What is Marxism's relation to social, political and economic upheavals of the 19th century?
Full question is:
Karl Marx developed a new philosophy for a new era. How was Marxism a reaction to the social, political and economic upheavals of the nineteenth century? Your essay should include a brief explanation of Marxism, the contextualization of his philosophy and a response to the aforementioned question.
I'm helping a friend do his humanities/history paper. I'm no expert on Marx. Any help is thoroughly appreciated.
Skatta2008-07-21T17:18:22Z
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it was a critical analysis of industrialization/capitalism, and the transformation historically from a societal system of feudalism into capitalism.
a common misconception is that Marx had anything to do with communism.
communism was a brand new thing marx didn't know about since it existed after he died that was devised and implemented by people after having read his analysis.
so granted, it is based on his ideas but he never said a single thing about communism. all his work was saying things about capitalism. nothing more.
he spoke of socialism, but never defined it other than it would be the natural eventual and necessary evolution of capitalism, facilitated and only possible because of capitalism, since it is so good at producing. Personally i think this was the weakest part of anything marx said, and if he were alive today i think his opinion might be different. he would also need to reassess his analysis of capitalism since it has now become more complex than it was in his day. but stil lthe main ideas ring true.
back then there weren't stocks owned by regular people, not much of a middle class such as today, and the world wasn't globalized as it is today. everything wasn't made in china in those days.
The whole Marxist thing is somewhat stupid, i mean there where plenty of revolutions before and afterwards that have nothing to do with his theories what so ever. All M&E did was take all the history of revolution and romanticized it saying that in the end it will be for the good and not only that but... Talk about preaching to the choir, the Russians(etc), they would have eaten this up 1)start revolution 2) world peace.
why did your friend ask about this well first of all marxism is a super-radical form of communism introduced by karl marx my guess would be that karl marx said look at all the revolutions and rebellions.............. that form of government doesnt work obviously so lets try this........the result was a death toll in the hundreds of thousands and a bankrupt nation with no food a corrupt goverment.