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  • Published: 11 June 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141191119
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $34.00

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.

  • Published: 11 June 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141191119
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $34.00

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