In any historical period, the dominant ideas are those of the ruling
class. In 1989 the world was treated to the words of Francis Fukuyama,
who published an essay with the title ‘The end of history?’ His
argument was not that historical events had literally stopped happening
but that the collapse of so-called ‘communism’ in the Soviet union
meant that western liberal democracy had successfully established
itself as the ultimate and ideal form of government. Marxism lay totally discredited he declared, gloatingly.

Has humanity enlarged its power and freedom, improved its conditions and increased its chances of happiness? In simple terms, is social progress a fact?

We are publishing our second study guide on historical materialism, which forms part of the book “What is Marxism?”. Historical Materialism is the application of Marxist science to historical development. The fundamental proposition of historical materialism can be summed up in a sentence: “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.)