Friedrich Engels 
The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) is ranked alongside Karl Marx as one of the founders and developers of the Communist movement. Throughout his life he was active in various areas of writing, social science, political theory, and philosophy, authoring and co-authoring very significant works such as ‘The Communist Manifesto’ with Marx. His own 1845 work, ‘The Condition of the Working-Class in England’, was Engel’s first work, written after he spent two years in Manchester working as a businessman by day and a revolutionary activist by night. The book provides a graphic illustration of the Industrial Revolution and its negative effects on mill and factory laborers. Engels drew material from his own observations and detailed reports that reflected the disease and mortality rates of workers in rural areas and large cities. This classic Victorian social criticism made Engels extremely popular in his day, and has cemented a place for him in literary, philosophical, and political history.