Frederick Engels (1820-1895), was a renowned German philosopher, social scientist, and journalist, who, alongside his close collaborator Karl Marx, played a pivotal role in the development of communist theory and laid the foundation for modern socialism. Engels was born in Barmen, Prussia (now Wuppertal, Germany) into a wealthy textile family. Despite his bourgeois background, Engels was deeply moved by the plight of the working class, which he observed firsthand in his father's factories, and became a fierce critic of capitalist society. He met Marx in Paris in 1844, and this marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship and intellectual partnership. Together, they published the seminal work, 'The Communist Manifesto' in 1848, a political pamphlet that has since become one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Engels's work, 'Socialism: Utopian and Scientific' (1880), stands as a significant text aimed at distinguishing the Marxist concept of scientific socialism from the utopian socialism of earlier thinkers. This book illustrates Engels's expertise in distilling complex ideas into accessible concepts, demonstrating his profound influence on the working-class movement and his contributions to dialectical materialism and the theory of historical materialism. Engels's literary style, characterized by clear exposition and incisive critique, has resonated through ages, cementing his place as a crucial figure in the annals of political thought.
