Historical materialism is a break with rather than an inversion of Hegel.

Evidence

Marx’s conceit was to presume that the theory of historical materialism explained history; but, at worst, it merely rearranged history. And at its best (for it must be acknowledged that there are some precious insights in Marxism), historical materialism still only encapsulated an analytical procedure which resonated with bourgeois Europe, merely one fraction of the world economy. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 81 (#expands, via linked claim)

Marx’s “materialism” adds to this premise at least one other requirement: that the relationship must be thought within determinate historical conditions. It must be made historically specific . It is this second requirement which distinguishes a historical materialist theory of human society and culture from, say, a materialism grounded in the simple fact of man’s physical nature (a “vulgar,” or as Marx calls it, an undialectical materialism) or one which gives the determining instance to technological development alone. What Karl Korsch, among others, has called “the principle of historical specificity” in Marx’s materialism is clearly enunciated in The German Ideology (where Marx’s theory becomes, for the first time, fully “historical”) and afterward in his mature work. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historical materialism rearranged rather than explained world history — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 81; Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881; Marx’s inversion of Hegel is oppositional, not a simple turn from idealism to materialism (+2 more)

Related

• Historical materialism is fundamentally historicist, not metaphysical (similarity 0.89)
• Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism (similarity 0.88)
• Historical materialism rearranged rather than explained world history (similarity 0.87)
• Marx’s concept of historical specificity deepened between German Ideology and Capital (similarity 0.86)
• Marxism’s historical materialism reflects only European bourgeois experience, not universal history. (similarity 0.86)
• Historical specificity, not mere materialism, defines Marx’s theory of culture (similarity 0.86)
• Historical materialism requires no metaphysical-materialist foundation (similarity 0.85)
• Immanentism is progressive only when historicised and materialist (similarity 0.83)
• Croce and Korsch both read historical materialism as a mere interpretive canon (similarity 0.83)
• Marx treats culture as accumulated human mastery over nature, not mere description (similarity 0.82)
• Marx rejected any universal concept of production outside history. (similarity 0.81)
• Mature Marx employed structural rather than sequential causality (similarity 0.81)
• Marx grounded all social inquiry in material conditions of production and political economy (similarity 0.81)
• Marx’s materialist ideology theory built on Feuerbach but added revolutionary practice. (similarity 0.80)
• Marx distinguishes material economic transformation from ideological forms of consciousness (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Historical materialism rearranged rather than explained world history #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 81
• Historical specificity distinguishes Marx’s materialism from vulgar or technological determinism #expands (0.55) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 881