Marx's comparative historical sociology

Abstract

Much of the literature on Marx has been pro? duced under the influence of the writings of the theorists of the Second International and of Soviet Marxism, who, for ideological and other reasons, tended to reduce Marxian analysis to the level of a narrow "scientific materialism." Marx's complex view of history and society has often become obscured, simplified, identified with abstract concepts such as economic deter? minism, evolutionary teleology, and universal class-struggle. Some of these simplifications are unfortunately reinforced by Marx himself, especially in his more popular writings, in the Communist Manifesto, and in his "Preface" to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, for example. One may of course argue that some of Marx's comments, made in an effort to account for and clarify the theoretical and methodological assumptions of his writings are no more mislead? ing than similar efforts made by other major social thinkers. For many of the explicit methodological statements of D?rkheim or Weber would seem no less simplistic in the light of even a cursory reading of works such as The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Ancient Judaism, or The Religion of Ancient China. An attempt to understand the intellectual structure and content of Marx's work in terms of some of