historical materialism

Statt dessen aber dient die Phrase des historischen Materialismus (man kann eben alles zur Phrase machen) nur zu vielen jüngeren Deutschen nur dazu, ihre eignen relativ dürftigen historischen Kenntnisse - die ökonomische Geschichte liegt ja noch in den Windeln! - schleunigst systematisch zurechtzukonstruieren und sich dann sehr gewaltig vorzukommen.

1967 [1890 August 5], “Engels an Conrad Schmidt in Berlin”, in Marx-Engels-Werke, volume 37, page 437; translated as “Engels to Conrad Schmidt in Berlin”, in Marx/Engels Collected Works, volume 49, translation of original in German, 2001, page 8

And, thus, I hope even British respectability will not be overshocked if I use, in English as well as in so many other languages, the term "historical materialism", to designate that view of the course of history which seeks the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of society, in the changes in the modes of production and exchange, in the consequent division of society into distinct classes, and in the struggles of these classes against one another.

1892, Friedrich Engels, “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”, in Marxists Internet Archive, 1892 English Edition Introduction (General Introduction and the History of Materialism)