system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What does it mean to be a Marxist historian?

I had a professor in college (teaching a core curriculum survey of western philosophy course) who described himself as a Marxist, but when we actually did some readings from communist manifesto and das kapital didn't seem to hold it in particularly high esteem, and clarified that being Marxist didn't necessarily mean holding close to all of Marx's views.

So what does being a Marxist historian probably mean to this professor, since it clearly doesn't mean a close devotion to Marx's stages of development?
gpt
A Marxist historian is a historian who interprets history through the framework of Marxism. This includes things like looking at the nature of class struggle in a particular period of time, or understanding beliefs, cultural customs, morals, religions, etc. through the base and superstructure model as time progresses. It's hard to know what exactly your professor means without elaborating more, but *The Communist Manifesto* is often not viewed as prescriptive by 2015 Marxism because it was meant only to apply to 19th century Western Europe and not as a universal model, and the majority of *Capital* is a critique of capitalism rather than a historical overview.

If you're looking for a good contemporary Marxist survey of world history then check out *A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals* by Marxist historian Neil Faulkner.