Marx’s own emphasis shifted with political phases of revolution and reaction

Evidence

Karl Korsch has shown the meaning of their alternation in Marx’s own personal development: the emphasis on the subjective factor, on history as class struggle, which is of course most evident in the Manifesto (1848), reflects a period of genuine revolutionary activity, in which therefore revolutionary forces were able to feel history as the result of their own praxis. The work on Das Kapital (1867), however, which strongly emphasizes the importance of economic factors and the internal evolution of the economy, corresponds to a period of reaction (the Second Empire) in which it is necessary precisely to show that revolutions do not occur until the time is ripe, but that they are also the inevitable result of the working out of internal economic contradictions. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 580

Categorization

• XREF: Korsch’s account of Marx’s alternation prefigures the later Adorno/Benjamin debate over revolutionary vs. historical materialist method that Jameson engages. — connects to: Marx himself capitulated before overwhelming circumstances without acknowledging it — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 971; Marx’s theories of democracy and nation formed in response to the 1848-49 defeats; Friedman’s rise marked a shift from Hayekian sensibility to a public-facing rhetorical mode — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 385
• SEED: Essay angle: the rhetoric of ‘the time is not yet ripe’ as a function of political climate rather than objective truth — how dialectical theory tracks its own historical moment.

Broader Connections

• Marx’s theories of democracy and nation formed in response to the 1848-49 defeats #exemplifies (0.85)
• Marx himself capitulated before overwhelming circumstances without acknowledging it #expands (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 971