aspects of immediate    
experience4 ,we should not imagine1 in  
fact1 that the unitary principle so well
 established1 at which we have arrived  
in the general conception of history1   
may1 like a talisman1 act always and at 
first sight1 as an infallible method of 
resolving into simple elements the      
immense area and the complicated gearing
 of society4 ,the underlying economic   
structure1 which determines all the     
rest1 is not a simple mechanism whence  
emerge1 as immediate1 automatic and     
mechanical effects1 institutions1 laws1 
customs1 thoughts1 sentiments1          
ideologies4 ,from this substructure to  
all the rest1 the process of derivation 
and of mediation is very complicated1   

often subtile1 tortuous and not always  
legible4  ,the social organization is1  
as we already know1 constantly unstable1
 although that does not seem evident to 
every one1 except at the time when the  
instability enters upon that acute      
period which is called a revolution4    
,this instability1 with the constant    
struggles in the bosom of that same     
organized society1 excludes the         
possibility for men coming to an        
agreement which might involve a new     
start at living an animal life4 ,it is  
the antagonisms which are the principal 
cause of progress 7,marx74 ,but it is   
equally true1 notwithstanding1 that in  
this unstable organization1 in which is 
given to us the inevitable form of      
domination and subjection1 intelligence 
is always developed not only unequally1 
but quite imperfectly1 incongruously and
 partially4 ,there has been and there is
 still in society what we may call a    
hierarchy of intelligence1 sentiments   
and conceptions4 ,to suppose that men1  

always and in all cases1 have had an    
approximately clear consciousness of    
their own situation1 and of what was the
 most rational thing to do1 is to       
suppose the improbable and1 indeed1 the 
unreal4  ,forms of law1 political acts  
and attempts at social organization     
were1 and they still are1 sometimes     
fortunate1 sometimes mistaken1 that is  
to say1 disproportionate and unsuitable4
 ,history is full of errors2 and this   
means that if all was necessary1 granted
 the relative intelligence of those who 
have to solve a difficulty or to find a 
solution for a given problem1 etc41 if  
everything in it has a sufficient       
reason1 yet everything in it was not    
reasonable1 in the sense which the      
optimists give to this word4 ,to state  
it more fully1 the determined causes of 
all changes1 that is to say the modified
 economic conditions1 have ended and end
 by causing to be found1 sometimes      
through tortuous ways1 the suitable     
forms of law1 the appropriate political 

orders and the more or less perfect     
means of social adjustment4 ,but it must
 not be thought that the instinctive    
wisdom of the reasoning animal has been 
manifested1 or is manifested1 definitely
 and simply1 in the complete and clear  
understanding of all situations1 and    
that we have left only the very simple  
task of following the deductive road    
from the economic situation to all the  
rest4 ,ignorance--which1 in its turn1   
may be explained--is an important reason
 for the manner in which history is     
made2 and1 to ignorance we must add the 
brutishness which is never completely   
subdued and all the passions1 and all   
the injustices1 and the various forms of
 corruption1 which were and are the     
necessary product of a society organized
 in such a way1 that the domination of  
man over man in it is inevitable1 and   
that from this domination falsehood1    
hypocrisy1 presumption and baseness were
 and are inseparable4 ,we may1 without  
being utopians1 but simply because we   

are critical communists1 foresee1 as we 
do in fact foresee1 the coming of a     
society which1 developing from the      
present society and from its very       
contrasts by the laws inherent in its   
historic development1 will end in an    
association without class antagonisms2  
which will have for its consequence that
 regulated production will eliminate    
from life the element of chance which1  
thus far1 has been revealed in history  
as a multiform cause of accidents and   
incidents4 ,but that is the future1 and 
it is neither the present nor the past4 
,if we propose to ourselves1 on the     
contrary1 to penetrate into the historic
 events which have developed up to our  
own times1 by taking1 as we do1 for a   
guiding thread the variations of the    
forms of the underlying economic        
structure up to the simplest datum in   
the variations of the tool of           
production1 we must become fully        
conscious of the difficulty of the      
problem which we are setting ourselves3 

because here we have not merely to open 
our eyes and behold1 but to make a      
supreme effort of thought1 with the aim 
of triumphing over the multiform        
spectacle of immediate experience to    
reduce its elements into a genetic      
series4 ,that is why ,i said that1 in   
particular investigations1 we must      
ourselves start from those groups of    
apparently isolated facts1 and from this
 heterogeneous mass1 in a word1 from    
that empirical study1 whence arose the  
belief in factors1 which afterwards     
became a semi-doctrine4  ,it is useless 
to attempt at counterbalancing these    
essential difficulties by the           
metaphorical hypothesis1 often          
equivocal1 and after all of a purely    
analogical value1 of the so-called      
social organism4 ,it was necessary too  
that the mind should pass through even  
this hypothesis1 which so shortly became
 phraseology pure and simple4 ,it indeed
 prepares the way for the comprehension 
of the historic movement as springing   

from the laws immanent in society       
itself1 and thereby excludes the        
arbitrary1 the transcendental and the   
irrational4 ,but the metaphor has no    
further application2 and the particular1
 critical and circumstantial research   
into historic facts is the sole source  
of that concrete and positive knowledge 
which is necessary to the complete      
development of economic materialism4    
,,vii4  ,ideas do not fall from heaven1 
and nothing comes to us in a dream4 ,the
 change in the ways of thinking1 lately 
produced by the historic doctrine which 
we are here examining and commenting    
upon1 takes place at first slowly and   
afterwards with an increasing rapidity1 
precisely in that period of human       
development1 in which were realized the 
great politico-economic revolutions1    
that is to say1 in that epoch which1    
considered in its political forms1 is   
called liberal1 but which1 considered in
 its basis1 by reason of the domination 
of capital over the proletarian mass1 is

 the epoch of anarchical production4    
,the change in ideas1 even to the       
creation of new methods of conception1  
has reflected little by little the      
experience of a new life4 ,this1 in the 
revolutions of the last two centuries1  
was little by little despoiled of the   
mythical1 religious and mystical        
envelopes in proportion as it acquired  
the practical and precise consciousness 
of its immediate and direct conditions4 
,human thought1 also1 which sums up this
 life and theorizes upon it1 has little 
by little been plundered of its         
theological and metaphysical hypotheses 
to take refuge finally in this prosaic  
assertion3 in the interpretation of     
history we must limit ourselves to the  
objective co-ordination of the          
determining conditions and of the       
determined effects4 ,the materialistic  
conception marks the culminating point  
of this new tendency in the             
investigation of the historic-social    
laws1 in so far as it is not a          

particular case of a generic sociology1 
or of a generic philosophy of the       
,state1 of law1 and of history1 but the 
solution of all doubts and all          
uncertainties which accompany the other 
forms of philosophizing upon human      
affairs1 and the beginning of their     
integral interpretation4  ,it is thus an
 easy thing1 especially in the way it   
has been done by certain shallow        
critics1 to find precursors for ,marx   
and ,engels1 who first defined this     
doctrine in its fundamental points4 ,and
 when did it ever occur to any of their 
disciples1 even of the strictest school1
 to represent these two thinkers as     
miracle-workers8 ,what is more1 if we   
wish to go on a search after the        
premises of the logical creation of     
,marx and ,engels1 it will not suffice  
to stop at those who are called the     
precursors of socialism1 ,saint-,simon  
for example1 and his predecessors1 or   
the philosophers1 particularly ,hegel1  
or the economists who had laid bare the 

anatomy of the society which produces   
commodities2 we must go back to the very
 formation of modern society1 and then  
at last declare triumphantly that the   
theory is a plagiarism from the things  
that it explains4  ,the truth is that   
the real precursors of the new doctrine 
were the facts of modern history1 which 
has become so transparent and so        
explanatory of itself since the         
accomplishment in ,england of the great 
industrial revolution at the end of the 
eighteenth century1 and since the great 
social upheaval took place in ,france4  
,these things1 mutatis mutandis1 have   
subsequently been reproduced1 in various
 combinations and in milder forms1      
throughout the whole civilized world4   
,and what else is our thought at bottom 
if not the conscious and systematic     
complement of experience1 and what is   
this last if not the reflection and the 
mental elaboration of the things and the
 processes which arise and unfold either
 outside our volition1 or through the   

work of our activity2 and what is genius
 but the individualized1 derived and    
acute form of thought1 which arises     
through the suggestion of experience1 in
 many men of the same epoch1 but which  
remains in most of them fragmentary1    
incomplete1 uncertain1 wavering and     
partial8   ,ideas do not fall from      
heaven2 and what is more1 like the other
 products of human activity1 they are   
formed in given circumstances1 in the   
precise fullness of time1 through the   
action of definite needs1 thanks to the 
repeated attempts at their satisfaction1
 and by the discovery of such and such  
other means of proof which are1 as it   
were1 the instruments of their          
production and their elaboration4 ,even 
ideas involve a basis of social         
conditions2 they have their technique2  
thought also is a form of work4 ,to rob 
the one and the other1 ideas and        
thought1 of the conditions and          
environment of their birth and their    
development1 is to disfigure their      

nature and their meaning4  ,to show how 
the materialistic conception of history 
arises precisely in given conditions1   
not as a personal and tentative opinion 
of two writers1 but as the new conquest 
of thought by the inevitable suggestion 
of a new world which is in process of   
birth1 that is to say the proletarian   
revolution1 that was the object of my   
first essay1 ,in ,memory of the         
,communist ,manifesto4 ,that is1 to     
repeat1 a new historic situation found  
its complement in its appropriate mental
 instrument4  ,to imagine now that this 
intellectual production might have been 
realized at any time and at any place1  
would be to take absurdity for the      
ruling principle in research4 ,to       
transport ideas arbitrarily from the    
basis and the historic conditions in    
which they arise to any other basis     
whatever1 is like taking the irrational 
for the basis of reasoning4 ,why should 
one not fancy equally that the ancient  
city1 in which arose ,greek art and     

science and ,roman law1 remaining all   
the while an ancient democratic city1   
with slavery1 might at the same time    
acquire and develop all the conditions  
of modern technique8 ,why not believe   
that the trade guild of the ,middle     
,ages1 remaining all the while on its   
inflexible mould1 should take its way to
 the conquest of the world market       
without the conditions of unlimited     
competition1 which actually began by its
 destruction and negation8 ,why not     
imagine a fief which1 remaining a fief  
all the while1 should become a factory  
producing commodities exclusively8 ,why 
could not ,michel de ,lando have written
 the ,communist ,manifesto8 ,why could  
we not also believe that the discoveries
 of modern science could have proceeded 
from the brains of men of no matter what
 other time and place1 that is to say1  
before determined conditions had given  
rise to determined needs1 and before    
repeated and accumulated experiences    
should have provided for the            

satisfaction of these needs8  ,our      
doctrine assumes the broad1 conscious   
and continuous development of modern    
technique1 and with it that society     
which produces commodities in the       
antagonisms of competition1 that society
 which as a first condition and an      
indispensable means for its own         
perpetuation presupposes capitalist     
accumulation in the form of private     
property2 that society which continually
 produces and reproduces proletarians1  
and which if it is to perpetuate itself1
 must incessantly revolutionize its     
tools1 and with them the ,state and its 
legal gearings4 ,this society1 which1 by
 the very laws of its movement1 has laid
 bare its own anatomy1 produces by its  
reaction the materialistic conception4  
,even as it has produced in socialism   
its positive negation1 so it has        
engendered in the new historic doctrine 
its ideal negation4 ,if history is the  
product1 not arbitrary1 but necessary   
and normal1 of men in so far as they are

 developing1 and if they are developing 
in so far as they are making social     
experiments1 and if they are            
experimenting in so far as they are     
making improvements in their labor1     
which accumulate and preserve products  
and results1 the phase of development in
 which we live cannot be the last and   
final phase1 and the contrasts which are
 intimately bound to it and inherent in 
it are the productive forces of new     
conditions4 ,and this is how the period 
of the great economic and political     
revolutions of these last two centuries 
has ripened in the mind these two       
concepts3 the immanence and constancy of
 the processus in historic facts1 and   
the materialist doctrine1 which is at   
bottom the objective theory of social   
revolutions4  ,it is beyond doubt that  
to reascend through the centuries and   
reconstruct in our thought the          
development of social ideas to the      
extent that we find their documents in  
writers1 is something always very       

instructive1 and serving especially to  
add to our critical knowledge of our    
concepts as of our ways of thinking4    
,such a return of the mind over its     
historic premises1 when it does not lead
 us astray into the empiricism of a     
boundless erudition1 and does not lead  
us to set up hastily vain analogies1    
serves without any doubt to give        
suppleness and a persuasive force to the
 forms of our scientific activity4 ,in  
the sum of our science we find again1 in
 fact and through the approximative     
continuity of tradition1 the excellence 
of all that has been found1 conceived   
and proved1 not only in modern times but
 even in ancient ,greece1 where first   
begins precisely and in a definite      
fashion for the human race the orderly  
development of conscious1 reflective and
 methodical thought4 ,it would be       
impossible to take a single step in     
scientific research without employing   
means long ago found and tried1 such for
 example as logic and mathematics4 ,to  

think otherwise would be to assume that 
each generation must begin over again   
all the work done since the childhood of
 humanity4  ,but it was not given either
 to the ancient authors in the limited  
circle of their urban republics1 nor to 
the writers of the ,renaissance1 always 
drifting between an imaginary return to 
antiquity and the need of grasping      
intellectually the new world in process 
of birth1 to arrive at the precise      
analysis of the last elements from which
 society results1 and which the         
incomparable genius of ,aristotle did   
not see1 and did not understand beyond  
the limits within which passes the life 
of the typical citizen4  ,the           
investigation of the social structure1  
considered in its manners of origin and 
processus1 became active and penetrating
 and took on multiform aspects in the   
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries1   
when economics took shape and when under
 the different names of ,natural        
,rights1 ,the ,spirit of the ,laws1 or  

