Reading Group: Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

What are the driving forces of history? Why do social revolutions occur? How does the economic structure of society affect our consciousness?

To answer these questions, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels based their analysis on the conditions of material life. This theory, known as historical materialism, is foundational in socialist thought. It has guided analyses of institutions, social conflict, and revolutionary strategy.

This event will be a collective close reading of two paragraphs in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), a text by Marx which provides a powerful summary of historical materialism. The objective is for everyone to develop a working understanding of the theory and its significance for the history of socialist thought and practice. The text can be found online here.