isie that has simplified the class antagonisms that always define a society. Marx wrote: The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones" (Tucker, 1978, 474).
Marx says that bourgeois society has simplified the antagonisms that existed before so that now there are only two great hostile camps standing as two classes directly facing one another--the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marx describes these antagonisms in his writings, shows how they developed, how they operate in society, and what the consequences will be for the historical development of society.
All societies are defined by economic relations, and the economic relations of society are defined by class structures. The trend in history is toward simplification. In the past, say
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