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OverviewA remarkable new biography from one of Britain's leading young historians that recovers the co-founder of communism from the shadows of historyFriedrich Engels is one of the most intriguing and contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous Prussian mercantile family, he spent his life working in the Manchester cotton industry, riding to the Cheshire hounds, and enjoying the comfortable upper-middle-class existence of a Victorian gentleman. Yet Engels was also, with Karl Marx, the founder of international communism, which in the twentieth century came to govern one-third of the human race. He was the coauthor of The Communist Manifesto, a ruthless party tactician, and the man who sacrificed his best years so that Marx could write Das Kapital. His searing account of the Industrial Revolution, The Condition of the Working Class in England, remains one of the most haunting and brutal indictments of the human costs of capitalism. Far more than Marx's indispensable aide, Engels was a profound thinker in his own right--on warfare, feminism, urbanism, Darwinism, technology, and colonialism. With fierce clarity, he predicted the social effects of today's free-market fundamentalism and unstoppable globalization.Drawing on a wealth of letters and archives, acclaimed historian Tristram Hunt plumbs Engels's intellectual legacy and shows us how one of the great bon viveurs of Victorian Britain reconciled his exuberant personal life with his radical political philosophy. Set against the backdrop of revolutionary Europe and industrializing England--of Manchester mills, Paris barricades, and East End strikes-- Marx's General tells a story of devoted friendship, class compromise, ideological struggle, and family betrayal. And it tackles head-on the question of Engels's influence: was Engels, after Marx's death, responsible for some of the most devastating turns of twentieth-century history, or was the idealism of his thought distorted by those who claimed to be his followers?An epic history and riveting biography, Marx's General at last brings Engels out from the shadow of his famous friend and collaborator. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Tristram HuntPublisher: Metropolitan Books Imprint: Metropolitan Books Dimensions: Width: 16.30cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.90cm Weight: 0.753kg ISBN: 9780805080254ISBN 10: 0805080252 Pages: 430 Publication Date: 18 August 2009 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: In Print  Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock. Table of ContentsReviews“Greatly enjoyable... A perceptive tour not just through Engels’s life but through philosophy and political thought in the nineteenth century.”— The New Yorker  “Brilliant.”— The Economist  “A vivid and thoughtful biography... Hunt artfully flushes out Engels’s human side.”— The New York Times  <p>“Hunt is remarkably good at distilling an epoch and conveying a sense of place, and he perfectly judges the pace of his narrative, illustrating what he is saying without burdening the reader with detail best left in the archives.”<p>— The Wall Street Journal <p> <p>“A splendid biography… Hunt’s vivid prose captures Engels’s idealism, generosity and foibles. That is to say, it makes him recognizably human.”— The Plain Dealer  “Written with brio, warmth, and historical understanding, this is more than the best biography of one of the most att Author InformationTristram Hunt is a lecturer in history at the University of London. The author of Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City, he writes political and cultural commentary for The Guardian, The Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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