The German Ideology

The manuscript Marx and Engels wrote in 1845-46 against the Young Hegelians — Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner — and the place where the materialist conception of history is first set out at length: that consciousness follows from the material conditions of life rather than the reverse. They never published it; it reached print only in the twentieth century, long after both were dead.

Why it’s on the list: It is the materialist entry in History, Historiography, and the Philosophy of History, read alongside Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality, Löwith’s Meaning in History and Strauss’s Natural Right and History — a course that lines up the competing accounts of what actually drives history and makes students argue between them.

Where I saw it: Assigned in History, Historiography, and the Philosophy of History on the University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list — “65 Texts Our Students Are Reading”, 65 assigned texts across 12 courses, shared by @uaustinorg on November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this was assigned in.
• The University of Austin — the institution whose course list this is.
• Karl Marx — co-author.
• Socialism — the tradition this text founds.
• History
• Ideological Family Tree — where this sits on the tree.