Frederick Engels: The Working Class In England

Frederick Engels was a german philosopher and revolutionary who preached the idea of Communism to a discouraged people of Europe. Engels’ many works revolve around revolutionary politics and sociology and is immortalized for its historical consequences seen throughout the twentieth century and seeping through into the twenty first century. His works of literature antagonized the classes and in many cases cause the proletariat (the class of wage earners, especially those who earn their living by manual labor or who are dependent for support on daily or casual employment; the working class) (dictionary.com, n.d) to rise against the upper classes of their societies and create societies which had never before seen. Engel’s methods of spreading …show more content…
The most popular was written during the time that Engels living in England being called, “The Condition of The Working Class In England”. The purpose of this article was that of exposure. Engels called out to the world in an attempt to expose the horrendous conditions that the working class in England has to face on a daily basis. He describes how people work the hours required to meet their basic needs and then work extra to no profit of their own, instead only bring more money into the pockets of their oppressors. Furthermore, he describes how the Bourgeois works to cover up the increasing poverty through the demolition of slums and construction of new industries to make a profit on. In this article we see Engels reveal his unfiltered early opinions on how British workers are being treated and the conditions that they are exposed to. The significance of such an article cannot be understated as it is important to note the style which is employed by Engels with his writing. The words are harsh yet true, and are meant to antagonise and upset. In a way Engels analyzed the direction of change and understood that it was heading in a negative direction. He understood that the reason for this negative change was that the Bourgois were the people who were conducting the change. He remarks in his article that the state of England in 1844 and 1864 is so drastically different that it would warrant an entire other novel to successfully analyze, he understood the drastic rate of change and the need to implement rapid social change to remedy the situation. Most importantly he knew the sources that the negative change was coming from, the rapid need by the imperialist European powers to industrialize so that they can stay competitive on the world stage and secure their own interests, even if that means that they must sacrifice the well being of their own people. Engels