Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a prominent German communist philosopher and British industrialist. He co-wrote (with Karl Marx) theCommunist Manifesto, and also used the profits from his Manchester textile mill to provide Marx with financial support in his writing ofDas Kapital.

Despite his importance in the development of Marxism, he isn't mentioned all that much outside discussions of the history of Marxism. This is, some people would contend, because he did the impossible and managed to be more boring than Marx; his Conditions of the Working Class in England, which was written based on his experience in the course of running his mill, is sometimes cited as being even more boring than Das Kapital.

His Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State had a large influence on the development of Marxist class theory andhistorical determinism. Ironically, it was drawn mostly from Ancient Society by Lewis Henry Morgan, an American capitalist railroad tycoon and Republican politician.