The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Penguin Classics brings this seminal work by Engels back in to print, with a new introduction by historian Tristram Hunt The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies. Under this patriarchal system, women were servants and, effectively, prostitutes. Only Communism would herald the dawn of communal living and a new sexual freedom and, in turn, the role of the state would become superfluous. —- ISBN: 9780141191119 | ISBN10: 0141191112 | ISBN-13: 978-0141191119