,the ,social ,contract1 it was attempted
 to resolve into causes1 into factors   
and into logical and psychological data1
 the multiform and often obscure        
spectacle of a life in which was        
preparing the greatest revolution ever  
known4 ,these doctrines1 whatever may   
have been the subjective intention and  
spirit of the authors--as in the        
contrasting cases of the conservative   
,hobbes and the proletarian             
,rousseau--were all revolutionary in    
their substance and their effects4      
,under all of them is always found1 as a
 stimulus and motive1 the material and  
moral needs of a new age1 which1 by     
reason of historic conditions1 were     
those of the bourgeoisie4 ,thus it was  
necessary to wage war in the name of    
liberty upon tradition1 the ,church1    
privileges1 fixed classes1 that is to   
say1 the orders and conditions1 and     
consequently upon the ,state which was  
or appeared to be their author1 and then
 upon the special privileges of         

commerce1 the arts1 labor and science4  
,and man was studied in an abstract     
fashion1 that is to say1 individuals    
taken separately1 emancipated and       
delivered by a logical abstraction from 
their historic connection and from every
 social necessity3 in the mind of many  
the concept of society was reduced to   
atoms1 and it even seemed natural to the
 greatest number to believe that society
 is only the sum of the individuals     
composing it4 ,the abstract categories  
of individual psychology sufficed for   
the explanation of all human facts2 and 
this is how in all these systems1       
nothing is spoken of but fear1          
self-love1 egoism1 voluntary obedience1 
tendency toward happiness1 the original 
goodness of man1 the freedom of contract
 and of the moral consciousness1 and of 
the moral instinct or sense1 and also   
many other similar abstract and generic 
things1 as if they were sufficient to   
explain history1 and to create a new    
history out of its fragments4  ,by the  

fact that all society was entering upon 
an acute crisis1 its horror at the      
antique1 at what was superannuated1 at  
what was traditional and had been       
organized for centuries1 and the        
presentiment of a renovation of all     
human life1 finally produced a total    
eclipse of the ideas of historic        
necessity and social necessity1 that is 
to say1 of those ideas which1 barely    
indicated by the ancient philosophers1  
and so developed in our century1 had at 
this period of revolutionary rationalism
 only rare representatives1 like ,vico1 
,montesquieu1 and1 in part1 ,quesnay4   
,in this historic situation1 which gave 
birth to a literature that was nimble1  
destructive and very popular1 is found  
the reason for what ,louis ,blanc with a
 certain emphasis has called            
individualism4 ,later some have thought 
they saw in this word the expression of 
a permanent fact in human nature1 which 
especially might serve as a decisive    
argument against socialism4  ,a singular

 spectacle1 and a singular contrast6    
,capital1 however produced1 tended to   
overcome all previous forms of          
production1 and1 breaking every bond and
 boundary1 to become the direct or      
indirect master of society1 as1 in fact1
 it has become in the greater part of   
the world2 hence it resulted1 that apart
 from all forms of modern misery and the
 new hierarchy in which we live1 there  
was realized the most acute antithesis  
of all history1 that is to say1 the     
existing anarchy of production in the   
whole of society1 and an iron despotism 
in the mode of production in each       
workshop and each factory6 ,and the     
thinkers1 the philosophers1 the         
economists and the popularizers of the  
eighteenth century saw nothing but      
liberty and equality6 ,all reasoned in  
the same way2 all started from the same 
premises1 which brought them to conclude
 that liberty must be obtained from a   
government of pure administration1 or   
that they were democrats or even        

communists4 ,the approaching reign of   
liberty was before the eyes of all as a 
certain event1 provided they could      
suppress the bonds and fetters which    
forced ignorance and the despotism of   
church and state had imposed upon men1  
good by nature4 ,these fetters did not  
appear to be conditions and boundaries  
within which men were found by the laws 
of their development1 and by the effect 
of the antagonistic and thus uncertain  
and tortuous movement of history1 but   
simply obstacles from which the         
methodical use of reason was to deliver 
us4 ,in this idealism1 which reached its
 culminating point in certain heroes of 
the ,french ,revolution1 is the seed of 
a limitless faith in the certain        
progress of the whole human race4 ,for  
the first time1 the concept of humanity 
appeared in all its branches1 unmingled 
with religious ideas or hypotheses4 ,the
 boldest of these idealists were the    
extreme materialists1 because1 denying  
every religious fiction1 they assigned  

this earth as a certain domain to the   
necessity of happiness provided that    
reason might open the way4   ,never were
 ideas abused in so inhuman a fashion as
 between the close of the eighteenth    
century and the beginning of the        
nineteenth4 ,the lesson of things was   
very hard1 the saddest disillusions     
arose and a radical upheaval followed in
 the minds of men4 ,facts1 in a word1   
proved to be contrary to all            
expectations2 and this at first produced
 a profound discouragement among the    
disillusioned1 which1 notwithstanding1  
gave rise to the desire and the need of 
new investigations4 ,we know that ,saint
 ,simon and ,fourier1 in whom operated  
precisely at the beginning of the       
century1 in the exclusive forms of the  
ideas of premature genius1 the reaction 
against the immediate results of the    
politico-economic revolution1 arose     
resolutely1 the first against the       
jurists1 and the second against the     
economists4  ,in fact1 when once the    

obstacles to liberty1 which had been    
characteristic of other times1 had been 
suppressed1 new obstacles1 graver and   
more painful1 had replaced them1 and1 as
 equal happiness for all was not        
realized1 society remained in its       
political form as it had been before1 an
 organization of inequalities4 ,it must 
be1 then1 that society is something     
autonomous1 innate1 a complex automaton 
of relations and conditions1 which      
defies the subjective good intentions of
 each of the members who compose it1 and
 which escapes from the illusions and   
the designs of the idealists4 ,it thus  
follows a course of its own from which  
we may infer certain laws of process and
 development1 but does not suffer us to 
impose laws upon it4 ,by this           
transformation in the minds of men1 the 
nineteenth century heralded itself as   
the century of historic science and of  
sociology4  ,the principle of           
development has1 indeed1 since then1    
invaded all domains of thought4 ,in this

 century1 the grammar of history has    
been discovered1 and thus the key has   
been found to explore the genesis of    
myths4 ,the embryonic traces of         
pre-history have been sought out1 and1  
for the first time1 the processes of    
political and legal forms have been     
arranged into a series4 ,the nineteenth 
century heralded itself as the century  
of sociology in the person of ,saint    
,simon1 in whom1 as happens with the    
self-taught precursors of genius1 we    
find confused together the germs of so  
many contradictory tendencies4 ,in this 
aspect the materialistic conception is a
 result2 but it is a result which is the
 complement of the whole process of     
formation2 and as a result and a        
complement it is also the simplification
 of all historic science and of all     
sociology1 because it takes us back from
 things derived and from complex        
conditions to elemental functions4 ,and 
that is brought about by the direct     
suggestion of new dynamic experience4   

,the laws of economics1 such as they are
 of themselves and their own inherent   
force1 have triumphed over all illusions
 and have shown themselves to be the    
directing power of social life4 ,the    
great industrial revolution which was   
produced made it clear that social      
classes1 if they are not a fact of      
nature1 are still less a consequence of 
chance and of free will2 they arise     
historically and socially in a          
determined form of production4 ,and who1
 in truth1 has not seen the birth under 
his eyes of new proletarians upon the   
economic ruin of so many classes of     
small proprietors1 small peasants and   
artisans2 and who has not been in a     
position to discover the method of this 
new creation of a new social status1 to 
which so many men were reduced and in   
which they were necessarily obliged to  
live4 ,who has not been in a position to
 discover that money1 transformed into  
capital1 had succeeded1 in a few years1 
in becoming master by the attraction    

which it exercises over the labor of    
free men1 in whom the necessity of      
selling themselves freely as wage       
workers had been prepared long before by
 so many ingenious legal processes and  
by violent or indirect expropriation8   
,and who has not seen the new cities    
rise around factories and create around 
their circumference this desolating     
poverty1 which is no longer the effect  
of individual misfortune1 but the       
condition and the source of wealth8 ,and
 in this new poverty were numerous women
 and children1 arising for the first    
time from an unknown existence to take  
their place on the page of history as a 
sinister illustration of a society of   
equals4 ,and who did not feel--even if  
that had not been announced in the      
so-called doctrine of the ,rev4         
,malthus--that the number of guests     
which this mode of economic organization
 can entertain1 if it is sometimes      
insufficient for him who1 by reason of  
the favorable state of production1 has  

need of hands1 is often also            
superabundant1 and therefore finds no   
occupation and becomes a source of      
danger8 ,it becomes evident1 also1 that 
the rapid and violent economic          
transformation which was accomplished   
openly in ,england had succeeded there1 
because that country had been able to   
build up for itself1 as compared with   
the rest of ,europe1 a monopoly till    
then unknown1 and because to maintain   
this monopoly an unscrupulous policy had
 been rendered necessary1 and that      
permitted all1 for one happy moment1 to 
translate into prose the ideological    
myth of the state1 which was to be the  
guardian and the preceptor of the       
people4  ,this immediate perception of  
these consequences of the new life was  
the origin of the pessimism1 more or    
less romantic1 of the laudatores        
temporis acti from ,de ,maistre to      
,carlyle4 ,the satire of liberalism     
invaded minds and literature at the     
beginning of the nineteenth century4    

,then begins that criticism of society1 
which is the first step in all          
sociology4 ,it was necessary before all 
else to overthrow the ideology1 which   
had accumulated and expressed itself in 
so many doctrines of the ,natural ,right
 or the ,social ,contract4 ,it was      
necessary to get into contact with the  
facts which the rapid events of so      
intensive a processus imposed upon the  
attention in forms so new and startling4
  ,here appears ,owen1 incomparable at  
all points of view1 but especially for  
the clearness which he displayed in the 
determination of the causes of the new  
poverty1 even though he was but a child 
in his quest of the means for overcoming
 it4 ,it was necessary to arrive at the 
objective criticism of economics1 which 
appeared for the first time1 in         
one-sided and reactionary forms1 in     
,sismondi4 ,in this period where the    
conditions of a new historic science    
were ripening1 arose so many different  
forms of socialism1 utopian1 one-sided  

or completely extravagant1 which never  
reached the proletarians1 either because
 these had no political consciousness1  
or if they had any1 it manifested itself
 in sudden starts1 as in the ,french    
conspiracies and riots from #ahcj to    
#ahdh1 or they kept on the political    
ground of immediate reforms1 as is the  
case with the ,chartists4 ,and          
nevertheless all this socialism1 however
 ,utopian1 fantastic and ideological it 
may have been1 was an immediate and     
often salutary criticism of economics--a
 one-sided criticism1 indeed1 which     
lacked the scientific complement of a   
general historical conception4  ,all    
these forms of criticism1 partial1      
one-sided and incomplete had their      
culmination in scientific socialism4    
,this is no longer subjective criticism 
applied to things but the discovery of  
the self-criticism which is in the      
things themselves4 ,the real criticism  
of society is society1 itself1 which1 by
 the antithetic conditions of the       

contrasts upon which it rests1 engenders
 from itself1 within itself1 the        
contradiction1 and finally triumphs over
 this by its passage into a new form4   
,the solution of the existing antitheses
 is the proletariat1 which the          
proletarians themselves know or do not  
know4 ,even as their misery has become  
the condition of present society1 so in 
their misery is the justification of the
 new proletarian revolution4 ,it is in  
this passage from the criticism of      
subjective thought1 which examines      
things outside and imagines it can      
correct them at once1 to the            
understanding of the self-criticism     
exercised by society over itself in the 
immanence of its own processus--it is in
 this only that the dialectic of history
 consists1 which ,marx and ,engels1 in  
so far as they were materialists1 drew  
from the idealism of ,hegel4 ,but on the
 final reckoning it matters little      
whether the literary men1 who knew no   
other meaning for dialectics than that  

of an artificial sophistry nor whether  
the doctors and scholars who are never  
apt to go beyond the knowledge of       
particular facts can ever account       
themselves for these hidden and         
complicated forms of thought4   ,but the
 great economic transformation1 which   
has furnished the materials composing   
modern society1 in which the empire of  
capitalism has arrived at the limit of  
its complete development1 would not have
 been so immediately and so suggestively
 instructive1 if it had not been        
luminously illustrated by the           
bewildering and catastrophic movement of
 the ,french ,revolution4 ,this put in  
evidence1 like a tragedy on the stage1  
all the antagonistic forces of modern   
society1 because this society has       
developed on the ruins of previous      
forms1 and because1 in so short a time  
and with so hasty a march1 it has       
traversed the phases of its birth and   
its establishment4  ,the revolution     
ensued from the obstacles which the     

bourgeoisie had to overcome by violence1
 since it appeared from evidence that   
the passage from the old forms to the   
new forms of production--or of property1
 if we borrow the language of           
jurists--could not be realized by the   
quieter ways of successive and gradual  
reforms4 ,it brought in its train the   
upheaval1 the friction and the          
intermingling of all the old classes of 
the ,ancient ,regime1 and the rapid and 
bewildering formation at the same time  
of new classes1 in the very rapid but   
very intensive period of ten years1     
which1 compared with the ordinary       
history of other times and other        
countries1 seems to us like centuries4  
,this rapid succession of monumental    
events brought to light the most        
characteristic moments and aspects of   
the new or modern society1 and that so  
much the more clearly since the militant
 bourgeoisie had already created for    
itself intellectual means and organs    
which had given it with the theory of   

its own work the reflex consciousness of
 its movement4  ,the violent            
expropriation of the great part of the  
old property1 that is to say1 of the    
property crystallized in fiefs1 in royal
 and princely domains and in mortmain1  
with the real and personal rights       
derived therefrom1 put at the disposal  
of the state1 which by the necessity of 
things had become an exceptional1       
terrible and all-powerful government1 an
 extraordinary mass of economic         
resources2 thus1 there were1 on the one 
side1 the singular policy of the        
assignats which finally annulled        
themselves1 and on the other side1 the  
formation of the new proprietors who    
owed their fortune to the chances of    
gambling1 to intrigue and to            
speculation4 ,and who again would have  
dared thereafter to swear upon the      
ancient1 sacred altar of property1 when 
his recent and authentic title rested in
 so evident a manner upon the knowledge 
of fortunate circumstances8 ,if it had  

ever passed through the head of so many 
troublesome philosophers1 beginning with
 the ,sophists1 that law is a creation  
of man1 useful and convenient1 this     
heretical proposition might seem        
thenceforth a simple and intuitive truth
 to the meanest of the beggars in       
,paris4 ,had not the proletarians with  
all the common people given the impulse 
to the revolution in general by the     
expected movements of ,april1 #aghi1 and
 did they not afterwards find           
themselves1 as it were1 driven anew from
 the stage of history after the failure 
of the revolt of ,prairial in #agie8    
,had they not carried on their shoulders
 all the ardent defenders of liberty and
 equality8 ,had they not held in their  
hands the ,paris ,commune1 which was1   
for a time1 the impulsive organ of the  
,assembly and of all ,france2 had they  
not finally the bitter disillusion of   
having created new masters for          
themselves with their own hands8 ,the   
bewildering consciousness of this       

disillusion constitutes the             
psychological motive1 rapid and         
immediate1 of the conspiracy of ,babeuf1
 which1 for that very reason1 is a great
 fact in history1 and bears in itself   
all the elements of objective tragedy4  
,the land which fief and mortmain had1  
as it were1 bound to a body1 to a       
family1 to a title1 now1 delivered from 
its bonds1 had become a commodity1 to   
serve as a basis and instrument for the 
production of merchandise2 so docile a  
commodity1 that it was put into         
circulation in the form of morsels of   
paper4 ,and around these symbols1       
multiplied to such a degree over the    
things that they were to represent that 
they finished by no longer having any   
value1 ,business came forth1 a giant1   
arising1 from all sides1 on the         
shoulders of those most wretched in     
their poverty1 and through all the      
devious ways of politics2 it was        
especially shameless in its way of      
taking part in war and its glorious     

successes4 ,even the rapid progress of  
technique1 hastened by the urgency of   
circumstances1 gave material and        
occasion to the prosperity of business4 
,the laws of bourgeois economics1 which 
are those of individual production in   
the antagonistic field of competition1  
revolted furiously1 through violence and
 ruse1 against the idealistic efforts of
 a revolutionary government which1      
strong in its certainty of saving its   
country1 and stronger still in its      
illusion of founding for eternity the   
liberty of equals1 believed it was      
possible to suppress gambling by the    
guillotine1 to eliminate ,business by   
closing the ,stock ,exchange and to     
assure existence to the common people by
 fixing the maximum of prices for       
objects of prime necessity4             
,commodities1 prices and ,business      
reasserted with violence their own      
liberty against those who wished to     
preach to them and impose ethics upon   
them4  ,thermidor1 whatever may have    

been the original intentions of the     
,thermidorians1 whether vile1 cowardly1 
or misguided1 was1 in its hidden causes 
as in its apparent effects1 the triumph 
of ,business over democratic idealism4  
,the constitution of #agic1 which marks 
the extreme limit that can be reached by
 the democratic ideal1 was never put    
into practice4 ,the grave pressure of   
circumstances1 the menace of the        
foreigner1 the different forms of       
internal rebellion1 from the ,girondists
 to the ,vendee1 rendered necessary an  
exceptional government1 which was the   
,terror1 born of fear4 ,in proportion as
 dangers ceased1 the need of the terror 
ceased4 ,but the democracy shattered    
itself against the ,business which was  
bringing into existence the property of 
new proprietors4 ,the constitution of   
the year ,,iii4 consecrated the         
principle of moderate liberalism1 whence
 proceeds all the constitutionalism of  
the ,european continent2 but it was1    
before all else1 the road leading to the

 guaranty of property4 ,to change the   
proprietors while preserving            
property--that is the banner1 the       
watchword1 the ensign which defied      
through the years from ,aug4 #aj1 #agib1
 the violent tumults as well as the bold
 designs of those who attempted to found
 society upon virtue1 equality and      
,spartan abnegation4 ,but the ,directory
 was the footpath by which the          
revolution arrived at the downfall of   
itself as an idealistic effort2 and with
 the ,directory1 which was open and     
professed corruption1 this banner became
 a reality2 the proprietors are changed1
 but property is saved4 ,and1 indeed1 to
 raise upon so many ruins a stable      
edifice1 there was need of real force2  
and this was found in that strange      
adventurer of incomparable genius1 upon 
whom fortune had imperially smiled1 and 
he was the only one who possessed the   
virtue of putting an end to this        
gigantic fable1 because there was in him
 neither shadow nor trace of moral      

scruples4  ,in this furor of events     
strange things happened4 ,the citizens  
armed for the defense of their country1 
victorious beyond its frontiers over    
surrounding ,europe1 into which with    
their conquest they carried the         
revolution1 transformed themselves into 
a soldiery to oppress the liberty of    
their country4 ,the peasants who1 at a  
moment of imperious suggestion1 produced
 over the feudal estates the anarchy of 
#aghi1 now having become soldiers1 or   
small proprietors1 or small farmers1 and
 having remained for a moment the       
advance sentinels of the revolution1    
fell back into the silent and stolid    
calm of their traditional life1 which1  
without risks and without movements1    
served as a sure basis for the so-called
 social order4 ,the petty bourgeois of  
the cities1 and the former members of   
the guilds rapidly developed1 in the    
camp of economic struggle1 into free    
traffickers in manual labor4 ,the       
freedom of trade required that every    

product become easily merchantable1 and 
thus it triumphed over the last         
obstacle1 by enforcing the demand that  
labor also become for it a free         
commodity4  ,all changed at this moment4
 ,the state1 which for centuries so many
 million deluded ones had regarded as a 
sacred institution or a divine mandate1 
allowed its sovereign to be beheaded by 
the prosaic means of a technical        
machine1 and thereby lost its sacred    
character4 ,the state1 also1 was        
becoming a technical appliance1 which   
substituted bureaucracy for hierarchy4  
,and as the ancient titles no longer    
assured their possessors the privilege  
of exercising diverse functions1 this   
new state could become the prey of all  
those who wished to seize upon it2 it   
found itself1 in a word1 put up at      
auction1 with the provision that the    
successful aspirants must be the solid  
guarantors of the property of the new   
and the old proprietors4 ,the new state1
 which had need of its ,eighteenth      

