Remarks on the Embarrassed Publishing History of Engels, Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England

Wilfried Nippel ()
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Wilfried Nippel: Humboldt University

A chapter in 200 Years of Friedrich Engels, 2022, pp 107-120 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In 1845, Friedrich Engels published Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. He suggested that his account owed much to his “own observations” during his stay in Manchester from December 1842 to August 1844. In fact, that played only a minor role in comparison to the use of written sources. In later decades, Engels was often asked to publish an updated version but reacted dilatorily. It was only the offer of an English translation to be published in the USA (1887) that motivated Engels to republish the old text and to deal with the period from 1845 to 1885 only in a preface. Thus, he could acknowledge the great economic and social progress in England and at the same time claim that England’s prosperity would dwindle since it could no longer dominate the world market; that would lead to a rebirth of socialism. Engels might have declared his 1845 book a pioneer work of materialist analysis, but he could not overcome his habit to correct old prognoses by making new ones.

Keywords: Friedrich Engels; Karl Marx; Manchester; Industrial revolution; B140; B190; B300; B310 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-10115-1_8

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