ABSTRACT
Implicit in the disagreement between Karl Marx and the proponents of individualism is a disagreement about the study and writing of history. Marx and Friedrich Engels do not think that the methodological individualist's history is false but that it is incomplete. Historical explanations are incomplete if they refer only to the forces of nature and to the actions of individuals. The individualist, therefore, finds in history primarily the acts of monarchs and conquerors, tyrants and individual saviors. History must study the acts of individuals as well as the effects of the social settings on these acts. Speaking very generally, human beings have similar problems in different historical periods: They need to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families. But historians identify historical periods according to various criteria: They talk about the pagan and Christian eras if they think that people's actions at those times are best understood as an outgrowth of their religious beliefs and practices.
