Episode Twenty-Six: Karl Marx and Historical Materialism: Part Two

Episode 26 of the House of Dissent podcast expands on Marx's theory of historical materialism, focusing on the division of labour, consciousness, and alienation. The host traces Marx’s writings from the German Ideology and the 1844 Manuscripts through to Das Kapital, and connects them to later thinkers like Lukács and the Frankfurt School, as well as contemporary figures such as Xi Jinping and Francis Fukuyama. The episode explores how industrial and post-industrial changes, commodity fetishism, mass media, and advertising shape class relations and consciousness, and considers why proletarian revolution did not emerge in capitalist societies. The final segment previews a discussion of Fukuyama’s 'end of history' thesis in the next episode.