The Condition of the Working Class in England (Classics)
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"This is a very nicely-produced edition at a price practical for course use. David McClellan's introduction is clear and useful."--J. Boyden, Tulane University
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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This forceful polemic explores the staggering human cost of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. Engels paints an unforgettable picture of daily life in the new industrial towns, and for miners and agricultural workers in a savage indictment of the greed of the bourgeoisie. His later preface, written for the first English edition of 1892 and included here, brought the story up to date in the light of forty years’ further reflection.
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The order of our investigation of the different sections of the proletariat follows naturally from the foregoing history of its rise. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The order of our investigation of the different sections of the proletariat follows naturally from the foregoing history of its rise. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is interesting as an historical peice of journalism and scientific investigation. It is equally interesting because it provides such a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary, working class people living in and around Manchester, Stockport and Stoke in the mid-Nineteenth Century.
It's often cited in modern discussions of complex systems as the book also gives an idea of the interactions between social, political and economic factors and their results in the real world. The origins of these much more modern ideas, how social and economic conditions interact, taking the holistic view etc. are all visible here.
It gives some ideas of what Engels must have been like and his compassion for the suffering of the people described is clear throughout the book.
It's often cited in modern discussions of complex systems as the book also gives an idea of the interactions between social, political and economic factors and their results in the real world. The origins of these much more modern ideas, how social and economic conditions interact, taking the holistic view etc. are all visible here.
It gives some ideas of what Engels must have been like and his compassion for the suffering of the people described is clear throughout the book.
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first book written to describe the lives of the working people in Victorian Britain. It paints a shocking picture of poverty, exploitation and the utter despair of the working class as they work themselves slowly to death without any reward, in a society where those in power do everything they can to make as much profit from the workers while denying them the most basic principles of human rights and dignity.
I had always been aware that Victorian Britain was well known for the poverty of its masses, but nothing prepared me for the detailed, horrifying descriptions of living and working conditions, starvation, disease and a stagnant existence of poverty in which there was literally no way out of except suicide.
For all its justified power, I do feel that Engels does tend to drift from being a critical and detatched observer in favour of spectacular tirades championing the case of the working class. Though this is clearly understandable as a result of what he saw and experienced in the numerous cities of England and Scotland in the twenty-two months he spent in Britian for the material of the book.
The first book to give the working class a voice in a society which entirely suppressed it, and a damning study of the cruel and exploitative nature of capitalism, which proves to be as relevant now (with the imergance of globalisation) as it was when first written in 1844.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Engels wrote this book between late 1842 and early 1845. While still in his very early 20s, he had already written extensively as a journalist for both English and German newspapers. At the time, England was undergoing significant political and economic changes - the Chartist movement was pushing, inter alia, for universal suffrage and the country was just coming out of a deep slump in economic activity, which had lasted from 1837 to 1842. Meanwhile the country was undergoing a massive wave of industrialisation that would see it soon become "the workshop of the world". Engels had moved to Manchester at the behest of his father to learn to be a businessman and Engels used the opportunity to write a report for his fellow radicals in Germany on the state of the working class given the massive upheavals taking place - a sort of prior warning what to expect should industrialisation take place in Germany - the original was published in German and an English version would only be released in 1886 for an American audience.
Engels vividly describes the working and living conditions of the working class predominantly, although not only, in Manchester, and links this to the economic developments taking place. This is based on researching Factories Inspectors reports - a method that was to be copied by Marx in Volume 1 of "Capital" and contemporary newspaper articles as well as his own eyewitness reports garnered by walking around the affected areas and interviewing locals. It is a very professional and accomplished work of investigative social reporting, and no less than UNESCO has included it on its list of most influential works of sociology.
There is no 'call to arms' here in this book - this is still to wait until "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848 but there are shades of "A specter is haunting Europe" particularly in the final chapter.
Marx was to compliment Engels long after for its passion and incisiveness. It is a classic of its times.
Engels vividly describes the working and living conditions of the working class predominantly, although not only, in Manchester, and links this to the economic developments taking place. This is based on researching Factories Inspectors reports - a method that was to be copied by Marx in Volume 1 of "Capital" and contemporary newspaper articles as well as his own eyewitness reports garnered by walking around the affected areas and interviewing locals. It is a very professional and accomplished work of investigative social reporting, and no less than UNESCO has included it on its list of most influential works of sociology.
There is no 'call to arms' here in this book - this is still to wait until "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848 but there are shades of "A specter is haunting Europe" particularly in the final chapter.
Marx was to compliment Engels long after for its passion and incisiveness. It is a classic of its times.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book for history, sociology or lit students
What can I say? This is an excellent read and extremly useful for students. Engels' style is readable and informative, and as he critiques so many aspects of life you can find... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Yetifeet77
The war of each against all
In this rightly called classic text, Marx's philosophical companion gives an in depth analysis of the ideology, the organization of the State and the working conditions in the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Luc REYNAERT
The Condition of the Working Class of England
A good read (all about the working class in Manchester) and other areas, you must read this book and find out what it was like,
Published 8 months ago by ali
Brilliant, a moving portrayal
Marx is often a heavy read; this by the young Engels isn't. The book combines its historical portrait of a time not far distant with incisive philosophical commentary. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Origen
Are we going there again?
Engels describes what happens when let-rip capitalism becomes all important. The point is well taken that when Britain was the richest country in the world owning an empire on... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Egmont
The way capitalism works
This book paints a very horrible picture of 19th century England, and also of capitalism in general. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mads Graff Lorenzen
This is capitalism!!! . . .
And, with all of its many faces and clever tricks, it always will be.
The Conditions of the Working Class in England is the social history of 19th Century England; it is... Read more
The Conditions of the Working Class in England is the social history of 19th Century England; it is... Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2009 by F. Lawton
The most powerful indictment of 19th century capitalism in existence
Friedrich Engels' classic "The Condition of the Working Class in England" was written when he was only twenty-four, and had but recently abandoned his Calvinist upbringing for a... Read more
Published on 11 May 2009 by M. A. Krul
The foundations of urban theory
In The Condition of the Working Class in England Engels immerses himself into the hitherto hidden world of the working class in Victorian Manchester. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2005 by N. Cotton
Truly shocking and enlightening
Engels paints a truly dreadful picture of poverty, disease and the suffering of the working class in Northern England at the time of the Industrial Revoultion and the rise of... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2003 by J. Maher
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