On the Meaning of ‘All Power to the Soviets!’: Was the October Revolution a Bait-and-Switch Operation? - Historical Materialism All Power to the Soviets! (Vsia vlast sovetam!) is one of the most famous political slogans of all time. But what exactly did this slogan mean? What did the Bolsheviks say when they explained and defe...

Now online: 'On the Meaning of "All Power to the Soviets!": Was the October Revolution a Bait-and-Switch Operation?' by Lars T. Lih.

Dance, Labour and Abstraction - Historical Materialism Josefine Wikström’s book Task Dance and Event Score: A Critique of Performance is a very timely and compelling contribution to the understanding of labour in art theory.

Now online: 'Dance, Labour and Abstraction', Dave Beech reviews Josefine Wikström’s book *Task Dance and Event Score: A Critique of Performance*.

For all the Phil A. Neel heads out there...

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a development from ‘Rhythm 69 no.20, William Morris Block Printed Pattern Book with Hans Richter storyboard for “Rhythmus 25”’ paint and wallpaper on canvas, 2007.
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2797-a...

HM Istanbul 2026 Final Declaration - Historical Materialism From 3 to 5 April 2026, hundreds of people from every continent came together at the HM Istanbul 2026 Conference. Convened at Istanbul Bilgi University, Santral Campus, the conference took place under...

Now online: A report from the Historical Materialism Istanbul conference, which took place earlier this month.

Congratulations to all the comrades organising and attending!

ICYMI: Cinzia Arruzza's review of Nancy Holmstrom's From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View ( @histmat.bsky.social , @haymarketbooks.org ) is still live on our website.

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a development of 'Construct 32, Morris, Acorn / Rodchenko, Untitled Textile Design', pen on wallpaper mounted on linen (2006). www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2789-m...

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art developed from ‘Rhythm 69 no. 9, paint and wallpaper on canvas (2007).
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2796-t...

Front cover of the book with the text “A Podcast on Our Recent Title.”

🎧 New podcast!

Kristin Ciupa discusses "The Political Economy of Oil in Venezuela" from the Historical Materialism series, exploring Venezuela’s oil economy, class conflict, and global market dynamics.

Listen: lnkd.in/eMHBcRMD

Book: lnkd.in/evjHxzJS

Behind our Backs (with Amy De'Ath, Colleen Lye, and Chris Nealon) YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory

In Behind Our Backs, Amy De'Ath develops a new type of literary criticism attuned to the way our lives are shaped by capital's impersonal compulsion.

New: @histmat.bsky.social hosted a book discussion with Amy De'Ath, Colleen Lye, & Chris Nealon

#ReadUP

Twenty-third Annual Conference - Historical Materialism Call for Paper is Online and submission form open! Planetary Warscapes Ablaze: Imperial Mutations in Infernal Times 5-8 November 2026, SOAS, Russell Square, Central London Deadline for abstracts: Fr...

The CfP for this year's Historical Materialism annual conference in London, under the title 'Planetary Warscapes Ablaze: Imperial Mutations in Infernal Times', is now online!

Mark it in your calendars, prepare your abstracts, book your travel!

This years poster for the Historical Materialism Conference London www.historicalmaterialism.org/.../twenty-t...
The image is a development of ‘Rhythm 69, painting 65, paint and wallpaper on canvas 2007.

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a development of 'Variant 1, Morris, Trellis / Stepanova, Optical', paint on wallpaper mounted on canvas, 2006. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2795-b...

A Review of Nancy Holmstrom’s "From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View" – Spectre Journal Cinzia Arruzza reviews Nanvy Holmstrom's rigorous philosophical development of Marx's theories in From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View.

spectrejournal.com/a-review-of-...

Read Cinzia Arruzza's review of Nancy Holmstrom's From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View ( @histmat.bsky.social , @haymarketbooks.org ).

The programme for Historical Materialism Cluj, which runs from 16–18 April 2026, can now be found online from the link below. Hope to see you there!

Adolf Bibič - Historical Materialism Adolf Bibič (1933-1996) was born in Bizeljsko and studied in Ljubljana, the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Germany. He completed his PhD thesis on Hegel and Marx in the field of political...