,brumaire to become an orderly          
bureaucracy1 supported upon victorious  
militarism1 this state which completed  
the revolution in the act which denied  
it1 could not dispense with its         
scripture1 and it found it in the ,civil
 ,code1 which is the golden book for a  
society which produces and sells        
commodities4 ,it is not in vain that    
generalized jurisprudence had preserved 
and annotated for centuries1 in the form
 of a scientific discipline1 this ,roman
 law1 which was1 which is and ever shall
 be1 the typical and classical form of  
the law of every shopkeeping society1   
until communism puts an end to the      
possibility of buying and selling4  ,the
 bourgeoisie1 which1 by the concurrence 
of so many singular circumstances       
effected the revolution with the        
concurrence of so many other classes and
 semi-classes which after a short lapse 
of time almost all disappeared from the 
political stage1 seemed1 in the moments 
of the most violent shocks1 as if moved 

by motives inspired by an ideology1     
which would have absolutely no relation 
with the effects which actually         
supervene and perpetuated themselves4   
,the meaning of that is that in the heat
 of struggle the bewildering change of  
the economic substructure appeared1 as  
if it were1 disguised by ideals and     
obscure by the interlacings of so many  
intentions and designs1 whence sprung so
 many acts of cruelty and of            
unparalleled heroism1 so many currents  
of illusion and hard facts of           
disenchantment4 ,never had so powerful a
 faith in the ideal of progress sprung  
from human breasts4 ,to deliver the     
human race from superstition1 and even  
from religion1 to make of each          
individual a citizen1 or of every       
private man a public man2 those are its 
beginnings3--and then on the line of    
this programme to sum up1 in the short  
activity of a few years1 an evolution   
which appears to the most idealistic of 
to-day as the work of several centuries 

to come--that is the idealism of that   
time6 ,and why should it revolt at the  
pedagogy of the guillotine8  ,that      
poetry1 grand certainly1 if not joyous1 
left behind it a prose that was severe  
enough4 ,and it was the prose of the    
proprietors who owned their property to 
chance1 it was that of the high finance 
and the newly rich purveyors1 marshals1 
prefects1 journalists and mercenary men 
of letters2 it was the prose of the     
court of that strange man to whom the   
qualities of military genius grafted    
upon the soul of a brigand1 had1 without
 any doubt1 conferred the right of      
treating as an ideologist whoever did   
not admire the bare fact which1 in life1
 as it was with him1 can be nothing else
 than the simple brutality of success4  
,the ,french ,revolution hastened the   
course of history in a large part of    
,europe4 ,to it attaches1 on the        
,continent1 all that we call liberalism 
and modern democracy1 except in the case
 of the false imitation of ,england1 and

 up to the establishment of ,italian    
unity1 which was and will remain perhaps
 the last act of the revolutionary      
bourgeoisie4 ,this revolution was the   
most vivid and most instructive example 
of the fashion in which a society       
transforms itself and how new economic  
conditions develop1 and in developing   
co-ordinate the members of society into 
groups and classes4 ,it was the palpable
 proof of the fashion in which law is   
found1 when it is necessary for the     
expression and the defense of definite  
relations1 and how the state is created1
 and how disposal is made of its means1 
its forces and its organs4 ,here is seen
 how ideas arise from the fields of     
social institutions1 and how characters1
 tendencies1 sentiments1 volitions1 that
 is to say1 in a word1 moral forces1 are
 produced and develop into conditions   
governed by circumstances4 ,in a word1  
the data of social science were1 so to  
speak1 prepared by society itself1 and  
it is no wonder if the revolution1 which

 was preceded ideologically by the most 
acute form of rationalistic             
doctrinairism ever known1 ended finally 
by leaving behind it the intellectual   
need of an anti-doctrinaire historical  
and sociological science1 like that     
which our own century has attempted to  
construct4   ,and here1 both by what we 
have seen and by what is known          
generally1 it is useless to recall anew1
 how ,owen forms one of the same group  
with ,saint ,simon and ,fourier1 and to 
repeat through what ways scientific     
socialism took its birth4 ,the important
 thing is in these two points2 that     
historical materialism could not arise  
but from the theoretical consciousness  
of socialism2 and that it can henceforth
 explain its own origin with its own    
principles1 which is the greatest proof 
of its maturity4  ,thus ,i have         
justified the phrase at the beginning of
 this chapter3 ideas do not descend from
 heaven4   ,,viii4  ,the road traversed 
thus far has enabled us to take exact   

account of the precise and relative     
value of the so-called doctrine of      
factors2 we know also how its adherents 
come to eliminate objectively those     
provisional concepts1 which were and are
 a simple expression of a thought not   
fully arrived at maturity4  ,and1       
nevertheless1 it is necessary that we   
speak further of this doctrine1 in order
 to explain better and more in detail   
for what reasons two of the so-called   
factors1 the state and the law1 have    
been and are still considered as the    
principal and exclusive subject of      
history4  ,historians have indeed for   
centuries placed in these forms of      
social life the essence of development4 
,moreover1 they have perceived this     
development only in the modification of 
these forms4 ,history has for centuries 
been treated as a discipline relative to
 the juridico-political movement and    
even to the political movement          
principally4 ,the substitution of       
society for politics is a recent thing1 

and much more recent still is the       
reduction of society to the elements of 
historical materialism4 ,in other words1
 sociology is of quite recent invention1
 and the reader1 ,i hope1 will have     
understood for himself that ,i employ   
this term for the sake of brevity1 to   
indicate in a general manner the science
 of social functions and variations1 and
 that ,i do not hold to the specific    
sense given it by the ,positivists4  ,it
 is more satisfactory to say that1 up to
 the beginning of this century1 the data
 bearing upon usages1 customs1 beliefs1 
etc41 or even upon the natural          
conditions1 which serve as the          
foundation and connection for social    
forms1 were not mentioned in political  
histories unless as objects of simple   
curiosity1 or as accessories and        
complements of the narration4  ,all this
 cannot be a simple accident1 and indeed
 is not4 ,there is1 then1 a double      
interest in taking account of the tardy 
appearance of social history1 both      

because our doctrine justifies yet again
 by this means its reason for existence1
 and because we thus eliminate1 in a    
definite manner1 the so-called factors4 
,if we make an exception of certain     
critical moments in which social        
classes1 by an extreme incapacity for   
adapting themselves to a condition of   
relative equilibrium1 enter into a      
crisis of more or less prolonged        
anarchy1 and if we make an exception of 
those catastrophes in which an entire   
world disappears1 as at the fall of the 
,roman ,empire of the ,west1 or at the  
dissolution of the ,califate1 then it   
may be said that1 ever since there has  
been a written history1 the state       
appears not only as the creation of     
society but also as its support4 ,the   
first step that child-like thought had  
made in this order of considerations is 
in this statement3 ,that which governs  
is also that which creates4  ,if1       
moreover1 we make an exception of       
certain short periods of democracy      

exercised with the vivid consciousness  
of popular sovereignty1 as was the case 
in a few ,greek cities1 especially at   
,athens1 and in a few ,italian cities1  
and especially ,florence 7the former    
nevertheless were composed of free men  
who were proprietors of slaves1 and the 
latter of privileged citizens who       
exploited foreigners and peasants7 the  
society organized into a state was      
always composed of a majority at the    
mercy of the minority4 ,and thus the    
majority of men has appeared in history 
as a mass sustained1 governed1 guided1  
exploited and ill treated1 or at least  
as a variegated conglomeration of       
interests1 which a few had to govern1   
maintaining in equilibrium the          
divergences1 either by pressure or by   
compensation4  ,thence the necessity of 
an art of government1 and as it is this 
before all else which strikes those who 
are studying collective life1 it was    
natural that politics should appear as  
the author of the social order and as   

the sign of the continuity in the       
succession of historic forms4 ,to say   
politics is to say activity1 which1 up  
to a certain point1 is exercised in a   
desired direction1 until the moment at  
least when calculations dash themselves 
against unknown or unexpected obstacles4
 ,by taking the state as an imperfect   
experience would suggest for the author 
of society1 and politics for the author 
of the social order1 it resulted that   
the narrators or philosophical          
historians were driven to place the     
essence of history in a succession of   
forms1 institutions and political ideas4
  ,whence the state drew its origin1    
where the basis of its performance was  
found1 that mattered not1 as that       
matters not in current reasoning4 ,the  
problems of the genetic order arose1 as 
is known1 rather late4 ,the state is and
 it finds its reason for existence in   
its present necessity2 that is so true  
that the imagination has not been able  
to adapt itself to the idea that it has 

not always existed1 and so it has       
prolonged its conjectural existence back
 to the first origins of the human race4
 ,the gods or demigods and heroes were  
its founders1 in mythology at least1    
just as in mediaeval theology the ,pope 
is the first and therefore the divine   
and perpetual source of all authority4  
,even in our time1 inexperienced        
travelers and imbecile missionaries find
 the state where there is1 as among     
savages and barbarians1 nothing but the 
gens1 or the tribe of gentes1 or the    
alliance of gentes4  ,two things were   
necessary that these prejudices of the  
judgment should be overcome4 ,in the    
first place1 it was necessary to        
recognize that the functions of the     
state arise1 increase1 diminish1 alter  
and follow each other with the          
variations of certain social conditions4
 ,in the second place1 it was necessary 
to arrive at a comprehension of the fact
 that the state exists and maintains    
itself in that it is organized for the  

defense of certain definite interests1  
of one part of society against all the  
rest of society itself1 which must be   
made in such a way1 in its entirety1    
that the resistance of the subjects1 of 
the ill treated and the exploited1      
either is lost in multiple frictions1 or
 is tempered by the partial advantages1 
wretched though they be1 to the         
oppressed themselves4 ,politics1 that   
art so miraculous and so admired1 thus  
brings us back to a very simple formula2
 to apply a force or a system of forces 
to the total of resistances4  ,the first
 step1 and the most difficult1 is taken 
when the state has been reduced to the  
social conditions whence it draws its   
origin4 ,but these social conditions    
themselves have been subsequently       
defined by the theory of classes1 the   
genesis of which is in the manner of the
 different occupations1 granted the     
distribution of labor1 that is to say1  
granted the relations which co-ordinate 
and bind men together in a definite form

 of production4  ,thenceforth the       
concept of the state has ceased to      
represent the direct cause of the       
historic movement as the presumed author
 of society1 because it has been seen   
that in each of its forms and its       
variations there is nothing else than   
the positive and forced organization of 
a definite class rule1 or of a definite 
compact between different classes4 ,and 
then by an ulterior consequence from    
these premises1 it is finally to be     
recognized that politics1 as the art of 
acting in a desired direction1 is a     
comparatively small part of the general 
movement of history1 and that it is but 
a feeble part of the formation and the  
development of the state itself1 in     
which many things1 that is to say1 many 
relations1 arise and develop by a       
necessary compact1 by a tacit consent1  
or by violence endured and tolerated4   
,the reign of the unconscious1 if by    
that we mean what is not decreed by free
 choice and forethought1 but what is    

determined and accomplished by a        
succession of habits1 customs1 compacts1
 etc41 has become very considerable in  
the domain of the data which form the   
object of the historic sciences2 and    
politics1 which has been taken as an    
explanation1 has itself become something
 to explain4   ,we know now in a        
positive way the reasons in consequence 
of which history had necessarily to     
appear under a purely political form4   
,but this does not mean that we ought to
 believe that the state is a simple     
excrescence1 a mere accessory of the    
social body1 or of free association1 as 
so many ,utopians and so many           
ultra-liberal thinkers of anarchist     
tendencies have imagined4 ,if society   
has thus far culminated in the state1 it
 is because it has had need of this     
complement of force and authority1      
because it is at first composed of units
 which are unequal by reason of economic
 differentiations4 ,the state is        
something very real1 a system of forces 

which maintain equilibrium and impose it
 through violence and repression4 ,and  
to exist as a system of forces it has   
been compelled to develop and to        
establish an economic power1 whether    
this latter rests upon robbery1 the     
result of war1 or whether it consists in
 direct property in the domain1 or      
whether it is constituted little by     
little1 thanks to the modern method of  
public taxes1 which takes on the        
constitutional appearance of a          
self-imposed system of taxation4 ,it is 
in this economic power1 so considerable 
in modern times1 that its capacity for  
acting is founded4 ,it results1 that by 
reason of a new division of labor1 the  
functions of state give rise to special 
orders and conditions1 that is to say1  
to very particular classes1 without     
including the class of parasites4  ,the 
state1 which is and which must be an    
economic power that in its defense of   
the ruling classes it may be furnished  
with means to repress1 to govern1 to    

administer and to make war1 creates in a
 direct or an indirect manner an        
aggregation of new and particular       
interests1 which necessarily react upon 
society4 ,thus the state1 by the fact   
that it has arisen and that it maintains
 itself as a guaranty of the social     
antitheses1 which are a consequence of  
economic differentiations1 creates      
around itself a circle of persons       
interested directly in its existence4   
,two consequences follow therefrom4 ,as 
society is not a homogeneous whole1 but 
a body of specialized articulations1 or1
 rather1 a multiform complexus of       
objects and interests1 it happens that  
sometimes the directors of the state    
seek to isolate themselves1 and by this 
isolation they oppose themselves to the 
whole of society1 and then1 in the      
second place1 it happens that organs and
 functions1 created first for the       
advantage of all1 end by no longer      
serving any interest but those of       
groups1 and permit abuses of power on   

the part of coteries and camorras4      
,thence arise aristocracies and         
hierarchies born from the use of the    
public power1 thence arise dynasties2 in
 the light of simple logic these        
formations appear wholly irrational4    
,from the first beginnings of written   
history the state has increased or      
diminished its powers1 but it has never 
disappeared1 because ever since there   
have been1 in the society of men unequal
 in consequence of economic             
differentiation1 reasons for maintaining
 and for defending1 through force or    
conquest1 slavery1 monopolies1 or the   
predominance of one form of production1 
with the domination of man over man4    
,the state has become1 as it were1 the  
field of an endless civil war1 which is 
developing always1 even if it does not  
always show itself under the startling  
form of ,marius and ,sylla1 days of     
,june and wars of ,secession4 ,within   
the state1 the corruption of man by man 
has always flourished1 because1 if there

 is no form of domination which does not
 meet resistance1 there are no forms of 
resistance which1 in consequence of the 
pressing needs of life1 may not         
degenerate into a passive compact4  ,for
 these reasons1 historic events1 seen on
 the surface of the ordinary monotonous 
narrative1 appear like the repetition of
 the same type1 with few variations1    
like a series of kaleidoscopic pictures4
 ,we need not be astonished if the      
idealistic ,herbart and the caustic or  
pessimistic ,schopenhauer arrived at    
this conclusion1 that there is no       
history1 in the sense of any actual     
processus1 which is to say in common    
language2 history is a tiresome song4   
,when political history is once reduced 
to its quintessence1 the state remains  
illuminated in all its prose4           
,thenceforth there is no more trace     
either of theological divination1 nor of
 metaphysical transubstantiation1 so    
much in vogue among certain ,german     
philosophers1--for whom the state is the

