Abstract

Marx claimed that the Agricultural Revolution in eighteenth-century England-as he presented it-is explained by his general theory of history. By this he meant that sentences describing the Revolution are logical consequences of his theory. But according to Popper's theory of falsification, if these statements are false , then Marx's theory itself must be false as well. Recent research shows that Marx's statements about the Agricultural Revolution are indeed false, in particular Marx's contention that the enclosure movement drove the yeomen from the countryside and thereby created the urban proletariat. Marx erred because he applied the historical and scientific methods badly: he relied on inadequate sources, was swayed by emotion, immunized statements against disconfirmation, and committed errors of logic