Real Dictionary

historical materialism in American English
an interpretation of history, esp. in Marxist theory, that holds that the chief determinants of society and social institutions are economic factors
noun: the doctrine that all forms of social thought, as art or philosophy, and institutions, as the family or the state, develop as a superstructure founded on an economic base; that they reflect the character of economic relations and are altered or modified a

historical materialism in British English
noun: the part of Marxist theory maintaining that social structures derive from economic structures and that these are transformed as a result of class struggles, each ruling class producing another, which will overcome and destroy it, the final phase being the