 ,idea1 the ,state ,idea which is       
realized in history1 the state is the   
full realization of the personality1 and
 other stupidities of the same sort4    
,the state is a real organization of    
defense to guarantee and perpetuate a   
mode of association1 the foundation of  
which is a form of economic production1 
or a compact and a transaction between  
forms4 ,to sum up1 the state assumes1   
either a system of property1 or a       
compact between several systems of      
property4 ,there is the foundation of   
all its art1 the exercise of which      
demands that the state itself became an 
economic power1 and that it also dispose
 of means and processes to make property
 pass from the hands of some into the   
hands of others4 ,when1 by the effect of
 an acute and violent change of the     
forms of production1 it is necessary to 
resort to an unusual and extraordinary  
readjustment of the relations of        
property 7for example1 the abolition of 
mortmain and fiefs1 the abolition of    

commercial monopolies71 then the old    
political form is insufficient and      
revolution is necessary to create a new 
organ which may operate the new economic
 transformation4   ,if we make an       
exception of the very ancient times     
which are unknown to us1 all history is 
developed in the contacts and the       
antagonisms of the different tribes and 
communities1 and thereafter of the      
different nations and different states2 
that is to say1 that the reasons for the
 internal antitheses in the circle of   
each society are always more and more   
complicated with frictions with the     
outside world4 ,these two reasons for   
antagonism condition each other         
reciprocally1 but in ways which are     
always varying4 ,often it is internal   
disturbance which urges a community or a
 city to enter into external collisions2
 at other times it is these collisions  
which alter the internal relations4     
,the principal motive for the different 
relations between the different         

communities has been from the           
beginnings1 even as it is to-day1       
commerce in the broad sense of the word1
 that is to say1 exchange1 whether it is
 a matter of giving up1 as in the poor  
tribes1 merely the surplus in exchange  
for other things1 or whether it is a    
matter1 as to-day1 of production on a   
large scale1 which is carried on with   
the exclusive intention of selling so as
 to draw from a sum of money a larger   
sum of money4 ,this enormous mass of    
events exterior and interior1 which     
accumulate and pile upon each other in  
history1 is such a trouble to the       
historians who content themselves with  
exploring it and summarizing it1 that   
they become lost in the infinite        
attempts at chronological groups and    
bird's-eye views4 ,whoever1 on the      
contrary1 knows the internal development
 of the different social types in their 
economic structure1 and who considers   
political events as the particular      
results of the forces acting in society1

 ends by triumphing over the confusion  
born out of the multiplicity and the    
uncertainty of first impressions1 and   
instead of a chronological or           
synchronous series1 or a view of the    
whole1 he can arrive at the concrete    
series of a real processus4   ,in the   
presence of these realistic conditions  
all the ideologies founded on the       
ethical mission of the state or on any  
such conception1 fall to the ground4    
,the state is1 so to speak1 fitted into 
its place1 and it remains encased1 as it
 were1 in the surroundings of the social
 development1 in its capacity of a form 
resulting from other conditions1 and in 
its turn1 by reason of its existence1   
reacting naturally upon the rest4  ,here
 arises another question4  ,will this   
form ever be outgrown8--or can there be 
a society without a state8--or can there
 be a society without classes8--and if  
we must be more explicit1 will there    
ever be a form of communist production  
with a distribution of labor and of     

tasks such that there will be no room in
 it for the development of inequalities1
 that source of domination of man over  
man8  ,it is in the affirmative answer  
to this question that scientific        
socialism consists1 in so far as it     
affirms the coming of communistic       
production1 not as a postulate1 nor as  
the aim of a free volition1 but as the  
result of the processus immanent in     
history4  ,as is well known1 the premise
 of this prevision is in the actual     
conditions of present capitalist        
production4 ,this1 socializing          
continually the mode of production1 has 
subjected living labor more and more    
with its regulations to the objective   
conditions of the technical process1 it 
has day after day concentrated the      
property in the means of production more
 and ever more into the hands of a few1 
who as stockholders1 or speculators1 are
 always found to be more and more       
removed from immediate labor1 the       
direction of which passes over to       

intelligence and science4 ,with the     
increased consciousness of this         
situation among the proletarians1 whose 
instruction in solidarity comes from the
 actual conditions of their employment1 
and with the decrease of the capacity of
 the holders of capital to preserve the 
private direction of productive labor1 a
 moment will come1 when in one fashion  
or another1 with the elimination in     
every form of private rent1 interest1   
profit1 the production will pass over to
 the collectivist association1 that is  
to say1 will become communistic4 ,thus  
will disappear all inequalities1 except 
those of sex1 age1 temperament and      
capacity1 that is to say1 all those     
inequalities will cease which engender  
economic classes1 or which are          
engendered by them1 and the             
disappearance of classes will put an end
 to the possibility of the state1 as    
domination of man over man4 ,the        
technical and pedagogical government of 
intelligence will form the only         

organization of society4  ,in this      
fashion1 scientific socialism1 in an    
ideal fashion at least1 has triumphed   
over the state2 and its triumph has     
given it a complete knowledge both of   
its mode of origin and the reasons for  
its natural disappearance4 ,it has      
understood it precisely because it does 
not rise up against it in a one-sided   
and subjective fashion1 as did more than
 once1 at different epochs1 the cynics1 
the stoics1 the epicureans of all sorts1
 the religious sectaries1 the visionary 
monks1 the utopians and finally1 in our 
days1 the anarchists of every stripe4   
,still more1 instead of rising up       
against it1 scientific socialism is     
proposing to show how the state         
continually rises up of itself against  
itself1 by creating in the means with   
which it cannot dispense1 as1 for       
example1 a colossal system of taxation1 
militarism1 universal suffrage1 the     
development of education1 etc41 the     
conditions of its own ruin4 ,the society

 which has produced it will reabsorb it2
 that is to say1 that just as society in
 organizing a new form of production    
will eliminate the antagonisms between  
capital and labor1 so1 with the         
disappearance of proletarians and the   
conditions which render proletarians    
possible1 will disappear all dependence 
of men upon his fellow man in any form  
of hierarchy1 whatever it may be4  ,the 
terms in which the genesis and the      
development of the state evolve1 from   
its initial point of appearance in a    
particular community1 where economic    
differentiation is beginning1 up to the 
moment where this disappearance begins  
to foreshadow itself1 make it henceforth
 intelligible to us4  ,the ,state has   
been reduced till it is but a necessary 
complement of certain definite economic 
forms1 and thus the theory which would  
have seen in it an independent factor in
 history is thenceforth forever         
eliminated4   ,it is henceforth         
relatively easy to take account of the  

fashion in which law has been raised up 
to the rank of a decisive factor of     
society1 and thus of history1 directly  
or indirectly4  ,before all else1 we    
must remember in what fashion arose this
 philosophic conception of justice      
generalized1 which is the principal     
foundation of the theory which maintains
 that history is dominated by the       
progress of independent legislation4    
,with the precocious dissolution of the 
feudal society in certain parts of      
,central and ,northern ,italy1 and with 
the birth of the ,communes1 which were  
republics of production grouped in trade
 guilds and merchant guilds1 the ,roman 
law was forced into a place of honor4   
,this law flowered anew in the          
,universities4 ,it entered into a       
struggle with the barbaric laws and also
 in part with the canon law2 it was then
 evidently a form of thought which      
answered better to the needs of the     
bourgeoisie1 which was beginning to     
develop4  ,in fact1 considering the     

peculiarities of rival laws1 which were 
either customs of barbarous nations1 or 
corporation privileges1 or papal or     
imperial concessions1 this law appeared 
as the universality of written reason4  
,had it not arrived at the point of     
regarding human personality in its most 
abstract and human relations1 since a   
certain ,titius is capable of becoming  
debtor and creditor1 of selling and     
buying1 of making a cession1 a donation1
 etc48 ,roman law1 although elaborated  
in its last editing at the command of   
emperors by servile parasites1 appeared 
then1 amid the decline of mediaeval     
institutions1 as a revolutionary force1 
and as such it constituted a great step 
of progress4 ,this law1 so universal    
that it gave the means of overthrowing  
barbaric laws1 was certainly a law which
 corresponded to human nature considered
 under its generic relations2 and by its
 opposition to private laws and         
privileges it appeared as a natural law4
  ,we know1 moreover1 how this ideology 

of natural law arose4 ,it acquired its  
greatest distinction in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries2 but it had    
long been prepared for by the           
jurisprudence which took for its base   
the ,roman law1 whether it adopted it1  
revised it1 or corrected it4  ,to the   
formation of the ideology of natural law
 another element contributed1 the ,greek
 philosophy of later epochs4 ,the       
,greeks1 who were the inventors of those
 definite arts of the mind which are    
sciences1 never1 as is known1 drew from 
their multiple local laws a discipline  
corresponding to that which we call the 
science of law4 ,on the contrary1 by the
 rapid progress of abstract research in 
the circle of their democracies1 they   
arrived very soon at a logical1         
rhetorical and pedagogical discussion on
 the nature of justice1 the state1 the  
law1 penalty2 and in their philosophy we
 may trace the rudimentary forms of all 
later discussions4 ,but it is not until 
later1 that is to say1 in the           

,hellenistic epoch1 when the limits of  
,greek life were sufficiently enlarged  
to be mingled with those of the         
civilized world1 that1 in the           
cosmopolitan environment which carried  
with it the need of searching in each   
man for the generic man1 the rationalism
 of justice arose--of justice or of     
natural right in the form given it by   
the stoic philosophy4 ,the ,greek       
rationalism which had already furnished 
a certain formal element to the logical 
codification of ,roman law reappeared in
 the eighteenth century in the doctrine 
of natural right4  ,that ideology1 whose
 criticism has served as an arm and an  
instrument for giving a juridical form  
to the economic organization of modern  
society1 has had1 consequently1 various 
sources4 ,yet1 in fact1 this juridical  
ideology reflects1 in the struggle for  
law and against law1 the revolutionary  
period of the bourgeois spirit4 ,and1   
although it takes its doctrinal point of
 departure in a return to the traditions

 of the ancient philosophy1 in the      
generalization of ,roman jurisprudence1 
in everything else1 and in all its      
development1 it is completely new and   
modern4 ,roman law1 although it was     
generalized by scholasticism and by     
modern elaboration1 still remains within
 itself a collection of special cases   
which have not been deduced according to
 a preconceived system1 nor preordained 
by the systematic mind of the           
legislator4 ,on the other hand1 the     
rationalism of the stoics1 their        
contemporaries and their disciples1 was 
a work of pure contemplation1 and it    
produced no revolutionary movement      
around it4 ,the ideology of natural law1
 which finally took the name of         
philosophy of law1 was1 on the contrary1
 systematic1 it started always from     
general formulae1 it was aggressive and 
polemic1 and still more1 it was at war  
with orthodoxy1 with intolerance1 with  
privilege1 with constituted bodies2 in  
fine1 it fought for the liberties which 

to-day constitute the formal conditions 
of modern society4 ,it is with this     
ideology1 which was a method of         
struggle1 that arose for the first time1
 in a typical and decisive form1 that   
idea that there is a law which is one   
and the same with reason4 ,the laws     
against which the struggle was carried  
on appear as deviations1 backward steps1
 errors4  ,from this faith in rational  
law arose the blind belief in the power 
of the legislator1 which grew into      
fanaticism at the critical moments of   
the ,french ,revolution4  ,thence the   
belief that society as a whole is to be 
submitted to one single law1 equal for  
all1 systematic1 logical1 consistent4   
,thence the conviction that a law       
guaranteeing to all a legal equality1   
that is to say1 the privilege of        
contracting1 guaranteed also liberty to 
all4  ,the triumph of true law assures  
the triumph of reason1 and the society  
which is regulated by a law equal for   
all is a perfect society6  ,it is       

useless to say that there were illusions
 at the bottom of these tendencies4 ,we 
all know to what this universal         
liberation of men was to lead4 ,but what
 is most important here is the fact that
 these persuasions arose from a         
conception of law1 which considered it  
as detached from the social causes which
 produced it4 ,likewise that reason1 to 
which these ideologies appealed1 reduced
 itself to relieving labor1 association1
 traffic1 commerce1 political forms and 
conscience from all limits and all      
obstacles which prevented free          
competition4 ,i have already shown in   
another chapter how the great           
,revolution of the eighteenth century   
may serve us for experience4 ,and if    
there is still some one to-day who      
insists on speaking of a rational law   
which dominates history1 of a law1 in   
short1 which would be a factor1 instead 
of being a simple fact in historic      
revolution1 that means that he is living
 out of our time and that he has not    

understood that our liberal and         
equalitarian codification has already1  
in fact1 marked the end and the term of 
that whole school of natural law4  ,by  
different ways we have arrived in this  
century at reducing law1 considered     
previously as a rational thing1 into a  
material thing1 and thus into a thing   
corresponding to definite social        
conditions4  ,in the first place1 the   
interest in history gained in extent and
 in depth1 and it led students to       
recognize that to understand the origins
 of law1 it was not sufficient to stop  
at the data of pure reason1 nor at the  
study of ,roman law alone4 ,barbaric    
laws1 the usages and customs of nations 
and societies1 so despised by the       
rationalists1 have been theoretically   
restored to honor4 ,that was the only   
way to arrive1 through the study of the 
most ancient forms1 at an understanding 
of how the most recent forms could have 
been successively produced4  ,codified  
,roman law is a very modern form2 that  

personality1 which it assumes as a      
universal subject1 is an elaboration of 
a very advanced epoch1 in which the     
cosmopolitanism of social relations was 
dominated by a military-bureaucratic    
constitution4 ,in this environment1 in  
which a written code of reason had been 
built up1 there was no longer any trace 
of spontaneity or popular life1 there   
was no more democracy4 ,this same law1  
before arriving at this crystallization1
 had arisen and had developed3 and if we
 study it in its origins and in its     
developments1 and especially if1 in this
 study1 we employ the comparative       
method1 we recognize that1 upon many    
points1 it is analogous to the          
institutions of inferior societies and  
nations4 ,it therefore becomes evident  
that the true science of law can be     
nothing less than the genetic history of
 the law itself4  ,but1 while the       
,european continent had created in the  
codification of civil law the type and  
the textbook of practical bourgeois     

judgment1 was there not in ,england     
another self-originating form of law1   
which arose and developed in a purely   
practical manner1 from the very         
conditions of the society which produced
 it without system1 and without the     
action of methodical rationalism having 
any part in it8 ,the law1 which actually
 exists and is applied1 is therefore a  
much simpler and much more modest thing 
than was imagined by the enthusiasts who
 sing the praises of written judgment1  
of the empire of reason4 ,for their     
defense1 it must not be forgotten that  
they were the ideal precursors of the   
great ,revolution4 ,for ideology it was 
necessary to substitute the history of  
legal institutions4 ,the philosophy of  
law ended with ,hegel2 and if objectors 
mention the books published since1 ,i   
reply that the works published by       
professors are not always the index of  
the progress of thought4 ,the philosophy
 of law thus became the philosophical   
study of the history of law4 ,and it is 

not necessary to repeat here again how  
historic philosophy ended in economic   
materialism and in what sense critical  
communism is the reversal of ,hegel4    
,this revolution1 apparently a          
revolution in ideas alone1 is merely an 
intellectual reflection of the          
revolutions which have been produced in 
practical life4  ,in our century1       
legislating has become an epidemic2 and 
reason enthroned in legal ideology has  
been dethroned by parliaments4 ,in these
 the antitheses of class interests have 
taken on the form of parties2 and the   
parties struggle for or against definite
 laws2 and all law appears as a simple  
fact1 or as a thing which it is useful  
or not useful to do4  ,the proletariat  
has arisen2 and wherever the struggle of
 the laborers has taken definite form1  
the bourgeois codes have been convicted 
of falsehood4 ,written judgment has     
shown itself powerless to save the      
wage-workers from the oscillations of   
the market1 to guarantee women and      

