Author: William James Ghent

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2016-09-04

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 9781333464363

Excerpt from Appeal Socialist Classics, Vol. 2: The Science of Socialism Whilst, however, the revolution in the conception of Nature could only be made in proportion to the corre sponding positive materials furnished by research, al ready much earlier certain historical facts had occurred which led to a decisive change in the conception of his tory. In 1881, the first working class rising took place in Lyons; between 1838 and 1842, the first national work ing class movement, that of the English Chartists, reached its height. The class struggle between prole tariat and bourgeoisie came to the front in the history of the most advanced countries in Europe, in proportion to the development, upon the one hand, of modern industry, upon the other, of the newly acquired political suprem acy of the bourgeoisie. Facts more and more strenuously gave the lie to the teachings of bourgeois economy as to the identity of the interests of capital and labor, as to the universal harmony and universal prosperity that would be the consequence of unbridled competition. All these things could no longer be ignored, any more than the French and English Socialism, which was their theoretical, though very imperfect, expression. But the old idealist conception of history, which was not yet dis lodged, knew nothing Of class struggles based upon eco nomic interests, knew nothing of economic interests; pro duction and all economic relations appeared in it only as incidental, subordinate elements in the history of civiliza tion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.