Section 6 (pg. 124-142) Summary and Analysis

The final theme in Marx's work that Rius covers is historical materialism, or Marx's attempt to show that history is created by humans and not fate or God. Marx argued that humans invented the tools and structures within society by themselves. Each generation builds on the last generation to better perfect the tools available. Marx also argued that nothing can be produced in isolation; there is always a social aspect or character. He called the tools (or instruments of production) and the men who made things using the tools the "moving forces of society." He called the relationships that people set up for the production of the tools "the relations of production." The relations of productions combined with the moving forces of society produced the "mode of production."

In looking at history, Marx argued that five modes...