Deep History

Blends insights from several disciplines to offer a general theory of social evolution.

Does history have a direction? Are there principles that unify our experience and show connections among diverse places, times, and cultures? Seeking to answer these questions, Deep History offers a fresh theory of social evolution while thinking grandly about the human condition. With his theory based in the Marxian and historical materialist tradition, David Laibman starts from scratch and utilizes some of the best insights in economics and economic history, sociology, political science, anthropology, history, and philosophy to construct a new framework for understanding the most general aspects of social evolution. He then applies this framework to modern era capitalist societies and, projecting it on a postcapitalist or socialist future, captures an understanding of the core momentum that has characterized our lived experience, a momentum considerate of diversity, contingency, and the role of human consciousness over time.