Class Struggle Rightly Conceived

Karl Marx is famous for drawing attention to the idea of class struggle. Yet remarkably in 1852, historian David Hart recounts, Marx wrote, "[A]s far as I am concerned, the credit for having discovered the existence and the conflict of classes in modern society does not belong to me. Bourgeois historians presented the historical development of this class struggle, and the economists showed its economic anatomy long before I did." By "bourgeois historians" and "economists" Marx meant laissez-faire liberals such as Charles Comte, Charles Dunoyer, and other early nineteenth-century French writers. In light of Marx's words, it's worth exploring "the historical development of this class struggle" as seen from the perspective of the classical liberals.

The rest of this week's TGIF column, "Class Struggle Rightly Conceived," is at the Foundation for Economic Education website.