eBook Engels, Manchester, and the Working Class epub

When Frederick Engels died in 1895, V.I. Lenin was already an active revolutionary, and wrote an obituary, which I will quote two excerpts from:

"Engels got to know the proletariat in England, in the center of English industry, Manchester, where he settled in 1842, entering the service of a commercial firm of which his father was a shareholder. Here Engels not only sat in the factory office but wandered about the slums in which the workers were cooped up, and saw their poverty and misery with his own eyes. But he did not confine himself to personal observations. He read all that had been revealed before him about the condition of the British working class and carefully studied all the official documents he could lay his hands on. The fruit of these studies and observations was the book which appeared in 1845: The Condition of the Working Class in England. We have already mentioned what was the chief service rendered by Engels in writing The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: With a Preface written in 1892. Even before Engels, many people had described the sufferings of the proletariat and had pointed to the necessity of helping it. Engels was the first to say that the proletariat is not only a suffering class; that it is, in fact, the disgraceful economic condition of the proletariat that drives it irresistibly forward and compels it to fight for its ultimate emancipation. And the fighting proletariat will help itself. The political movement of the working class will inevitably lead the workers to realize that their only salvation lies in socialism."

"From 1845 to 1847 Engels lived in Brussels and Paris, combining scientific work with practical activities among the German workers in Brussels and Paris. Here Marx and Engels established contact with the secret German Communist League, which commissioned them to expound the main principles of the socialism they had worked out. Thus arose the famous The Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels, published in 1848. This little booklet is worth whole volumes: to this day its spirit inspires and guides the entire organized and fighting proletariat of the civilized world."

This is in large part a book about a hugely important book, and although not essential, it's worth reading Engels first; if you don't you will want to afterwards. This looks at Engels, at the social conditions of the time, as shown not only by Engels research, but also in the works of many fiction writers like Charles Dickens who saw some of what Engels saw.

I'm waiting for the Raoul Peck film 'The Young Karl Marx' to open in the US.

For more on the life and Marx, his family, and Engels, let me suggest a wonderful book, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution. For another of Engels' most important short writings, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.

And for those interested in socialism today, I recommend a few books: Is Socialist Revolution in the Us Possible?: A Necessary Debate Among Working People,Are They Rich Because They're Smart?: Class, Privilege and Learning Under Capitalism,Are They Rich Because They're Smart?: Class, Privilege and Learning Under Capitalism,Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, and It's the Poor Who Face the Savagery of the US Justice System: The Cuban Five Talk of Their Lives Within the Us Working Class.

Another interesting, although difficult, work by the author of the celebrated "The Other Victorians."

As in his previous, and much better known, work Marcus employs the techniques and tools of literary criticism to examine a historical event: the early industrial revolution in England, it's effects on the average worker [men, women and children], it's effects on English society and the English economy [as typified by the city of Manchester], and how these changes were analyzed by Frederich Engels in his work "The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844."

As in "The Other Victorians" Marcus follows a simple plan of analysis moving from macroanalysis to microanalysis. He begins with a general chapter on the effects of the early industrial revolution in England, followed by a chapter on it's specific effects on the city of Manchester, followed by a lengthy biographical chapter about Engels. This builds up to the two lengthy chapters wherein he analyzes Engels' "The Condition of the Working Class..." Marcus closes with a brief tentative concluding chapter. It's worth the wait and the effort to work through the material, although it's not going to be easy going for most [and I was no exception].

I'd recommend, for those without extensive knowledge of this historical period, or mid-19th century economic class analysis, that they first read Marcus' better known study "The Other Victorians," if only to acquaint oneself with Marcus methods of analysis and style of writing. He follows a similar pattern of anaysis, and, let's face it, for most of us pornography and sex is a much easier sell than is 19th century economic class analysis. And, you'll have a better idea of what to expect and how Marcus goes about achieving his intellectual objectives. I read this several years before I read "The Other Victorians" and having recently reread "Engels, Manchester, and the Working Class" the latter work is much clearer and sharper now after having read "The Other victorians."

Each one is well worth the time and effort it will demand.

This review does not do this work the justice it deserves [as well, there are several reviews on "The Other victorians" posted on AMAZON], and I'm hoping a more skilled and thoughtful review of this work will be forthcoming in the near future

I intend to read Engel's book on England in 1844 and read this book as a precursor. My knowledge of that era is limited, but growing, and so I have found this book by Steven Markus useful and inexpensive too.

I have no knowledge of Steven Marcus' work. I found the book's content interesting and the references will be useful. I feel much better informed having read the book.

Now to read Engels.