T1: Marxism

Karl Marx

• Society changes because economic conditions change
• As economic conditions change, social classes emerge
• The history of society is the history of class conflict

Marxist stage theory

• Primitive communism: hunt and gather and share what we have; no social classes; no government
• Feudalism: the monarch distributes wealth as favours and has absolute power; society is highly stratified and often depicted as a pyramid with the monarch at the top and peasants at the bottom
• Bourgeios revolution: the growth of…