Back to book
Historical Materialism
The argument proper: capitalist production socializes labor while appropriation stays individual, and that contradiction works itself out as class antagonism and the anarchy of production — competition, recurring crises of overproduction, then trusts and state ownership as capitalism's own admission that its productive forces have outgrown it. The resolution Engels foresees: the proletariat seizes the means of production, the state "dies out," and humanity leaps from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.
Socialized production vs capitalist appropriationThe anarchy of production and the industrial reserve armyCrises of overproduction: "too much civilization"Joint-stock companies, trusts, and state ownership as forced socializationThe proletarian revolution, the dying-out of the state, and the "kingdom of freedom"