The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

by Friedrich Engels (Author), EvelynReed (Introduction)

• New

  Paperback
  1972

  $15.81

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $15.37

  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.