What Is Historical Materialism?

historical materialism argues that history is driven not by ideas, but rather changes in the material conditions of society. In opposition to this idea of historical materialism, we have this concept of idealism. And idealism kind of argues that if we want to understand historical change, we'd understand the ideas that drive those changes. We think about a concrete example that i think will be really familiar for our american audience at least. The revolution was motivated more or less by this kind of noble belief, these great ideas. It was a conflict between freedom and tyranny.