Poverty, Illness, and Filth: The Issue of Class in Industrial England

Friedrich Engels wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England while he worked in his father's textile firm, living in the early industrial hub of Manchester, England.[1] This particular edition of Engels' book was published in 1958 by Stanford University Press and it was translated and edited by W.O. Henderson and W.H. Chaloner. Including the appendix and index, the book totals 386 pages. The work itself was revolutionary for its content which was one of the earliest works of literature to heavily criticize the ills of the industrial revolution. For Engels, Conditions of the Working Class in England established his fame in Germany and has remained famous as a classic account of urban conditions during the period of the industrial revolution.[2] Years later, Engels would be somewhat overshadowed by his partner in both politics and literature, Karl Marx.[3] However, after studying Engels' deep exploration of a time in England in which an overpopulated labor force and a selfishly capitalistic upper class combined to cause conditions of poverty beyond belief; it is evident how emotionally and politically compelled he was to write and expose the unfair treatment of the lower classes in industrial England to the world.

Engels sets out to describe the horrid working and living conditions that the Industrial Revolution has thrust upon the poorest of the working class in 1845 England. He hopes that by his description of the human travesties that have occurred, he will prove why capitalism favors the upper classes so much that members of the lower classes are cursed to suffer destitute lives filled with poverty. This poverty is more than just relative; for it is so encompassing that it pushes its victims to the depths of starvation and unsanitary, inhumane living conditions. Engels main claim throughout his book is that these crass working conditions have been caused by a number of factors, but mainly the Industrial Revolution in 19^th century England and the capitalism that its success is promotes.[4]