The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844

Originally published in German in 1845 and translated into English in 1885, “The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844” is the influential study of the hazards of the Industrial Revolution by the German philosopher Frederick Engels. This important contribution to the development of modern Socialism was written while Engels spent two years living in Manchester, England, the city traditionally viewed as where the Industrial Revolution began. Engels viewed England’s productivity and efficiency in manufacturing to have resulted in a more mature example of the conditions of the working class than could be found in Europe or the United States. Engels discovered that the industrial workers were far worse off in the large industrial city than those in the nearby rural areas, as the workers suffered from higher rates of disease and early death. Factory workers made less money and their lives were increasingly unpleasant and unhealthy. Karl Marx was greatly impressed and persuaded by Engels’ work and the two went on to collaborate and publish their seminal work, “The Communist Manifesto”, in 1848. “The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844” remains an important contribution to the history of the workers’ rights movement and modern Socialist theory. This edition follows the translation of Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky.