Marx derived the idea of class struggle from race-struggle historiography

Evidence

After all, it should not be forgotten that toward the end of his life, Marx told Engels in a letter written in 1882 that “You know very well where we found our idea of class struggle; we found it in the work of the French historians who talked about the race struggle.” — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 2457

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which French historians exactly, and how directly did their race-war narrative get translated into Marx’s class terms?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 2457
• XREF: connects to: Class struggle derives historically from the earlier discourse of race struggle — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 96; The dialectic neutralized a prior historical discourse of race struggle — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 298

Broader Connections

• Class struggle derives historically from the earlier discourse of race struggle #corroborates (1.00) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 96
• The dialectic neutralized a prior historical discourse of race struggle #complicates (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 298