children against the oppressive hours of
 the factories1 or to find an expedient 
to solve the problem of forced idleness4
 ,the partial limitation of the hours of
 labor has1 itself alone1 been the      
subject and the occasion of a gigantic  
struggle4 ,the small and the large      
bourgeoisie1 agrarians and              
manufacturers1 advocates of the poor and
 defenders of accumulated wealth1       
monarchists and democrats1 socialists   
and reactionaries1 have bitterly        
contended over extracting profit from   
the action of the public authorities and
 over exploiting the contingencies of   
politics and parliamentary intrigue1 to 
find the guaranty and the defense of    
certain definite interests in the       
interpretation of existing law1 or in   
the creation of a new law4 ,this new    
legislation has more than once been     
revised1 and the strangest oscillations 
may be observed in it2 extending from   
the humanitarianism which defends the   
poor and even animals1 to the           

promulgation of martial law4 ,justice   
has been stripped of its mask and has   
become merely a profane thing4  ,the    
consciousness of experience has come to 
us and has given us a formula as precise
 as it is modest2 every rule of law has 
been and is the customary1              
authoritative1 or judicial defense of a 
definite interest2 the reduction of law 
to economics is then almost immediately 
accomplished4  ,if the materialistic    
conception finally came to furnish to   
these tendencies an explicit and        
systematic view1 it is because its      
orientation has been determined by the  
visual angle of the proletariat4 ,this  
last is the necessary product and the   
indispensable condition of a society in 
which all the persons are1 from an      
abstract point of view1 equal before the
 law1 but where the material conditions 
of development and the liberties of each
 are unequal4 ,the proletarians are the 
forces through which the accumulated    
means of production reproduce themselves

 and reconstitute themselves into new   
wealth2 but they themselves live only by
 enrolling themselves under the         
authority of capital2 and from one day  
to the next they find themselves out of 
work1 impoverished and exiles4 ,they are
 the army of social labor1 but their    
chiefs are their masters4 ,they are the 
negation of justice in the empire of    
law1 that is to say1 that they are the  
irrational element in the pretended     
domain of reason4  ,history then has not
 been a processus for arriving at the   
empire of reason in law2 it has thus far
 been nothing else than a series of     
changes in the form of subjection and   
servitude4 ,history then consists       
entirely in the struggle of interests1  
and law is but the authoritative        
expression of the interests which have  
triumphed4  ,these formulae indeed do   
not permit us to explain1 by the        
immediate examination of the various    
interests which are at its base1 every  
particular law which has appeared in    

history4 ,the facts of history are very 
complicated2 but these general formulae 
suffice to indicate the style and the   
method of research which has been       
substituted for legal ideology4   ,,ix4 
,here ,i must give certain formulae4    
,granted the conditions of the          
development of labor and the instruments
 appropriated to it1 the economic       
structure of society1 that is to say1   
the form of production of the immediate 
means of life1 determines1 on an        
artificial field1 in the first place and
 directly1 all the rest of the practical
 activity of those associated1 and the  
variation of this activity in the       
processus which we call history1 that is
 to say3--the formation1 the frictions1 
the struggles and the erosions of the   
classes2--the corresponding regulations 
relative to law and morality2--and the  
reasons and modes of subordination and  
subjection of men toward men and the    
corresponding exercise of dominion and  
authority1 in fine1 that which gives    

birth to the ,state and that which      
constitutes it4 ,it determines1 in the  
second place1 the tendency and in great 
part1 in an indirect fashion1 the       
objects of imagination and of thought in
 the production of art1 religion and    
science4  ,the products of the first and
 of the second stage1 in consequence of 
the interests which they create1 the    
habits which they engender1 the persons 
whom they group and whose spirit and    
inclinations they specify1 tend to fix  
themselves and isolate themselves as    
independent entities2 and thence comes  
that empirical view1 according to which 
different independent factors1 having an
 efficacy and a rhythmic movement of    
their own1 contribute to form the       
historic processus and the social       
configurations which successively result
 from it4 ,it is the social classes1 in 
so far as they consist in               
differentiations of interests1 which    
unfold in definite ways and in forms of 
opposition 7--whence come the friction1 

the movement1 the process and the       
progress--71 which have been the        
factors--if it was ever necessary to    
employ this expression3--the real1      
proper and positive factors of history1 
from the disappearance of primitive     
communism until to-day4  ,the variations
 of the underlying 7economic7 structure 
of society which1 at first sight1 show  
themselves intuitively in the agitation 
of the passions1 develop consciously in 
the struggles against law and for law1  
and become realized in the shaking and  
in the ruin of a definite political     
organization1 have in reality their     
adequate expression only in the change  
in the relations which exist between the
 different social classes4 ,and these   
relations change with the change of the 
relations which previously existed      
between the productivity of labor and   
the 7legal-political7 conditions of     
co-ordination of those who co-operate in
 production4  ,and finally1 these       
connections between the productivity of 

labor and the co-ordination of those who
 co-operate in it are changed with the  
changing of the instruments--in the     
broad sense of the word--necessary to   
production4 ,the processes and the      
progress of technique1 as they are the  
index1 are also the condition of all the
 other processus and of all progress4   
,society is for us a fact1 which we     
cannot solve1 unless it be by that      
analysis which reduces the complex forms
 to the simpler forms1 the modern forms 
to the older forms3 but that is to      
remain always1 nevertheless1 in a       
society which exists4 ,history is but   
the history of society--that is to say1 
the history of the variations of human  
co-operation1 from the primitive horde  
down to the modern ,state1 from the     
immediate struggle against nature1 by   
the means of a few very simple tools1   
down to the present economic structure1 
which reduces itself to these two poles2
 accumulated labor 7capital7 and living 
labor 7proletarians74 ,to resolve the   

social complexus into simple            
individuals1 and to reconstruct it      
afterwards by the acts of free and      
voluntary thought2 to construct1 in     
fine1 society with its reasons1 is to   
misunderstand the objective nature and  
the immanence of the historic processus4
  ,revolutions1 in the broadest sense of
 the word1 and in the specific sense of 
the destruction of a political          
organization1 mark the real and proper  
dates of historic epochs4 ,seen from    
afar1 in their elements1 in their       
preparation and their effects1 at long  
range1 they may appear to us as moments 
of a constant evolution1 with minute    
variations2 but considered in           
themselves1 they are definite and       
precise catastrophes1 and it is only as 
catastrophes that they are historic     
events4   ,x4  ,ethics1 art1 religion1  
science1 are they then but products of  
economic conditions8--expositions of the
 categories of these very               
conditions8--effluvia1 ornaments1       

emanations and mirages of material      
interests8  ,affirmations of this sort1 
announced with this nudity and crudity1 
have already for some time passed from  
mouth to mouth1 and they are a          
convenient assistance to the adversaries
 of materialism1 who use them as a      
bugbear4 ,the slothful1 whose number is 
great even among the intellectuals1     
willingly fit themselves to this clumsy 
acceptance of such declarations4 ,what a
 delight for all careless persons to    
possess1 once for all1 summed up in a   
few propositions1 the whole of          
knowledge1 and to be able with one      
single key to penetrate all the secrets 
of life6 ,all the problems of ethics1   
aesthetics1 philology1 critical history 
and philosophy reduced to one single    
problem and freed thus from all         
difficulties6  ,in this way the         
simpletons might reduce the whole of    
history to commercial arithmetic2 and   
finally a new and authentic             
interpretation of ,dante might give us  

the ,divine ,comedy illustrated with the
 process of manufacturing pieces of     
cloth which the wily ,florentine        
merchants sold for their greater profit6
  ,the truth is that the declarations   
which involve problems are converted    
very easily into vulgar paradoxes in the
 heads of those who are not accustomed  
to triumph over the difficulties of     
thought by the methodical use of        
appropriate means4 ,i shall speak here1 
in general terms1 of these problems1    
but1 as it were1 by aphorisms2 and      
certainly ,i do not propose to write an 
encyclopedia in this short essay4   ,and
 first of all1 ethics4  ,i do not mean  
systems and catechisms1 religious or    
philosophic4 ,both of these have been   
and are above the ordinary and profane  
course of human events in most cases1 as
 ,utopias are above things4 ,neither do 
,i speak of those formal analyses of    
ethical relations1 which have been      
elaborated from the ,sophists down to   
,herbart4 ,this is science and not life4

 ,and it is formal science1 like logic1 
geometry and grammar4 ,the one who      
latest and with so much profundity      
defined these ethical relations         
7,herbart71 knew well that ideas1 that  
is to say1 the formal points of view of 
the moral judgment1 are in themselves   
powerless4 ,therefore he put into the   
circumstances of life and into the      
pedagogic formation of character the    
reality of ethics4 ,he might have been  
taken for ,owen if he had not been a    
retrograde4  ,i am speaking of that     
ethics which exists prosaically and in  
an empirical and current fashion1 in the
 inclinations1 the habits1 the customs1 
the counsels1 the judgments and the     
appreciations of ordinary mortals4 ,i am
 speaking of that ethics which as       
suggestion1 as impulse and as bridle1   
appears in different degrees of         
development1 and more or less           
unmistakably1 although in a fragmentary 
fashion1 among all men2 by the very fact
 of association because each occupies a 

definite position in the association1   
they naturally and necessarily reflect  
upon their own works and the works of   
others1 and they conceive obligations   
and appreciations and all the first     
elements of general precepts4  ,there is
 the factum2 and what is most important 
is that this factum appears to us varied
 and multiple in the different          
conditions of life1 and variable through
 history4 ,this factum is the datum of  
research4 ,facts are neither true nor   
false1 as ,aristotle already knew4      
,systems1 on the contrary1 theologic or 
rational1 may be true or false because  
they aim to comprehend1 explain and     
complete the fact1 by bringing that fact
 to another fact1 or integrating it with
 another4  ,some points of preliminary  
theory are henceforth settled1 in all   
that concerns the interpretation of this
 factum4  ,the will does not choose of  
itself1 as was supposed by the inventors
 of free will1 that product of the      
impotency of the psychological analysis 

not yet arrived at maturity4 ,volitions1
 in so far as they are facts of         
consciousness1 are particular           
expressions of the psychic mechanism4   
,they are a result1 first of            
necessities1 and then1 of all that      
precedes them up to the very elementary 
organic impulse4  ,ethics does not place
 itself nor does it engender itself4    
,there is no such universal foundation  
of the ethical relations varied and     
variable1 as that spiritual entity which
 has been called the moral conscience1  
one and unique for all men4 ,this       
abstract entity has been eliminated by  
criticism like all other such entities1 
that is to say1 like all the faculties  
of the soul4 ,what a beautiful          
explanation of the fact1 in truth1 to   
assume the generalization of the fact   
itself as a means of explanation4       
,people reasoned thus3 the sensations1  
the perceptions1 the intuitions at a    
certain moment are found imagined1 that 
is to say1 changed in their form1       

therefore the imagination has           
transformed them4 ,to this class of     
inventions belongs the moral conscience1
 which was accepted as a postulate of   
the ethical estimates1 which are always 
conditioned4 ,the moral conscience which
 really exists is an empirical fact2 it 
is an index or a summary of the relative
 ethical formation of each individual4  
,if there can be in it material for     
science1 this cannot explain the ethical
 relations by means of the conscience1  
but the very thing it needs is to       
understand how that conscience is       
formed4  ,if volitions are derived1 and 
if morality results from the conditions 
of life1 ethics1 in its completeness1 is
 but a formation2 its problem is        
altogether pedagogic4  ,there is a      
pedagogy which ,i will call             
individualistic and subjective1 which1  
granted the generic conditions of human 
perfectibility1 constructs abstract     
rules by which men1 who are still in a  
period of formation1 may be led to be   

strong1 courageous1 truthful1 just1     
benevolent1 and so on through the entire
 extent of the cardinal or secondary    
virtues4 ,but again1 can subjective     
pedagogy construct of itself a social   
background upon which all these         
beautiful things ought to be realized8  
,if it constructs it1 it simply         
elaborates a ,utopia4  ,and1 in truth1  
the human race1 in the rigid course of  
its development1 never had time nor     
occasion to go to the school of ,plato  
or of ,owen1 of ,pestalozzi or ,herbart4
 ,it has done as it has been forced to  
do4 ,considered in an abstract manner1  
all men can be educated and all are     
perfectible2 as a matter of fact1 they  
have always been perfected and          
instructed as much as and in the measure
 that they could1 granted the conditions
 of life in which they were obliged to  
develop4 ,it is here precisely that the 
word environment is not a metaphor1 and 
that the use of the word compact is not 
metaphorical4 ,real morality always     

presents itself as something conditioned
 and limited1 which the imagination has 
sought to outgrow1 by constructing      
,utopias1 and by creating a supernatural
 pedagogue1 or a miraculous redemption4 
,why should the slave have had the ways 
of seeing and the passions and the      
sentiments of the master whom he feared8
 ,how could the peasant relieve himself 
of his invincible superstitions1 to     
which he was condemned by his immediate 
dependence upon nature and his mediate  
dependence upon a social mechanism      
unknown to him1 and by his blind faith  
in the priest1 who stands to him as a   
magician and sorcerer4 ,in what fashion 
could the modern proletarian of the     
great industrial cities1 exposed        
continuously to the alternatives of     
misery or subjection1 how could he      
realize that way of living1 regulated   
and monotonous1 which was the one suited
 to the members of the trade guilds1    
whose existence seemed imbedded in a    
providential plan8 ,from what intuitive 

elements of experience could the hog    
merchant of ,chicago1 who furnishes     
,europe with so many products at a cheap
 rate1 extract the conditions of        
serenity and intellectual elevation     
which gave to the ,athenian the         
qualities of the noble and good man1 and
 to the ,roman citizen1 the dignity of  
heroism8 ,what power of docile          
,christian persuasion will extract from 
the souls of the modern proletarians    
their natural reasons of hate against   
their determined or undetermined        
oppressors8 ,if they wish that justice  
be done1 they must appeal to violence2  
and before the love of one's neighbor as
 a universal law can appear possible to 
them1 they must imagine a life very     
different from the present life1 which  
makes a necessity of hatred4 ,in this   
society of differentiations1 hatred1    
pride1 hypocrisy1 falsehood1 baseness1  
injustice and all the catechism of the  
cardinal vices and their accessories    
make a sad appendage to the morality1   

equal for all1 upon which they          
constitute the satire4  ,ethics then    
reduces itself for us to the historical 
study of the subjective and objective   
conditions of how morality develops or  
meets obstacles to its development4 ,in 
this only1 that is to say1 within these 
limits1 we can recognize some value in  
the affirmation that morality           
corresponds to the social situations1   
and1 in the last analysis1 to the       
economic conditions4 ,only an idiot     
could believe that the individual       
morality of each one is proportionate to
 his individual economic situation4     
,that is not only empirically false1 but
 intrinsically irrational4 ,granted the 
natural elasticity of the psychic       
mechanism1 and also the fact that no one
 lives so shut up in his own class that 
he does not undergo the influence of    
other classes1 of the common environment
 and of the interlacing traditions1 it  
is never possible to reduce the         
development of each individual to the   

abstract and generic type of his class  
and his social status4 ,we are dealing  
there with the phenomena of the mass1 of
 those phenomena which form1 or should  
form1 the objects of moral statistics3  
the discipline which has thus far       
remained incomplete1 because it has     
taken for the objects of its            
combinations groups which it creates of 
itself by the addition of numbers of    
cases 7for example1 adulteries1 thefts1 
homicides7 and not the groups which1 as 
classes1 conditions1 or situations exist
 really1 that is to say1 socially4  ,to 
recommend morality to men while assuming
 or ignoring their conditions1 this was 
hitherto the object and the class of    
argument of all the catechists4 ,to     
recognize that these are given by the   
social environment1 that is what the    
communists oppose to the utopia and the 
hypocrisy of the preachers of morality4 
,and as they see in morality not a      
privilege of the elect1 nor a gift of   
nature1 but a result of experience and  

