Full Idea
The materialist conception of history tells us that human beings are totally subject to forces they do not understand and control.
Gist of Idea
Materialist history says we are subject to incomprehensible forces
Source
Peter Singer (Marx [1980], 6)
Book Reference
Singer,Peter: 'Marx' [OUP 1996], p.34
A Reaction
How does Marx know the forces? An exceptionally influential idea, because it is a modern commonplace that we have very little control over our own lives (apart from right wingers asserting that 'you can have anything if you really really want it').