First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classic of modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophical techniques in an uncompromising defense of historical materialism commanded widespread admiration. In the ensuing twenty years, the book has served as a flagship of a powerful intellectual movement--analytical Marxism. In this expanded edition, Cohen offers his own account of the history, and the further promise, of analytical Marxism. He also expresses reservations about traditional historical materialism, in the light of which he reconstructs the theory, and he studies the implications for historical materialism of the demise of the Soviet Union.

First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classicof modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophicaltechniques in an uncompromising defence of historical materialism commandedwidespread admiration. In the ensuing twenty years, the book has served as aflagship of a powerful intellectual movement - analytical Marxism. In thisexpanded edition Cohen offers his own account of the history, and the furtherpromise, of analytical Marxism. He also expresses reservations abouttraditional historical materialism, in the light of which he reconstructs thetheory, and he studies the implications for historical materialism of the demiseof the Soviet Union.

This textbook examines Marxism’s enormous impact on the way historians approach their subject. Tackling current historiographical questions in an accessible way, the author offers a clear introduction to Marxist views of history, key Marxist historians and thinkers, and the relevance of Marxist theory and history to students’ own work. This is a concise, thorough overview of an important area of historiography. The second edition incorporates significant new developments in research, including Marxist contributions to the emergence of global, maritime and transnational history; the discovery of Marx’s ecologism and the historical critique of fossil capitalism as a source of environmental disaster; a reassessment of gender oppression through social reproduction theory; and the contribution of Marxism to debates on race, Eurocentrism and whiteness.

The central theoretical argument of this book is that Marx's philosophy of praxis - first formulated in the Thesis on Feuerbach - is at the same time the founding stone of a new world view, and the methodological basis for his theory of (proletarian) revolutionary self-emancipation.

This critically aclaimed book, now in its second edition is firmly established as an essential guide to this recent historiographical debate. Adopted as a set book by the Open University. An indispensable guide to Marxist historiography for undergradu. . . .