education1 they admit human             
perfectibility through reasons and      
arguments which are1 in my opinion1 more
 moral and more ideal than those which  
have been given by the ideologists4     
,in other words1 man develops1 or       
produces himself1 not as an entity      
generically provided with certain       
attributes1 which repeat themselves1 or 
develop themselves1 according to a      
rational rhythm1 but he produces and    
develops himself as at once cause and   
effect1 as author and consequence1 of   
certain definite conditions1 in which   
are engendered also definite currents of
 ideas1 of opinions1 of beliefs1 of     
imaginations1 of expectations1 of       
maxims4 ,thence arise ideologies of     
every sort1 as also the generalization  
of morality in catechisms1 in canons and
 in systems4 ,we must not be surprised  
if these ideologies1 once arisen1 are   
afterwards cultivated alone by          
themselves1 if they finally appear1 as  
it were1 detached from the living field 

whence they took their birth1 nor if    
they hold themselves above man as       
imperative rules and models4  ,the      
priests and the doctrinaires of every   
sort have given themselves for centuries
 to this labor of abstraction1 and have 
forced themselves to maintain the       
resulting illusions4 ,now that the      
positive sources of all ideologies have 
been found in the mechanism of life     
itself1 we must explain realistically   
their mode of generation4 ,and as that  
is true of all ideologies1 it is true   
also and1 in particular of those which  
consist in projecting ethical estimates 
beyond their natural and direct limits1 
making of them anticipations of divine  
announcements or presuppositions of     
universal suggestions of conscience4    
,therein lies the object of the special 
historic problems4 ,we cannot always    
find the tie which unites certain       
ethical ideas to practical definite     
conditions4 ,the concrete social        
psychology of past times often remains  

impenetrable to us4 ,often the commonest
 things remain for us unintelligible1   
for example1 the animals considered as  
unclean1 or the origin for the          
repugnance at marriage between persons  
of remote degrees of relationship4 ,a   
prudent course of study leads us to     
conclude that the motives of many       
details will remain always concealed4   
,ignorance1 superstition1 singular      
illusions1 symbolisms1 these with many  
others are causes of that unconscious   
element1 often found in customs1 which  
now constitutes for us the unknown and  
the unknowable4  ,the principal cause of
 all difficulty is precisely in the     
tardy appearance of what we call reason1
 so that the traces of the proximate    
motives of ideas have been lost or have 
remained enveloped in the ideas         
themselves4   ,on the subject of science
 we can be much more brief4  ,for a long
 time history has been made in an       
artless fashion4 ,granted and admitted  
that the different sciences have their  

statements in manuals and encyclopedias1
 it seemed sufficient to work out       
chronologically the appearance of the   
different formulas1 resolving the total 
of the systematic summary into the      
elements which have successively served 
to compose it4 ,the general             
presupposition was simple enough2       
underneath this chronology is the       
rational conception which develops and  
progresses4  ,this method1 if so it     
could be called1 had within itself a    
certain disadvantage2 it permitted us at
 best to understand how1 one stage of   
science being granted1 another stage of 
science may be derived from it by       
reason1 but it did not permit us to     
discern by what condition of facts men  
were driven to discover science for the 
first time1 that is to say1 to reduce   
considered experience into a new and    
definite form4 ,the question was1 then1 
to find why there is an actual history  
of science1 to find the origin of the   
scientific necessity1 and what unites in

 a genetic fashion that necessity to our
 necessities in the continuity of the   
social processus4  ,the great progress  
of modern technique1 which really       
constitutes the intellectual substance  
of the bourgeois epoch1 has worked1     
among other miracles1 this one also1 of 
revealing to us for the first time the  
practical origin of the scientific      
attitude4 7,we can never forget the     
,florentine ,academy1 which produced    
this phrase1 when ,italy was in the     
twilight of its past grandeur and when  
modern society was in the dawn of the   
great industry47 ,henceforth we are in a
 position to take up the guiding thread 
of what1 by abstraction1 is called the  
scientific spirit2 and no one is any    
longer astonished at finding that       
everything in scientific discoveries has
 come about1 as was the case in other   
primitive times1 when the clumsy        
elementary geometry of the ,egyptians   
arose from the necessity of measuring   
the fields exposed to the annual        

inundations of the ,nile1 and when the  
periodicity of these inundations        
suggested1 in ,egypt and in ,babylon1   
the discovery of the rudiments of the   
astronomical movements4  ,it is         
certainly true that when science is once
 created and partially ripened1 as had  
already happened in the ,hellenic       
period1 the work of abstraction1 of     
deduction and of combination continues  
among scientists in such a way that it  
possibly obliterates the consciousness  
of the social causes of the first       
production of science itself4 ,but if we
 examine in their main features the     
epochs of the development of science1   
and if we confront the periods which the
 ideologists would characterize as      
periods of progress and of retrogression
 of intelligence1 we perceive clearly   
the social reason for the impulses1     
sometimes increasing1 sometimes         
decreasing1 toward scientific activity4 
,what need had the feudal society of    
,western ,europe for this ancient       

science1 which the ,byzantines          
preserved1 at least materially1 while   
the ,arabs1 free agriculturists1        
industrious artisans1 or skillful       
merchants1 had succeeded in increasing  
it a little4 ,what is the ,renaissance1 
if not the joining of the initiatory    
movement of the bourgeoisie to the      
traditions of ancient learning1 which   
had become usable8 ,what is all the     
accelerated movement of scientific      
knowledge1 since the seventeenth        
century1 but the series of acts         
accomplished by intelligence1 refined by
 experience1 to assure human labor1 in  
the forms of an improved technique1 the 
dominion over natural forces and        
conditions8 ,thence arises the war      
against darkness1 superstition1 the     
,church1 religion2 thence arise         
naturalism1 atheism1 materialism2 thence
 the installation of the domain of      
reason4 ,the bourgeois epoch is the     
epoch of minds in full play4 7,vico47   
,it is worth remembering that this      

government of the ,directory1 which was 
the prototype and the compendium of all 
liberal corruption1 was the first to    
introduce in the ,university and at the 
,academy in a formal and solemn fashion 
the science of free inquiry with        
,lamark6 ,this science1 which the       
bourgeois epoch has1 through its        
inherent conditions1 stimulated and made
 to grow like a giant1 is the only      
heritage of past centuries which        
communism accepts and adopts without    
reserve4  ,it would not be useful to    
stop here for the discussion of the     
so-called antithesis between science and
 philosophy4 ,if we accept those        
fashions of philosophizing which are    
confounded with mysticism and theology1 
philosophy never means a science or     
doctrine separate from its appropriate  
and particular things1 but it is simply 
a degree1 a form1 a stage of thought    
with relation to the things which enter 
into the domain of experience4          
,philosophy is1 then1 either a generic  

anticipation of the problems which      
science has still to elaborate          
specifically1 or a summary and a        
conceptual elaboration of the results at
 which the sciences have already        
arrived4 ,as for those who1 that they   
may not appear behind the times1 talk   
now of scientific philosophy1 if we do  
not wish to stop over the humorous      
element that there is in that           
expression1 it will suffice to say that 
they are simply fools4   ,i said some   
pages back1 in my statement of formulas1
 that the economic structure determines 
in the second place the direction1 and  
in great part and indirectly1 the       
objects of imagination and of thought in
 the production of art1 of religion and 
of science4 ,to express this otherwise1 
or to go further1 would be to put one's 
self voluntarily on the road toward the 
absurd4  ,before all else1 in this      
formula1 we are opposing the fantastic  
opinion1 that art1 religion and science 
are subjective developments and         

historical developments of a pretended  
artistic1 religious or scientific       
spirit1 which would go on manifesting   
itself successively through its own     
rhythm of evolution1 favored or retarded
 on this side or that by material       
conditions4 ,by this formula1 it is     
desired to assert1 moreover1 the        
necessary connection1 through which     
every fact of art and of religion is the
 exponent1 sentimental1 fantastic and   
thus derived1 of definite social        
conditions4 ,if ,i say in the second    
place1 it is to distinguish these       
products from the facts of              
legal-political order which are a true  
and proper projection of economic       
conditions4 ,and if ,i say in great part
 and indirectly the objects of these    
activities1 it is to indicate two       
things3 that in artistic or religious   
production the mediation from the       
conditions to the products is very      
complicated1 and again that men1 while  
living in society1 do not thereby cease 

to live alone by themselves in nature1  
and to receive from it occasion and     
material for curiosity and for          
imagination4  ,after all1 this is all   
reduced to a more general formula2 man  
does not make several histories at the  
same time1 but all these alleged        
different histories 7art1 religion1     
etc47 make up one alone4 ,and it is not 
possible to take account of that clearly
 except at the characteristic and       
significant moment of the production of 
new things1 that is to say in the       
periods which ,i will call              
revolutionary4 ,later1 the acceptance of
 the things that have been produced1 and
 the traditional repetition of a        
definite type1 obliterated the sense of 
the origins of things4  ,try1 if you    
will1 to detach the ideology of the     
fables which are at the foundation of   
the ,homeric poems1 from that moment of 
historic evolution where we find the    
dawn of ,aryan civilization in the basin
 of the ,mediterranean1 that is to say1 

from that phase of the higher barbarism 
in which arises1 in ,greece and         
elsewhere1 the epic4 ,or try to imagine 
the birth and the development of        
,christianity elsewhere than in ,roman  
cosmopolitanism1 and otherwise than by  
the work of those proletarians1 those   
slaves1 those unfortunates1 those       
desperate ones1 who had need of the     
redemption of the ,apocalypse and of the
 promise of the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,find1
 if you will1 the ground for supposing  
that in the beautiful environment of the
 ,renaissance the romanticism should    
begin to appear1 which scarcely appeared
 in the decadent ,torquato ,tasso2 or   
that one might attribute to ,richardson 
or to ,diderot the novels of ,balzac1 in
 whom appears1 as a contemporary of the 
first generation of socialism and       
sociology1 the psychology of classes4   
,far back1 farther1 farther1 at the     
first origins of the mythical           
conceptions1 it is evident that ,zeus   
did not assume the characters of father 

of gods and men until the power of the  
patria potestas was already established1
 and that series of processus began     
which culminated in the ,state4 ,zeus   
thus ceases to be what was at first the 
simple divus 7brilliant7 or the         
,thunderer4 ,and it is to be observed   
that at an opposite point of historic   
evolution1 a great number of thinkers of
 the past century reduced to a single   
abstract ,god1 who is a simple regent of
 the world1 all that variegated image of
 the unknown and transcendental type1   
developed in so great a wealth of       
mythological1 ,christian or pagan       
creations4 ,man felt himself more at    
home in nature1 thanks to experience1   
but felt himself better able to         
penetrate the gearing of society1 the   
knowledge of which he possessed in part4
 ,the miraculous dissolved in his mind1 
to the point where materialism and      
criticism could afterwards eliminate    
that poor remnant of transcendentalism1 
without taking up war against the gods4 

,there is certainly a history of ideas2 
but this does not consist in the vicious
 circle of ideas that explain           
themselves4 ,it lies in rising from     
things to the idea4 ,there is a problem2
 still more1 there is a multitude of    
problems1 so varied1 multiple1 multiform
 and mingled are the projections which  
men have made of themselves and of their
 economic-social conditions1 and thus of
 their hopes and their fears1 of their  
desires and their deceptions1 in their  
artistic and religious concepts4 ,the   
method is found1 but the particular     
execution is not easy4 ,we must above   
all guard against the scholastic        
temptation of arriving by deduction at  
the products of historic activity which 
are displayed in art and in religion4   
,we must hope that philosophers like    
,krug1 who explained the pen with which 
he wrote by a process of dialectic      
deduction1 have remained forever buried 
in the notes of ,hegel's logic4   ,here 
,i must state certain difficulties4     

,before attempting to reduce secondary  
products 7for example1 art and religion7
 to the social conditions which they    
idealize1 one must first acquire a long 
experience of specified social          
psychology1 in which the transformation 
is realized4 ,therein consists the      
justification of that sum of relations1 
which is designated in another form of  
language1 under the name of ,egyptian   
world1 ,greek consciousness1 spirit of  
the ,renaissance1 dominant ideas1       
psychology of nations1 of society or of 
classes4 ,when these relations are      
established1 and men have become        
accustomed to certain conceptions and   
certain modes of belief or of           
imagination1 the ideas transmitted by   
tradition tend to become crystallized4  
,thus they appear as a force which      
resists new formations2 and as this     
resistance shows itself through the     
spoken word1 through writing1 through   
intolerance1 through polemics1 through  
persecution1 so the struggle between the

 new and the old social conditions takes
 on the form of a struggle between      
ideas4  ,in the second place1 through   
the centuries of history properly       
so-called1 and as a consequence of the  
heredity of the pre-history of savagery 
and of the conditions of subjection and 
those of inferiority in which the       
majority of men were and are placed1    
resulted acquiescence in what is        
traditional1 and the ancient tendencies 
are perpetuated as obstinate survivals4 
,in the third place1 as ,i have said1   
men living socially1 do not cease to    
live also in nature4 ,they are not1 of  
course1 bound to nature as animals are1 
because they live on an artificial      
groundwork4 ,every one understands1     
moreover1 that a house is not a cave1   
that agriculture is not natural         
pasturage1 and that pharmacy is not     
exorcism4 ,but nature is always the     
immediate subsoil of the artificial     
groundwork1 and it is the environment   
which contains us4 ,the industrial arts 

have put between us social animals1 and 
nature1 certain intermediaries which    
modify1 set aside or remove the natural 
influences2 but it has not for all that 
destroyed the efficacy of these1 and we 
continually feel their effects4 ,and    
even as we are born men or women1 as we 
die almost always in spite of ourselves1
 and as we are dominated by the instinct
 of generation1 so we also bear in our  
temperament certain special conditions  
which education in the broad sense of   
the word1 or social compact1 can modify1
 it is true1 within certain limits1 but 
which they can never suppress4 ,these   
conditions of temperament1 repeated in  
infinite cases throughout the centuries1
 constitute what is called the race4    
,for all these reasons1 our dependence  
upon nature1 although it has diminished 
since prehistoric times1 continues in   
our social life1 just as the food which 
the sight of nature affords to the      
curiosity and the imagination continues 
also in our social life4 ,now these     

effects of nature1 and the sentiments   
immediate or mediate which result from  
it1 although they have been perceived1  
since history began1 only on the visual 
angle which is given us by the          
conditions of society1 never fail to    
reflect themselves in the products of   
art and of religion1 and that adds to   
the difficulties of a realistic and     
complete interpretation of both4   ,,xi4
  ,in employing this doctrine as a new  
principle of research1 as a precise     
means of defining our position1 and as a
 visual angle1 will it really be        
possible finally to arrive at a new     
narrative history8 ,it is not possible  
to make an affirmative answer in general
 to this generic demand4 ,because1 in   
fact1 if we assume that the critical    
communist1 the sociologist of economic  
materialism1 or as he is commonly       
called1 the ,marxist1 has the necessary 
critical preparation1 the habit of      
historical study1 and also the gift     
required for an orderly and vivacious   

narration1 there is no reason for       
affirming that he cannot write history1 
as heretofore the partisans of all other
 political schools have written it4  ,we
 have the example of ,marx1 and there is
 an argument from fact which admits of  
no reply4 ,but he was the first and the 
principal author of the decisive        
concepts of this doctrine1 reducing it  
at once into an instrument of political 
orientation1 in his character of an     
incomparable publicist1 during the      
revolutionary period of #ahdh to #ahej4 
,and then he applied it with the        
greatest precision in that essay        
entitled ,eighteenth ,brumaire of ,louis
 ,bonaparte1 of which it may be said    
today1 at a great distance1 and after so
 many publications1 if we except certain
 infinitesimal details and certain false
 forecasts1 that it would be possible to
 make neither corrections nor important 
complements4 ,i will not repeat1 since  
,i am not writing a bibliography1 the   
list of the different writings of ,marx 

