Sunday, November 29, 2015

5.1. HISTORY AND THE UNDERLYING ECONOMY

 MENU: 5.1. HISTORY & ECONOMY

VIEWING THE PAST IN THE CONTEXT OF DEEP-SEATED ECONOMIC CHANGE HELPS CORRECTLY IDENTIFY STRUGGLES AND ADVERSARIES NOW

Is that why it is left out? Flashback

When in the 1960's I studied modern European history in the U.S., Marx's materialist view of the past was not mentioned even once.

"Communist propaganda!" I thought on encountering that approach at the Sorbonne. Eventually I understood that what I had been taught emanated from the Cold War and that of French students from the Occupation (explained here). 

The economic interpretation has gradually faded in France and since the rise of globalized capitalism in the 1980's, almost disappeared

How the past is seen is deeply political, though the right-wing view is so engrained that it is usually taken for granted.
 

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