Marx Passage on Historical Materialism & Reminders

As I promised, below are the actual words of Marx which are considered THE classical statement of his HISTORICAL MATERIALISM (in contrast to the paraphrase of this in the text on p. 126):

"In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; relations of production that correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their being that determines their consciousness."
(from Preface to "The Critique of Political Economy," 1859)

Although the above passage suggests that Marx was a hard-core "economic determinist" (the idea that the economy determines everything), some commentators (with whom I agree) have noted that it was really only in capitalism that he felt the economy had such a determinant influence on all other aspects of society.

I will try to wrap up Chapter 5 and Marx next Tuesday, 3/17. I will also make time for review for the Midterm Exam on Thursday, 3/19. In the meantime, remember I will post the family questions I accept and will be on that exam sometime on Monday.