The Condition of the Working Class in England

Informationen zum Autor Born in Westphalia in 1820, Friedrich Engels was the son of a textile manufacturer. After military training in Berlin and already a convert to communism, Engels went to Manchester in 1842 to represent the family firm. A relationship with a mill-hand, Mary Bums, and friendship with local Owenites and Chartists helped to inspire his famous early work, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 . Collaboration with Marx began in 1844 and in 1847 he composed the first drafts of the Manifesto . After playing an active part in the German revolutions, Engels returned to work in Manchester until 1870, when he moved to London. He not only helped Marx financially, but reinforced their shared position through his own expositions of the new theory. After Marx’s death, he prepared the unfinished volumes of Capital for publication. He died in London in 1895. Klappentext Written when Engels was only twenty-four! and inspired in particular by his time living among the poor in Manchester! 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-depicting overcrowded housing! abject poverty! child labour! sexual exploitation! dirt and drunkenness-in a savage indictment of the greed of the bourgeoisie. His fascinating 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. A masterpiece of committed reporting and an impassioned call to arms! this is one of the great pioneering works of social history. Based on the original translation by Florence Wischnewetzky! this volume is edited by Victor Kiernan! whose foreword considers Engels's friendship with Marx! and the book's position as a seminal work of socialism. Also included are notes! a detailed index! new chronology and further reading and a revised forward. Zusammenfassung Written when Engels was only twenty-four, and inspired in particular by his time living among the poor in Manchester, 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—depicting overcrowded housing, abject poverty, child labour, sexual exploitation, dirt and drunkenness—in a savage indictment of the greed of the bourgeoisie. His fascinating 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. A masterpiece of committed reporting and an impassioned call to arms, this is one of the great pioneering works of social history.   Based on the original translation by Florence Wischnewetzky, this volume is edited by Victor Kiernan, whose foreword considers Engels’s friendship with Marx, and the book’s position as a seminal work of socialism. Also included are notes, a detailed index, new chronology and further reading and a revised forward.   Inhaltsverzeichnis The Condition of the Working Class in England - Friedrich Engels Edited with a Foreword by Victor Kiernan Foreword To the Working Classes of Great Britain Preface to the First German Edition Preface to the English Edition Introduction The state of the workers before the Industrial Revolution The jenny Emergence of the industrial and the agricultural proletariat The throstle, the mule, the power-loom, the steam-engine The victory of machine-work over hand-work The development of industrial might The cotton industry The hosiery manufacture The manufacture of lace Dyeing, bleaching, printing The manufacture of wool

List of contents

The Condition of the Working Class in England - Friedrich Engels Edited with a Foreword by Victor KiernanForeword
To the Working Classes of Great Britain
Preface to the First German Edition
Preface to the English Edition
Introduction
The state of the workers before the Industrial Revolution
The jenny
Emergence of the industrial and the agricultural proletariat
The throstle, the mule, the power-loom, the steam-engine
The victory of machine-work over hand-work
The development of industrial might
The cotton industry
The hosiery manufacture
The manufacture of lace
Dyeing, bleaching, printing
The manufacture of wool
The linen trade
The manufacture of silk
The production and manufacture of iron
Coal-mining
The production of pottery
Agriculture
Roadways, canals, railroads, steamboats
Summary
The emergence of the proletariat as a factor of national importance
The middle-class's view of the workers
The Industrial Proletariat
Classification of the proletariat
Centralization of property
The levers of modern manufacture
Centralization of population
The Great Towns
The impression produced by London
The social war and the system of general plundering
The lot of the poor
General description of the slums
In London: St. Giles and the adjoining quarters
Whitechapel
The interior of the workers' dwellings
The homeless in the parks
Night refuges
Dublin
Edinburgh
Liverpool
Factory towns: Nottingham, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield
Lancashire: General description
Bolton
Stockport
Ashton-under-Lyne
Stalybridge
Detailed description of Manchester: the general system of its building
The Old Town
The New Town
The method of construction of working-men's quarters
Courts and side streets
Ancoats
Little Ireland
Hulme
Salford
Summary
Lodging-houses
Overcrowdedness of population
Cellar dwellings
The clothing of the workers
Food
Tainted meat
Adulteration of provision
False weights, etc.
General conclusion
Competition
Competition among the workers determines the minimum of wages, competition among the property-holding people determines their maximum
The worker, the slave of the bourgeoisie, is forced to sell himself by the day, and by the hour
Surplus population
Commercial crises
A reserve army of workers
The hard lot of this reserve army during the crisis of 1842
Irish Immigration
The causes and figures
Description by Thomas Carlyle
Lack of cleanliness, crudeness and drunkenness among the Irishmen
The influence of Irish competition and of the contacts with the Irish upon the English workers
Results
Preliminary remarks
The influence of the above-described conditions on the health of the workers
The influence of large towns, dwellings, uncleanliness, etc.
The facts
Consumption
Typhus, in particular in London, Scotland, and Ireland
Digestive troubles
The results of drunkenness
Quack remedies
"Godfrey's Cordial"
Mortality among workers, especially among young children
Accusation of the bourgeoisie of social murder
Influence on the mental and moral condition of the workers
Absence of the necessary conditions for education
Inadequacy of evening and Sunday schools
Ignorance
The worker's living conditions give him a sort of practical training
Neglect of the workers' moral training
The law as the only instructor in morals
The worker's conditions of life tempt him to disregard law and morality
The influence of poverty and insecurity of existence upon the proletariat
Forced work
The centralization of the population
Irish immigration
The difference in character between the worker and the bourgeois
The proletarian's advantages over the bourgeois
The unfavourable sides of the prol

Product details

• Authors: Friedrich Engels, Victor Kiernan
• Assisted by: V. G. Kiernan (Editor), Victor Kiernan (Editor), Victor Kiernan (Introduction)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.08.1992
• EAN: 9780140444865
• ISBN: 978-0-14-044486-5
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 200 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Penguin Classics; Classics S; Penguin Classics; Classics S
• Subjects: Education and learning > Readings/interpretations/reading notes > English; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology