What is "historical materialism"

n. A Marxist methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, looking for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life.

Historical Materialism is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Brill Publishers of historical materialism, the study of society, economics, and history using a Marxist approach. The journal started as a project at the London School of Economics from 1995 to 1998. Currently it is affiliated at the SOAS the University of London. Starting from 2008 the journal organises an annual conference. and a book series.

Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of human societies and their development over time and was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818–1883) as the materialist conception of history. It is principally a theory of history according to which the material conditions of a society's mode of production (its way of producing and reproducing the means of human existence or, in Marxist terms, the union of its productive capacity and social relations of production) fundamentally determine its organization and development.

Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life. Social classes and the relationship between them, along with the political structures and ways of thinking in society, are founded on and reflect contemporary economic activity.

Since Marx's time, the theory has been modified and expanded by Marxist writers. It now has many Marxist and non-Marxist variants.