INTRODUCTION 
11 
power, for keeping the mass of the people quiet 
while they plundered them. 
The Economic Interpretation of History proceeds 
by quite different methods; its purpose is simply to 
get at the truth and the whole truth, and the effect 
which it produces on the mind is exactly the oppo 
site from that wrought by the theological method. 
It is a study of the development of society, and by 
society is meant all the people, with their facilities 
for getting a living, their institutions and ideas. It 
has very little to do with either special events or 
particular individuals. An individual has no im 
portance at all, excepting in his relation to all the 
people, and then the people are the important thing; 
he is merely an incident. And the mainspring of 
growth and action is found in the nature of the 
people themselves, and not in any outside power. 
But above all, it traces the ways in which the races 
of men get their living, for all other developments 
depend upon changes and improvements in the ways 
of producing the food and the clothing of the race. 
When a person sees that the conditions in which 
he lives are due to causes which can and do change 
from time to time, and when he sees that such changes 
are the result of new knowledge put to practical use, 
or of new inventions or discoveries which have been 
made by common men like himself, it puts new hope 
and courage into him. When he sees that improve 
ments can be made by people simply getting to 
gether and making them, he takes a new attitude al