Unification View of History
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Comment by Tom Cox on January 3rd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
While your reference to Marx may be reasonably correct in the literal logic of the reference, I am afraid that Marx is not a good choice to illustrate your point. It may easily lead many to be dismissive of the ideas because of the fact that Marxism has led to so much human misery via Communism. I just think you could find a less “radio-active” example to illustrate the point.
Comment by Clinton Bennett on January 4th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Thank you for the comment. Within the academy, many aspects of Marx’s thought is still taken very seriously indeed and few scholars are put off due to the link between communism and Marxism, if there even is one. Leninism owes very little to Marx. Marxist thought alerted historians to the presence of bias in historical accounts, which so often represent the views of the powerful. Issues to do with class rivalry, too, are taken seriously very largely because of Marxist thought. Even the view that history has a purpose, that an ideal society can be constructed, may have attracted more interest due to Marx’s contribution. I do not agree that the illustration is radio-active. In fact, Marx has had a profound influence on historiography, despite communism. Of course, from a unification point of view his atheism and materialism were misguided.
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