In February 1844, Marx published the “Introduction” to Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher. The essay helped set up his move away from explaining society mainly through ideas, toward explaining politics and law through social and material conditions.
Between April and August 1844, Marx drafted the unpublished “1844 Manuscripts,” linking political economy to human life under capitalism. Although not a full statement of historical materialism, these notes pushed Marx toward treating economic activity and labor as central for understanding society and history.
In late August 1844, Marx and Engels met in Paris and discovered broad agreement on theory and politics. This meeting launched their long partnership, which would shape the “materialist conception of history” as a shared approach rather than a purely individual project.
In 1845, Engels published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on his observations and reports from industrial cities. The book supplied concrete evidence about how industrial capitalism shaped housing, health, and class conflict—supporting the broader materialist idea that social structures grow out of economic life.
Published in February 1845, The Holy Family criticized Young Hegelian writers for treating criticism of religion and ideas as the main driver of change. The book helped clear space for Marx and Engels’s emerging view that social life must be explained through real people’s material activity and conflicts.
In spring 1845, Marx wrote the Theses on Feuerbach, short notes criticizing earlier materialism for being too passive and “contemplative.” He argued that human activity (practice) and social relations are central, preparing the ground for a historical materialism focused on real life processes, not just abstract philosophy.
From fall 1845 to mid-1846 in Brussels, Marx and Engels drafted The German Ideology, their most extended early statement of historical materialism. They argued that history should start from “real individuals,” their labor, and the material conditions of life, rather than treating ideas as the prime mover.
Marx and Engels were unable to find a publisher for The German Ideology and left the manuscript unfinished and unpublished. This meant their early, systematic outline of historical materialism did not shape public debates directly at the time, even though it guided their later work.
On February 21, 1848, Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London for the Communist League. It presented a simplified historical materialist story for a wide audience: major historical change comes from conflicts between social classes rooted in changing economic systems.
In 1859, Marx published A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, whose Preface became a classic statement of the “materialist conception of history.” He argued that relations of production form a society’s economic “structure,” shaping law, politics, and ideas, and that tensions between productive forces and these relations can drive social revolutions.
In 1867, Marx published Volume I of Das Kapital in Berlin, using historical and economic analysis to explain how capitalism works and changes over time. The book linked everyday market relations to deeper structures—like wage labor and profit—showing how a “mode of production” can shape society broadly.
In 1878, Engels published Anti-Dühring, defending Marxist positions against Eugen Dühring and presenting them as a connected worldview. The book helped standardize historical materialism as part of a broader “scientific socialism,” making the approach easier to teach and spread in socialist movements.
In 1880, Engels issued Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, extracted from Anti-Dühring and aimed at a wider audience. It contrasted “utopian” plans for ideal societies with socialism grounded in historical analysis of capitalism’s development and class conflict—an accessible pathway into historical materialism.
On September 21, 1890, Engels wrote to Joseph Bloch to address misunderstandings of historical materialism. He emphasized that production and reproduction of real life are “ultimately” determining, while politics, law, and ideas also influence outcomes—pushing back against overly simple economic determinism.
After Marx’s death, Engels organized Marx’s manuscripts and published Das Kapital Volume II in 1885 and Volume III in 1894. This editorial work extended Marx’s materialist analysis from production into circulation, profit, and capitalism’s overall movement—helping define how later Marxists understood historical change.
Friedrich Engels died in London on August 5, 1895. His death marked the end of the founding partnership that developed historical materialism from early philosophical critique into a widely circulated framework for analyzing history through modes of production, class struggle, and social institutions.
Marx and Engels: Historical Materialism and the Materialist Conception of History (1844–1895)