Toward a Materialist History of Ideas: History, Contradictions, and Possibilities

This essay contributes to the development of a Marxist approach to the history of ideas based on Marx’s historical materialism. It first outlines historical materialism and its relevance to the study of the history of ideas and then traces its marginalization within the discipline back to Quentin Skinner’s critique. The essay outlines Skinner’s approach to the history of ideas before introducing and engaging one of the most successful subsequent attempts, by Ellen Meiksins Wood, to construct an alternative Marxist approach to the history of ideas. However, many contradictions in Wood’s approach can be traced back to Skinner’s influence, contradictions that may be resolved via the conceptual resources of Marx’s historical materialism. The essay outlines a novel Marxist approach to the history of ideas, combining Marx’s historical materialism with Wood’s social history of political theory and exemplifying how this approach may be deployed.