Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History

by Antonio Labriola, Charles H. Kerr (Translator)

Our doctrine does not pretend to be the intellectual vision of a great plan or of a design, but it is merely a method of research and of conception. It is not by accident that Marx spoke of his discovery as a guiding thread, and it is precisely for this reason that it is analogous to Darwinism, which also is a method... -from "Historical Materialism" One of the great European Marxists-in this volume, published in Italy in 1896 and in America in 1908-commemorates the then-upcoming 50th anniversary of Marx's Communist Manifesto, "our first unquestioned entrance into history." Explaining and elaborating upon Marx's philosophies, Labriola applies scientific and practical philosophy to Marxism, offering significant clarification, in layman's terms, of the Manifesto. Students of European and American socialism will find this an invaluable document, evidence of a fulcrum moment in global history, when socialism's prospects were far brighter than they are today. Philosopher and revolutionary ANTONIO LABRIOLA (1843-1904) is considered the father of Italian Marxism. Born in Cassino, Italy, he was educated at the University of Naples and wrote for numerous liberal political journals. Among his books are Problems of the Philosophy of History and Socialism (1889) and Correspondence on Philosophy and Socialism (1898).

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Antonio Labriola (Italian: [labriˈoːla]; July 2, 1843 – February 12, 1904) was an Italian Marxist theoretician. Although an academic philosopher and never an active member of any Marxist political party, his thought exerted influence on many political theorists in Italy during the early 20th century, including the founder of the Italian Liberal Party, Benedetto Croce and the leaders of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci and Amadeo Bordiga.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reflections on the base-superstructure dialectic, as well as the basic of historical materialism in general; useful especially for Labriola's emphasis on employing historical materialism, laying guidelines and suggestions for Marxist historians to apply historical materialism and contribute to theory.

His brief foray and comments on "peasant stupidity" are disheartening, certainly discounting the progressive aspects of the peasantry more than necessary; I have read of influence from Labriola on Trotsky, I find this to be a possible connection.

Labriola's comments on the nature of the state in Chapter 8 are also interesting, positing that the state "creates around itself a circle of persons interested directly in its existence." While Labriola does not specify a socialist or capitalist state, but the nature of the state itself, this holds important consequences for the nature of a socialist state, something I think can be seen in "state of the whole people" as advanced by the Khrushchevite revisionists, the reaction against the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, as well as the "Three Represents" theory advanced by the reactionary Jiang Zemin in the immediate post-Deng era; these revisionist (reactionary, even) theories seem to be direct manifestation of this "circle of persons interested directly" in the existence of state, finding ideological justification in the pause of socialist development or even a "Great Leap Backward" as posited by Bettelheim.