#13 Historical materialism is the social scientific core of Marxist theory
My investigation led to the result that legal relations as well as forms of state are to be grasped neither from themselves nor from the so-called general development of the human mind, but rather have their roots in the material conditions of life, the sum total of which Hegel, following the example of the Englishmen and Frenchmen of the eighteenth century, combines under the name of “civil society,” that, however, the anatomy of civil society is to be sought in political economy … The general result at which I arrived and which, once won, served as a guiding thread for my studies, can be briefly formulated as follows: In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or — what is but a legal expression for the same thing — with the property relations within which they have been at work hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution. With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic — in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so can we not judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather from the contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict between the social productive forces and the relations of production. No social order ever perishes before all the productive forces for which there is room in it have developed; and new, higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society itself. Therefore mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, it will always be found that the task itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation. In broad outlines Asiatic, ancient, feudal, and modern bourgeois modes of production can be designated as progressive epochs in the economic formation of society. The bourgeois relations of production are the last antagonistic form of the social process of production—antagonistic not in the sense of individual antagonism, but of one arising from the social conditions of life of the individuals; at the same time the productive forces developing in the womb of bourgeois society create the material conditions for the solution of that antagonism. This social formation brings, therefore, the prehistory of human society to a close.
Karl Marx, Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels Selected Works, in three volumes, Volume One, Progress Publishers Moscow, 3rd edition, 1976, [extract from a single paragraph pp. 504-5]
Historical Materialism — The term refers to that central body of doctrine, frequently known as the materialist conception of history, which constitutes the social-scientific core of Marxist theory … A theory which makes such bold claims about the nature of history and society can be vindicated, if at all, only by its ability to provide a viable research program for social and historical investigations … These claims receive their most memorable statement in a very compact passage from Marx's ‘Preface’ to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy … The themes of the ‘Preface’ reverberate throughout the Marxian corpus and must, of course, be interpreted in the light of the elaboration they receive elsewhere. In the 'Preface' Marx contends that the economic structure of society, constituted by its relations of production, is the real foundation of society. It is the basis “on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness”. On the other hand society's relations of production themselves “correspond to a definite stage of development of [society’s) material productive forces”. In this manner, “the mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general” … As the society's productive forces develop, they clash with existing production relations, which now fetter their growth … The expansion of the productive forces determines the relations and mode of production which obtain because, as Marx wrote to Annenkov, “men never relinquish what they have won”. In order to retain “the fruits of civilization” they will change their way of producing — either their material or social relations of production or both — to accommodate the acquired productive forces and facilitate their continued advance. The resulting economic structure in turn shapes the legal and political superstructure.
Tom Bottomore, Laurence Harris, V. G. Kiernan, Ralph Miliband, editors, A Dictionary of Marxist Thought, 2nd edition, Blackwell 1991 [pp. 234-239]