Karl Marx on the transition from feudalism to capitalism

Studies of Marx's theory of history are complicated by the fact that Marx himself never provided a systematic treatment of its central principles. As a result, the task of elaborating historical materialism has fallen to Marx's interpreters, who are required to distill its tenets from Marx's historical writings and from general statements in which he summarized his historical method. Within the last decade, this task has attracted considerable scholarly attention occasioned by Cohen's successful restoration of an orthodox version of Marx's theory that had fallen into desuetude. On this reading, historical materialism is guided by the thesis "that history is, fundamentally, the growth of human productive power, and that forms of society (which are organized around economic structures) rise and fall according as they enable and promote, or prevent and discourage, that growth"1