The history of all hitherto existing society(2) is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master(3) and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations. _http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm# a2_ (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#a2)
2. That is, all written history. In 1847, the pre-history of society, the social organisation existing previous to recorded history, all but unknown. Since then, August von Haxthausen (1792-1866) discovered common ownership of land in Russia, Georg Ludwig von Maurer proved it to be the social foundation from which all Teutonic races started in history, and, by and by, village communities were found to be, or to have been, the primitive form of society everywhere from India to Ireland. The inner organisation of this primitive communistic society was laid bare, in its typical form, by Lewis Henry Morgan's (1818-1861) crowning discovery of the true nature of the gens and its relation to the tribe. With the dissolution of the primeval communities, society begins to be differentiated into separate and finally antagonistic classes. I have attempted to retrace this dissolution in The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, second edition, Stuttgart, 1886. [Engels, 1888 English Edition and 1890 German Edition (with the last sentence omitted)] _http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm# a2_ (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#a2) MP: Engels footnote would alter the lead sentence to read: "The written history of all hitherto existing society(2) is the history of class struggles." Charles ask: (CB) "Why is it that "the written history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles " ?" Engels answer the question Charles ask and explains why he modified the lead sentence in the first place in footnote two. Here is Charles answer that explains why: "The written history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." >>>CB: Answer: Because human life, like all plant and animal life must fulfill biological needs to exist as life at all. Marx and Engels are looking for _necessity_ to put historical materialism on a scientific basis. In human biology there is necessity, things that must be done. <<<< Charles really makes no sense and is in need of a collective consensus and collective study. He makes no sense what so ever, but believes that what he writes make sense. Charles has dug himself into a hole and refuses to listen to anyone. What he has written above is simply ridiculous. Melvin P. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
