<P> The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World from the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests is a 1981 book by the British classical historian G.E.M. de Ste . Croix, a fellow of New College, Oxford . The book became a classic of Marxist historiography . </P> <P> De Ste . Croix, a fellow of New College, Oxford, makes a wide - ranging attempt to establish the validity of historical materialist analysis of the ancient world, among other historical periods . De Ste . Croix begins with the attempt to define exactly what terms such as "class", "exploitation", "surplus" and "mode of production" mean, in the sense they were used by Karl Marx . In his interpretation of Marxism, he acknowledges a debt to Gerald Cohen's Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (1978) and Leszek Kołakowski's Main Currents of Marxism (1976). </P> <P> Addressing diverse historical periods, De Ste . Croix covers questions as varied as the emergence of democracy in Ancient Athens and the social importance of the decline of the Greek city - state during the Roman Empire . In defending the viability of' class struggle' as an analytical framework applicable to the ancient world, De Ste . Croix claims that Marx's conceptions are remarkably close to Aristotle's political philosophy and Thucydides' historiography . He cites numerous fourth and fifth - century BC sources to argue that Greek writers themselves (including Plato) saw political tendencies rooted ultimately in economic interests . </P> <P> There is also lengthy discussion of the significance of the mode by which surplus value is generated . De Ste . Croix argues that a mode of surplus extraction, a concept devised by Marx, is significant and is not necessarily the same as the mode of production engaged in by the majority of a population . </P>

Class struggle in the ancient greek world pdf