Base, superstructure, and dialectical totality

Abstract

In recent years it became something of a custom to begin any contemporary discussion of historical materialism with a nod to the briefly dominant axiom that humanity had reached its veritable terminus. Capitalism had triumphed over socialism, Francis Fukuyama insisted, and the ‘end of history’ was upon us. Fukuyama’s bold declaration of historical finality could be read in hindsight as little more than neoliberal triumphalism.