History, Labour and Freedom - G.A Cohen

Marxism sees history as a protracted process of liberation - from the scarcity imposed on humanity by nature and from the oppression imposed by ruling on subject classes. The growth of human power to produce is seen to enable humanity to free itself from both material and social adversity, but unfreedom, exploitation and humiliation are the price which the mass of humanity pay for the part they play in contributing to that growth.;The theory of historical materialism gives rigorous form to the Marxist vision. In the first part of this book, Professor Cohen provides an exposition of historical materialism and defends it agains familiar objections. In the second part he expresses reservations of his own about the theory, and offers reformulations of it which seek to accommodate them. In the final section, he discusses the unfreedom and exploitation under which workers labour in contemporary class society.;Many of the articles which the book brings together are well known, but most have been substantially revised for the present collection. This present volume is a sequel to the author's "Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence" (OUP 1978). It should be a useful reference for students of politis, political philosophy, philosophy of history and Marxism.