or ,engels--of which we have so many    
attempts from the ,peasants' ,war       
7#ahej7 down to his posthumous writings 
on ,the ,present ,unity of              
,germany--which are an application of   
the doctrine1 nor those of their        
successors and of the popularizers of   
scientific socialism4 ,even in the      
socialist press we may read1 from time  
to time1 valuable attempts at           
explanation of certain political events1
 in which is found1 precisely by reason 
of historic materialism1 a clearness of 
vision which would be sought in vain    
among the writers and the disputants who
 have not yet torn away the fantastic   
veils and ideological envelopes of      
history4  ,here is not the place to take
 up the defense of an abstract thesis1  
as an advocate would do4 ,it is evident1
 nevertheless1 in all the histories     
which have been written up to the       
present time1 that there is always at   
bottom1 if not in the explicit          
intentions of the writers1 certainly in 

their spirit1 a tendency1 a principle1 a
 general view of life2 and so this      
doctrine1 which has enabled us to study 
the social structure in an objective    
manner1 must finally direct with        
precision the researches of history1 and
 must end in a narrative complete1      
transparent and integral4   ,helps are  
not lacking4  ,economics1 which1 as     
everyone sees it today1 had its birth   
and development as the science of       
bourgeois production1 after being puffed
 up with the illusion of representing   
the absolute laws of all forms of       
production1 has through the dear school 
of experience entered since1 as everyone
 knows1 upon a period of self-criticism4
 ,just as this self-criticism gave      
birth1 on one side1 to critical         
communism1 so on the other side it has  
given birth1 through the labor of the   
calmest1 the wisest and the most prudent
 of the academic tradition1 to the      
historical school of economic phenomena4
 ,thanks to this school1 and through the

 effect of the application of the       
descriptive and comparative methods1 we 
are henceforth in possession of a vast  
sum of knowledge on the different       
historical forms of economics1 from the 
most complex facts and those best       
specified through essential differences 
of types1 down to the special domain of 
a cloister or a trade guild of the      
,middle ,ages4 ,the same thing has taken
 place with statistics1 which1 by the   
indefinite combination of its sources1  
succeeds now in throwing light1 with a  
sufficient approximation1 upon the      
movement of population in past          
centuries4  ,these studies1 certainly1  
are not made in the interest of our     
doctrine1 and oftener than not they are 
made in a spirit hostile to socialism2  
something not observed1 we may say in   
passing1 by those foolish readers of    
printed papers who so often confuse     
economic history1 historical economics1 
and historical materialism4 ,but these  
studies1 apart from the materials which 

they gather1 are remarkable in that they
 witness the progress which is in course
 of making the internal history which1  
little by little1 is taking the place of
 the external history with which1 for   
centuries1 the men of letters and       
artists were occupied4  ,a good part of 
these materials that have been gathered 
must always be submitted to new         
corrections1 as for that matter happens 
in every domain of empirical knowledge1 
which oscillates continually between    
what is held for certain and what is    
simply probable1 and what must1 later1  
be integrated or eliminated4  ,the      
deductions and the combinations of the  
historians of economics1 or of those who
 relate history in general1 availing    
themselves of the guiding thread of     
economic phenomena1 are not always so   
plausible or so conclusive1 that one    
does not feel the need of saying to     
them3 ,all this must be taken back and  
worked over4 ,but that which is         
undoubted is the fact that in this      

present time all writing of history     
tends to become a science1 or1 better1 a
 social discipline2 and when that       
movement1 now uncertain and multiform1  
shall be accomplished1 the efforts of   
the scholars and inquirers will lead    
inevitably to the acceptance of economic
 materialism4 ,by this incidence of     
efforts and of scientific labors1 which 
start from points so opposite1 the      
materialistic conception of all history 
will end by penetrating men's minds as a
 definite conquest of thought2 and this 
will finally take away from partisans   
and adversaries the attempt to speak pro
 and con as for partisan theses4  ,apart
 from the direct helps just enumerated1 
our doctrine has many indirect helps1 so
 that it can profitably employ the      
results of many disciplines1 in which by
 reason of the greater simplicity of the
 relations1 it has been possible more   
easily to make the application of the   
genetic method4 ,the typical case is    
furnished by glottology1 and in a more  

special fashion by the study which has  
for its object the ancient languages4   
,the application of historical          
materialism is certainly1 hitherto1 very
 far from that evidence and that        
clearness of processus of analysis and  
of reconstruction4 ,it would be         
consequently a vain attempt to try1 at  
this moment1 to write a summary of      
universal history1 which should propose 
to develop all the varied forms of      
production in order to deduce from them 
afterwards all the rest of human        
activity1 in a particular and           
circumstantial fashion4 ,in the present 
state of knowledge1 he who should try to
 give this compendium of a new          
,kulturgeschichte would do nothing but  
translate into economic phraseology the 
points of general orientation which1 in 
other books1 for example1 in ,hellwald1 
give it in ,darwinian phraseology4  ,it 
is a long step from the acceptance of   
the principle to its complete and       
particular application to the whole of a

 vast province of facts1 or to a great  
succession of phenomena4  ,so the       
application of our doctrine must be kept
 for a moment to the exposition and the 
study of definite parts of history4 ,the
 modern forms are clear to all4 ,the    
economic developments of the            
bourgeoisie1 the manifest knowledge of  
the different obstacles which it has had
 to overcome in the different countries1
 and1 consequently1 the development of  
the different revolutions1 taking this  
word in its broadest sense1 contribute  
to make our understanding of it easy4   
,to our eyes the pre-history of the     
bourgeoisie1 at the moment of the       
decline of the ,middle ,ages1 is equally
 clear1 and it would not be difficult to
 find1 for example1 in the development  
of the city of ,florence1 an attested   
series of developments1 in which the    
economic and statistical movement finds 
a perfect correspondence in the         
political relations and a sufficient    
illustration in the contemporary        

development of intelligence already     
reduced into prose and stripped1 in     
great part1 of ideological illusions4   
,nor would it be impossible to reduce1  
now1 under the definite visual angle of 
materialism1 the whole of ancient ,roman
 history4 ,but for that1 and            
particularly1 for the primitive period1 
there are no direct sources2 they are1  
on the contrary1 abundant in ,greece1   
from popular tradition1 the epic1 and   
the authentic juridical inscriptions1   
down to the pragmatic studies of the    
historical social relations4 ,at ,rome1 
on the other hand1 the struggles for    
political rights carry with them almost 
always the economic reasons upon which  
they rest4 ,thus1 the decline of        
definite classes1 the formation of new  
classes1 the movement of conquest1 the  
change of the laws and of the forms of  
political array1 appear to us with      
perfect clearness4 ,this ,roman history 
is hard and prosaic2 it was never clad  
with these ideological complements which

 were suited to ,greek life4 ,the rigid 
prose of conquest1 of planned           
colonization1 of institutions and of the
 forms of law1 conquered and devised for
 solving the problems arising from      
definite frictions and contrasts1 makes 
all ,roman history a chain of events    
which follow each other in a sequence   
which is grossly evident4   ,the true   
problem consists1 indeed1 not in        
substituting sociology for history1 as  
if the latter had been an appearance    
which conceals behind it a secret       
reality1 but in understanding history as
 a whole1 in all its intuitive          
manifestations1 and in understanding it 
through the aid of economic sociology4  
,it is not a question of separating the 
accident from the substance1 the        
appearance from the reality1 the        
phenomenon from the intrinsic kernel1 or
 applying any other formula used by the 
partisans of any species of             
scholasticism1 but of explaining the    
connection and the complexus precisely  

in so far as it is a connection and a   
complexus4 ,it is not merely a question 
of discovering and determining the      
social groundwork1 and then of making   
men appear upon it like so many         
marionettes1 whose threads are held and 
moved1 no longer by ,providence but by  
economic categories4 ,these categories  
have themselves developed and are       
developing1 like all the rest--because  
men change as to the capacity and the   
art of vanquishing1 subduing1           
transforming and utilizing natural      
conditions2 because men change in spirit
 and attitude through the reaction of   
their tools upon themselves2 because men
 change in their respective and         
co-associated relations2 and therefore  
as individuals depending in various     
degrees upon one another4 ,we have1 in  
fine1 to do with history1 and not with  
its skeleton4 ,we are dealing with      
narration and not with abstraction1 with
 the explaining and treating of the     
whole1 and not merely with resolving and

 analyzing it2 we have to do1 in a word1
 now1 as always1 with an art4  ,it may  
be that the sociologist who follows the 
principles of economic materialism      
proposes to keep himself simply to the  
analysis1 for example1 of what the      
classes were at the moment when the     
,french ,revolution broke out1 and to   
pass then to the classes that result    
from the ,revolution and survive it4 ,in
 that case the titles1 the indications  
and the classifications of the materials
 to analyze are definite2 they are1 for 
example1 the city and the country1 the  
artisan and the laborer1 the nobles and 
the serfs1 the land which is freed from 
feudal charges1 and the small           
proprietors who came into being1        
commerce which frees itself from so many
 restrictions1 money which accumulates1 
industry which prospers1 etc4 ,there is 
nothing to object to in the choice of   
this method1 which1 because it follows  
the track of embryonic origins1 was     
indispensable to the preparation of     

historical research according to the    
direction of the new doctrine4#bi  ,but 
we know that the study of embryonic     
origins does not suffice to make us     
understand animal life1 which is not a  
scheme1 but is composed of living beings
 which struggle1 and in their struggle  
employ forces1 instincts and passions4  
,and it is the same1 mutatis mutandis1  
with men also1 in so far as they live   
historically4 ,these particular men1    
moved by certain passions1 urged by     
certain circumstances1 with such and    
such designs1 such intentions1 acting in
 such an attempt with such an illusion  
of their own1 or with such a deception1 
of another1 who1 martyrs of themselves  
or of others1 enter on harsh contests   
and reciprocal suppressions of each     
other--there is the real history of the 
,french ,revolution4 ,if1 however1 it is
 true that all history is but the       
unfolding of definite economic          
conditions1 it is equally true that it  
develops only in definite forms of human

 activity1--whether the latter be       
passionate or reflective1 fortunate or  
unsuccessful1 blindly instinctive or    
deliberately heroic4  ,to understand the
 interlacings and the complexus in its  
inner connection and its outer          
manifestations2 to descend from the     
surface to the foundation1 and then to  
return from the foundation to the       
surface2 to analyze the passions and the
 intentions1 in their motives1 from the 
closest to the most remote1 and then to 
bring back the data of the passions and 
of the intentions and of their causes to
 the most remote elements of a definite 
economic situation2 there is the        
difficult art which the materialistic   
conception must realize4  ,and as we    
must not imitate that teacher who on the
 bank taught his pupils to swim by the  
definition of swimming1 ,i beg the      
reader to await the examples which ,i   
shall give in other essays in a real    
historical narration1 working over into 
a book which for some time ,i have      

already been doing in my teaching4  ,in 
this way certain secondary and          
derivative questions are once for all   
cleared up4  ,what1 for example1 is the 
meaning of the lives of the great men8  
,in these later times1 answers have been
 given1 which1 in one sense or another1 
have an extreme character4 ,on the one  
side1 there are the extreme             
sociologists1 on the other side the     
individualists who1 after the fashion of
 ,carlyle1 put the heroes into the first
 rank of their history4 ,according to   
some it is sufficient to show what were 
the reasons1 for example1 of ,caesarism1
 and ,caesar matters little4 ,according 
to others1 there are no objective       
reasons of classes and social interests 
which suffice to explain anything2 it is
 the great minds which give the impulse 
to the whole historic movement2 and     
history has1 so to speak1 its lords and 
its monarchs4 ,the empiricists of       
narration extract themselves from       
embarrassment in a very simple fashion1 

putting together at hazard men and      
things1 objective necessities of fact   
and subjective influences4  ,historical 
materialism goes beyond the antithetical
 views of the sociologists and the      
individualists1 and at the same time it 
eliminates the eclecticism of the       
empirical narrators4  ,first of all the 
factum4  ,let this particular ,caesar1  
as ,napoleon was1 be born in such a     
year1 let him follow such a career1 and 
find himself ready for the ,eighteenth  
,brumaire4 ,all this is completely      
accidental with relation to the general 
course of things which was pushing the  
new class1 mistress of the field1 to    
save from the ,revolution that which    
appeared to it necessary to save1 and   
that necessitated the creation of a     
bureaucratico-military government4 ,it  
was1 however1 necessary to find the man1
 or the men4 ,but what actually happened
 came about in the fashion that we know4
 ,it depended on this fact1 that it was 
,napoleon who directed the enterprise   

and not a pitiable ,monk1 or a          
ridiculous ,boulanger4 ,and from that   
moment the accident ceases to be        
accident1 precisely because it is this  
definite person who gives his imprint   
and physiognomy to the events1          
determining the fashion or the manner in
 which they have unfolded4  ,the very   
fact that all history rests upon        
antitheses1 contrasts1 struggles and    
wars1 explains the decisive influence of
 certain men in definite occasions4     
,these men are neither a negligible     
accident of the social mechanism1 nor   
miraculous creators of what society1    
without them1 could have made in no     
other fashion4 ,it is the very          
interlacings of the antithetic          
conditions1 which causes the fact that  
definite individuals1 generous1 heroic1 
fortunate1 mischievous1 are called at   
critical moments to say the decisive    
word4 ,as long as the particular        
interests of the different social groups
 are in such a state of tension1 that   

all the parties in the struggle         
reciprocally paralyze each other1 then  
to make the political gearing move1     
there is need of the individual         
consciousness of a definite individual4 
,the social antitheses1 which make of   
every human community an unstable       
organization1 give to history1          
especially when it is seen and examined 
rapidly and in its main features1 the   
character of a drama4 ,this drama in all
 its relations is repeated from         
community to community1 from nation to  
nation1 from state to state1 because the
 inner inequalities concurring with the 
external differentiations1 have produced
 and produce the whole movement of wars1
 conquests1 treaties1 colonizations1    
etc4 ,in this drama have always         
appeared1 in the role of leaders of     
society1 the men who are characterized  
as eminent1 as great1 and empiricism has
 concluded from their presence that they
 were the principal authors of history4 
,to carry back the explanation of their 

appearance to the general causes and the
 common conditions of the social        
structure1 is a thing which harmonizes  
perfectly with the data of our doctrine2
 but to try to eliminate them1 as       
certain affected objectivists of        
sociology would willingly do1 is pure   
capriciousness4   ,and to conclude1 the 
partisan of historical materialism who  
sets himself the task of explaining1 or 
relating1 cannot do it through schemes4 
,history has always received a definite 
form1 with an infinite number of        
accidents and variations4 ,it has a     
certain grouping1 it has a certain      
perspective4  ,it is not enough to have 
eliminated preventively the hypothesis  
of factors1 because the narrator        
constantly finds himself in the presence
 of things which seem incongruous1      
independent1 and self-directing4 ,to    
present the whole as a whole1 and to    
discover in it the continuous relations 
of the events which border on each      
other1 there is the difficulty4  ,the   

sum of events narrowly consecutive and  
precise gives the whole of history2 and 
this is equivalent to saying that it is 
all that we know of our being1 in so far
 as we are social beings and not simply 
natural beings4   ,,xii4  ,in the       
successive whole1 and in the continuous 
necessity of all historical events1 is  
there1 then1 some ask1 any meaning1 any 
significance8 ,this question1 whether it
 comes from the camp of the idealists1  
or whether it comes to us from the mouth
 of the most circumspect critics1       
certainly1 and in all cases1 demands our
 attention1 and requires an adequate    
answer4  ,in fact1 if we stop at the    
premises1 intuitive or intellectual1    
from which is derived the conception of 
progress as an idea which incloses and  
embraces the total of the human         
processus1 it is seen that these        
presumptions all rest upon the mental   
need1 which is in us1 of attributing to 
one or more series of events a certain  
sense and a certain signification4 ,the 

conception of progress1 for whoever     
examines it carefully in its specific   
nature1 always implies judgments of     
estimation1 and therefore1 there is no  
one who can confuse it with the crude   
and bare notion of simple development1  
which does not contain that increment of
 clue which makes us say of a thing that
 it is progressing4   ,i have already   
said1 and1 it seems to me1 at sufficient
 length1 how it is that progress does   
not exist as something imperative or    
regulative over the natural and         
immediate succession of the generations 
of men4 ,that is as intuitive as is the 
actual coexistence of peoples1 of       
nations and of states1 which find       
themselves1 at the same time1 in a      
different stage of development2 so      
undeniable is the actual condition of   
relative superiority and inferiority of 
nation as compared with nation2 and     
again so certain is the partial and     
relative retrogression which has been   
produced several times in history1 as   