Now online: a new entry to our figures section on Adolf Bibič by Marko Hočevar.

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a detail of ‘Construct 63, Morris, Golden Lily / Malevich, Suprematist Composition’, paint and wallpaper on canvas (2006).
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1972-t...

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Art is a ‘Digital montage of a Luibov Popova Untitled Textile Design and a Bauhaus wallpaper’, 2025. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2931-t...

Jürgen Habermas Was West Germany’s World-Spirit - Historical Materialism With the passing of Jürgen Habermas, the world lost more than just another philosopher. His dedication to democratic debate and regulated, welfare-state capitalism made him the veritable personificati...

Now online: 'Jürgen Habermas was West Germany’s World-Spirit' by Alex Demirović.

Reckoning with Habermas - Historical Materialism Habermas's errors and even his blind spots do not diminish his intellectual stature. Without him, the darkness deepens still further in a Germany and a Europe that appear increasingly adrift.

Now online: 'Reckoning with Habermas' by Giorgio Cesarale.

‘The most important was that Backhaus took the subtitle of Capital consistently seriously: Marx’s project is a critique of political economy, not a better political economy.’

Nadja Rakowitz & Frank Engster: Hans-Georg Backhaus (1929-2026)

Hans-Georg Backhaus (1929-2026) - Historical Materialism From Hans-Georg Backhaus we did not only learn how to read Marx, but also how to keep one’s backbone when the wind blows from the opposite direction.

Now online: Nadja Rakowitz and Frank Engster, 'Hans-Georg Backhaus (1929-2026)'.

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. The art is a section from ‘Painting 32, Rhythm 69', paint and wallpaper on canvas, 2007.
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Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a development of 'Rhythm 69 no. 65', paint and wallpaper on canvas 2007.
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2786-l...

Cover for Haymarket Books, Historical Materialism book series. Cover art is a development of Construct 21, Kathleen Kersey for Morris & Co. Arbutus / Kasimir Malevich, Fabric Ornament No. 12, paint and wallpaper on canvas, 2005.
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2783-t...

From Communism to Work Democracy. The Social and Political Life of Wilhelm Reich - Historical Materialism Philip W. Bennett Author: Philip W. Bennett From Communism to Work Democracy is the first book devoted solely to Wilhelm Reich’s social and political thought and activities. It is an intellectual hist...

Soon published: *From Communism to Work Democracy: The Social and Political Life of Wilhelm Reich* by Philip W. Bennett.

Ten Years After Ellen Meiksins Wood: Reading Political Theory Under Historical Pressure - Historical Materialism Ten years on, what would it mean to read political thought as a record of struggle, not a museum of ideas?

Ten years after the death of Ellen Meiksins Wood, I wrote a short piece revisiting her method of social history of political theory — reading ideas under the historical pressures of social property relations and class struggle. @histmat.bsky.social

www.historicalmaterialism.org/article/ten-...

The Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism (HCDM) books covers.

The Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism reaches its second volume! This selection offers key Marxist concepts, histories of social movements, and debates on culture, politics, and philosophy.

Vol 1: brill.com/edcollbook...
Vol 2: brill.com/edcollbook...

#HistoricalMaterialism #OpenAccess

Marx and Douglass in Their Time The Communist and the Revolutionary Liberal in the Second American Revolution: Comparing Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass in Real-Time By August H. Nimtz and Kyle A. Edwards Leiden: Brill, 2024, 42…

"A brief review cannot do justice to this excellent work of committed scholarship, part of the outstanding Historical Materialism [ @histmat.bsky.social ] book series. ... the book speaks to a much broader, long-term project of political reclamation."

againstthecurrent.org/atc241/marx-...

The Unconscious Spirit of Communism. Kōjin Karatani’s Reconstruction of Marx - Historical Materialism Nadir Lahiji Author: Nadir Lahiji This book is an attempt to introduce Kōjin Karatani and his work to a larger public, placing his reconstruction of Marx at its centre. An expository work that tries t...

Soon to be published: *The Unconscious Spirit of Communism: Kōjin Karatani’s Reconstruction of Marx* by Nadir Lahiji, with a foreword by Agon Hamza (@agonhamza.bsky.social).