Material conditions explain the Revolution better than its iconography
Evidence
It is unfashionable to say this, in post-Marxist times, but it is true: if you want to understand what happened in the Revolution and why, it is better to keep your eye on fluctuating bread prices, rather than fluctuating hemlines. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 716
Categorization
- XREF: This is Mantel’s own thesis statement against the biographical fashion history under review - mirrors her preference for structural causes over personality in Wolf Hall. — connects to: Writers unfreeze antique feeling stored in physical objects of history — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1148; Historical materialism rearranged rather than explained world history — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 81; Material conditions condition but never fully determine historical practice. (+4 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 716
Broader Connections
- Writers unfreeze antique feeling stored in physical objects of history
#complicates(0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1148 - Revolutionary consciousness arises from cultural idiom, not from productive relations
#contradicts(0.75)