,italy has exemplified for centuries4   
,still more1 if there is a convincing   
proof of how progress must be understood
 in the sense of immediate law1 and1 to 
use a strong expression1 of a physical  
and inevitable law1 it is precisely this
 fact1--that social development by the  
very reasons of the processus which are 
inherent in it1 often leads to          
retrogression4 ,it is evident1 on the   
other hand1 that the faculty of         
progressing1 like the possibility of    
retrogressing1 does not constitute1 to  
begin with1 an immediate privilege1 or  
an innate defect of a race1 nor is      
either one the direct consequence of    
geographical conditions4 ,and1 in fact1 
the primitive centers of civilization   
were multiple1 those centers have been  
removed in the course of centuries1 and 
finally the means1 the discoveries1 the 
results and the impulses of a definite  
civilization1 already developed1 are1   
within certain limits1 communicable to  
all men indefinitely4 ,in a word1       

progress and retrogression are inherent 
in the conditions and the rhythm of     
social development4   ,now then1 the    
faith in the universality of progress1  
which appeared with so much violence in 
the eighteenth century1 rests upon this 
first positive fact1 that men1 when they
 do not find obstacles in external      
conditions1 or do not find them in those
 which result from their own work in    
their social environment1 are all       
capable of progress4  ,moreover1 at the 
bottom of this supposed or imagined     
unity of history1 in consequence of     
which the processus of the different    
societies would form one single series  
of progress1 there is another fact1     
which has offered motive and occasion   
for so many fantastic ideologies4 ,if   
all nations have not progressed equally1
 still more1 if some have stopped and   
have followed a backward route1 if the  
processus of social development has not 
always1 in every place and in all times1
 the same rhythm and the same intensity1

 it is nevertheless certain that1 with  
the passage of the decisive activity    
from one people to another people in the
 course of history1 the useful products1
 already acquired by those who were in  
decadence1 have been transmitted to     
those who were growing and rising4 ,that
 is not so true of the products of      
sentiment and imagination1 which        
nevertheless are themselves preserved   
and perpetuated in literary tradition1  
as of the results of thought1 and       
especially of the discovery and of the  
production of technical means1 which1   
once found1 are communicated and        
transmitted directly4  ,need we remind  
the reader that writing was never lost1 
although the peoples who invented it    
have disappeared from historic          
continuity8 ,need we recall again that  
we all have in our pockets1 engraved on 
our watches1 the ,babylonian dial1 and  
that we make use of algebra1 which was  
introduced by those ,arabs1 whose       
historical activity has since been      

dispersed like the sands of the desert8 
,it is useless to multiply these        
examples1 because it is sufficient to   
think of technology and the history of  
discoveries in the broad sense of the   
word1 for which the almost continuous   
transmission of the instruments of labor
 and production is evident4  ,and after 
all1 the provisional summaries which are
 called universal histories1 although   
they always reveal1 in their aim and in 
their execution1 something forced and   
artificial1 would never have been       
attempted if human events had not       
offered to the empiricism of the        
narrators a certain thread1 even though 
subtle1 of continuity4  ,take for       
example the ,italy of the sixteenth     
century1 which is evidently in          
decadence2 but while it is declining1 it
 transmits to the rest of ,europe its   
intellectual weapons4 ,these are not all
 that pass to the civilization which    
continues1 but even the world market    
establishes itself upon the foundation  

of those geographical discoveries1 and  
those discoveries in the naval art1     
which were the work of ,italian         
merchants1 travelers and sailors4 ,it is
 not only the methods of the art of war 
and the refinements of political        
diplomacy which passed outside of ,italy
 7though it is only with these that men 
of letters ordinarily concerned         
themselves71 but even the art of making 
money1 which had acquired all the       
evidence of an elaborate commercial     
discipline1 and one after the other the 
rudiments of the science1 upon which is 
founded modern technique1 and to begin  
with all the methodical irrigation of   
fields and the general laws of          
hydraulics4 ,all that is so precisely   
true1 that an amateur in conjectural    
theses might come to the point of asking
 himself this question3 what would have 
become of ,italy1 in this modern        
bourgeois epoch1 if1 executing the      
project of the ,venetian ,senate 7#aejd7
 of making something which would have   

resembled in its effects a piercing of  
the ,isthmus of ,suez1 the ,italian navy
 had found itself in a direct struggle  
with the ,portuguese in the ,indian     
,ocean1 at the very moment when the     
shifting of historical activity from the
 ,mediterranean to the ocean prepared   
the decadence of ,italy8 ,but enough of 
fantasy6   ,a certain historical        
continuity1 in the empirical and        
circumstantial sense of the transmission
 and the successive increase of the     
means of civilization1 is then an       
incontestable fact4 ,and1 although this 
fact excludes all idea of preconceived  
design1 of intentional or hidden        
finality1 or pre-established harmony1   
and all the other whimsicalities in     
regard to which there has been such a   
deal of speculation1 it does not        
exclude1 for all that1 the idea of      
progress1 which we can utilize as an    
estimation of the course of human       
development4 ,it is undeniable that     
progress does not embrace materially the

 succession of generations1 and that its
 conception implies nothing categorical1
 considering that societies have also   
been in retrogression1 but that does not
 prevent this idea from serving as a    
guiding thread and a measure to give a  
meaning to the historical processus4    
,there is no common ground for critics  
who are prudent1 in the use of specific 
concepts as in the method of their      
application1 and those poor extreme     
evolutionists1 who are scientists       
without the grammar and the principle of
 science1 that is to say1 without logic4
  ,as ,i have said several times1 ideas 
do not fall from heaven1 and even those 
which1 at a given moment arise from     
definite situations with the impetuosity
 of faith and with a metaphysical garb1 
carry always within themselves the index
 of their correspondence with the order 
of the facts1 of which the explanation  
is sought or attempted4 ,the idea of    
progress1 as the unifier of history1    
appears with violence and becomes a     

giant in the eighteenth century1 that is
 to say1 in the heroic period of the    
intellectual and political life of the  
revolutionary bourgeoisie4 ,just as this
 engendered1 in the order of its works1 
the most intensive period of history    
that is known1 it also produced its own 
ideology in the notion of progress4     
,this ideology in its substance means   
that capitalism is the only form of     
production which is capable of extending
 all over the earth and of reducing the 
whole human race to conditions which    
resemble each other everywhere4 ,if     
modern technique can be transported     
everywhere1 if all the human race appear
 on a single field of competition and   
all the world as a single market1 what  
is there astonishing in the ideology    
which1 reflecting intellectually these  
conditions of fact1 reaches the         
affirmation that the present historical 
unity has been prepared by everything   
which precedes it8 ,translating this    
concept of pretended preparation into   

the altogether natural concept of       
successive condition1 and there is      
opened before us the road by which the  
passage is made from the ideology of    
progress to historical materialism2 and 
now we arrive at the affirmation of     
,marx1 that this form of bourgeois      
production is the last antagonistic form
 of the processus of society4  ,the     
miracles of the bourgeois epoch1 in the 
unification of the social processus1    
find no parallel in the past4 ,here are 
the whole ,new ,world1 ,australia1      
,northern ,africa1 and ,new ,zealand6   
,and they all resemble us6 ,and the     
rebound in the extreme ,east is made    
through imitation1 and in ,africa       
through conquest6 ,in the presence of   
this universality and this              
cosmopolitanism1 the acquisition of the 
,celts and the ,iberians to ,roman      
civilization1 and of the ,germans and   
that the ,slavs to the cycle of ,roman  
,byzantine ,christian civilization      
shrink into insignificance4 ,this       

ever-growing unification is reflected   
more every day in the political         
mechanism of ,europe2 this mechanism1   
because founded on the economic conquest
 of the other parts of the world1       
oscillates henceforth with the flux and 
reflux which come from the most distant 
regions4 ,in this most complicated      
mingling of action and reactions the war
 between ,japan and ,china1 made with   
methods imitated1 or directly borrowed1 
from ,european technique1 leaves its    
traces1 deep and far-reaching1 in the   
diplomatic relations of ,europe1 and    
still clearer traces in the stock       
exchange1 which is the faithful         
interpreter of the consciousness of our 
time4 ,this ,europe1 mistress of all the
 rest of the world1 has recently seen   
the relations of the politics of the    
states of which it is composed oscillate
 in consequence of a revolt in the      
,transvaal1 and in consequence of the   
ill success of the ,italian armies in   
,abyssinia in these last days4#cj  ,the 

centuries which have prepared and       
carried to its present form the economic
 domination of bourgeois production have
 also developed the tendency to a       
unification of history under a general  
view2 and in this fashion we find       
explained and justified the ideology of 
progress1 which fills so many books of  
the philosophy of history and of        
,kulturgeschichte4 ,the unity of social 
form1 that is to say1 the unity of the  
capitalistic form of production1 to     
which the bourgeoisie has tended for    
centuries1 is reflected in the          
conception of the unity of history in   
more suggestive forms than the mind     
could ever have received from the narrow
 cosmopolitanism of the ,roman empire or
 the one-sided cosmopolitanism of the   
,catholic ,church4   ,but this          
unification of the social life1 by the  
working of the capitalist form of       
production1 developed itself from the   
beginning1 and continues to develop     
itself1 not according to preconceived   

rules1 plans and designs1 but1 on the   
contrary1 by reason of frictions and    
struggles1 which in their sum form a    
colossal complication of antitheses4    
,war without and war within4 ,struggle  
incessant among the nations1 and        
struggles incessant between the members 
of each nation4 ,and the interlacings of
 the deeds and the action of so many    
emulators1 competitors and adversaries  
is so complicated1 that the             
co-ordination of events very often      
escapes the attention1 and it is a very 
difficult thing to discover their       
intimate connection4 ,the struggle which
 actually exists among men1 the         
struggles which now1 with various       
methods1 are unfolding among nations and
 within nations1 have come to make us   
understand better in the midst of what  
difficulties the history of the past has
 unfolded4 ,if the bourgeois ideology1  
reflecting the tendency to capitalist   
unification1 has proclaimed the progress
 of the human race1 historical          

materialism1 on the contrary1 and       
without proclamation1 has discovered    
that these are the antitheses which have
 thus far been the cause and the motive 
of all historical events4  ,thus the    
movement of history1 taken in general1  
appears to us as it were                
oscillating2--or rather1 to use a more  
appropriate image1 it seems that it is  
unfolding on a line often interrupted1  
and at certain moments it seems to      
return upon itself1 sometimes it        
stretches out1 removing itself far from 
the point of departure3--in an actual   
zigzag4  ,granted the internal          
complication of every society1 and      
granted the meeting of several societies
 on the field of competition 7from the  
ingenuous forms of robbery1 rapine and  
piracy to the refined methods of the    
elegant sport of the stock exchange7 it 
is natural that every historical result1
 when it is measured in the one measure 
of individual expectation1 appears very 
often like chance1 and afterwards1      

considered theoretically1 becomes for   
the mind more inextricable than the     
track of meteors4  ,speaking of the     
irony which sits as a sovereign above   
history is not a simple phrase2 because1
 in truth1 if there is no god of        
,epicurus laughing above over human     
affairs1 here below human affairs are of
 themselves playing a divine comedy4    
,will this irony of human destinies ever
 cease8 ,will that form of association  
ever be possible which gives room for   
the possible complete development of all
 aptitudes1 in such a way that the      
ulterior processus of history may become
 a real and true evolution8 ,and1 to    
speak like the amateurs of high-sounding
 phrases1 will there ever be a          
humanization of all men8 ,when once in  
the communism of production the         
antitheses which are now the cause and  
the effect of economic differentiations 
are eliminated1 will not all human      
energies acquire a very high degree of  
efficacy and intensity in co-operative  

effects1 and at the same time will they 
not develop with a greater liberty of   
self-expression among all individuals8  
,it is in the affirmative answers to    
these questions that consists what      
critical communism says1 that is to say 
foresees1 of the future4 ,but it does   
not say it and it does not foretell it  
as if it were discussing an abstract    
possibility1 or like him who wishes1 by 
his will1 to give life to a state of    
things which he desires and which he    
dreams4 ,but it says and predicts       
because what it announces must          
inevitably happen by the immanent       
necessity of history1 seen and studied  
henceforth in the foundation of its     
economic substructure4  ,it is only in  
an order of things where there will no  
longer be classes and class antagonisms 
that social revolutions will cease to be
 political revolutions4#ca  ,to the old 
bourgeois society with its classes and  
class antagonisms will succeed an       
association in which the free           

development of each is the condition of 
the free development of all4#cb  ,the   
relations of bourgeois production are   
the last antagonistic form of the social
 processus of production--a form        
antagonistic not in the sense of        
individual antagonism1 but of the       
antagonism which proceeds from the      
conditions of the social life of        
individuals2 but the productive forces  
which are developing in the lap of      
bourgeois society are creating at the   
same time the material conditions to    
terminate that antagonism4 ,with this   
social organization ends the prehistory 
of the human race4#cc  ,with the taking 
possession of the means of production on
 the part of society1 is excluded the   
production of commodities1 and with it  
the dominance of the product over the   
producer4 ,the anarchy which dominates  
in social production will be succeeded  
by conscious organization4 ,the struggle
 for individual existence will cease4   
,only in this way man will detach       

himself1 in a certain sense1 from the   
animal world in a definite fashion1 and 
will pass from a condition of animal    
existence to conditions of human        
existence4 ,the entire sum of the       
conditions of life which has thus far   
dominated men will pass under the rule  
and the examination of men themselves1  
who will thus for the first time become 
the real masters of nature1 because they
 will be the masters of their own       
association4 ,the laws of their own     
social activity1 which had been outside 
of them like foreign laws imposed upon  
them1 will be applied and mastered by   
the men themselves1 with full knowledge 
of their cause4 ,their very association1
 which appeared to men as if imposed by 
nature and history1 will become their   
own and their free work4 ,the foreign   
and objective forces1 which till then   
dominated history1 will pass under the  
care of men4 ,only from that moment will
 men make their own history with full   
understanding2 only from that moment    

will the social causes which they put in
 motion1 be able to arrive1 in great    
part and in a proportion ever           
increasing1 at the desired effects4 ,it 
is the leap of the human race from the  
reign of necessity into that of liberty4
 ,to accomplish this action emancipating
 the world1 such is the historic mission
 of the modern proletariat4  ,if ,marx  
and ,engels had been phrasemakers1 if   
their spirit had not been made prudent1 
even scrupulous1 by the daily and minute
 use and application of scientific      
methods1 if the permanent contact with  
so many conspirators and visionaries had
 not given them a horror of every       
,utopia1 opposing it indeed up to the   
point of pedantry1 these formulas might 
pass for good-natured paradoxes1 which  
criticism need not examine4 ,but these  
formulas are1 as it were1 the close1 the
 effective conclusion of the doctrine of
 historic materialism4 ,they are the    
direct result of the criticism of       
economies and of historical dialectics4 

,in these formulas1 which may be        
developed1 as ,i have had occasion to   
show elsewhere1 is1 summed up every     
forecast of the future1 which is not and
 is not intended for a romance or a     
,utopia4 ,and in these very formulas    
there is an adequate and conclusive     
response to the question with which this
 chapter began3 ,is there in the series 
of historic events a meaning and a      
significance8   ,,the ,,end4            
,,footnotes3  #bh ,this genetic study   
forms the subject of my first essay1 ,in
 ,memory of the ,communist ,manifesto1  
which is the indispensable preamble to  
an understanding of all the rest4  #bi  
7,i allude to the excellent work of     
,karl ,kautsky1 ,die ,klassengensaetze  
von #aghi47  #cj ,the ,italian edition  
of this ,essay bears the date of ,march 
#aj1 #ahif4  #ca ,marx1 ,misere de la   
,philosophie1 ,paris1 #ahag1 p4 #agh4   
#cb ,communist ,manifesto1 p4 #af4  #cc 
,marx1 ,zur ,kritik der politischen     
,oekonomie1 ,berlin1 #ahei1 p4 #f ,pref4

 ,compare my first ,essay1 pp4 #dh-ej4