Engels PSA

Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892), pp. 45, 48-53.*

This excerpt of Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 talks about the awful working class living conditions in Manchester, England. Freidrich Engels was an author and philosopher and was one of the fathers’ of Marxism along with Karl Marx. Engels is disgusted with the conditions and blames them on the Industrial Revolution. This book was written in 1892 which was almost 50 years after the events he is talking about and near the end of the Industrial Revolution. The excerpt describes the segregation between the rich and poor in Manchester and how polluted, grimy, and cramped the poor section was. He writes how there is debris and garbage everywhere and how the whole area smells foul. He also mentions that people live in tiny, cramped one-room homes that were sometimes even floorless. The issue with his book is that it was written 50 years after the events in it occurred and it is only from the perspective of a foreign communist. Engels calls the horrifying condition of Manchester “hell upon earth” and thinks that it is an awful and inhumane place to live. He explains how it is filthy and has heaps of garbage. He also says how it all smells foul and is polluted, especially the river. The cramped living quarters are also described. Freidrich Engels is trying to convince the reader of how it is inhumane to subject people to such an uncivilized way of life.

*The second line of the citation and the entire anotation should be indented.