ABSTRACT
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the most famous historical novel. In Tolstoy’s novel, history is given an inner and outer texture. Marx never used the term ‘historical materialism’, but he did labour to understand the vast historical shifts taking place in his lifetime. Marx, then, had a philosophy of history, but he was also important for two other reasons. First, he was a historian and wrote incisively about events taking place in his lifetime. Second, he was a major historical figure, forever associated with criticising capitalism, arguing for communism, and advancing revolution. Marx’s writings on history were often incisive and engaging critical studies of world historical events. His focus on class, struggle, and revolution, along with the general spirit of his critique, were powerfully developed in twentieth-century Marxism, which pioneered a rich tradition of historical interpretation.
