Editions

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780141191119

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 14mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 179g

  • RRP: £14.99

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies. Under this patriarchal system, women were servants and, effectively, prostitutes. Only Communism would herald the dawn of communal living and a new sexual freedom and, in turn, the role of the state would become superfluous.

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780141191119

  • Length: 240  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 14mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 179g

  • RRP: £14.99

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About the Author

Friedrich Engels

Friederich Engels (1820-95), German philosopher, the son of a factory worker who supervised his father's business in Manchester. He wrote influential essays on the social and political conditions in Britain in the 1840s. He collaborated with Marx in writing The German Ideology, the Manifesto of the Communist Party, and Das Kapital.

Friedrich Engels

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