Friedrich Engels: His Life and Thought [Hardcover]

Terrell Carver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1990 | ISBN-10: 0312045018 | ISBN-13: 978-0312045012

This important new biography uses newly discovered material and takes a critical approach. Engels's formative years, before he met Marx, were crucial to the development of his thought. Carver is the first to analyse this early material in detail, revealing a surprising continuity in ambition and opinion over Engels's long career. Engels's personal and family relationships occupy centre-stage in this biography, and Engels the man emerges from Marx's shadow as a complex and engaging figure in his own right.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a thought-provoking biographical study, British Marxist scholar Carver takes the bold step of examining Engels as theorist and politician distinct from Marx--a heresy to many Marxists as well as anti-Marxists. The youthful Engels, who saw himself as a fighter for middle-class democracy, constitutionalism and participatory politics, proves to be much more interesting than the reductionist pamphleteer whose deterministic materialism has been "read back into Marx," in Carver's judgment. There are revealing glimpses of Engels as young idealist who drew jaunty caricatures of friends, as wealthy Manchester industrialist burdened with guilt, and as a male chauvinist who kept his mistress, Irish-born millworker Mary Burns, in semi-secrecy. After she died, Engels lived openly with her sister Lizzie, christened the new "Mrs. E," whom he later married at her deathbed. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Carver emphasizes Engels's "youthful development" as the key to understanding Engels's philosophy. The author succeeds in demonstrating both Engels's precocious originality and the ambiguity of collaboration with Marx. Carver balances the labyrinthine debates involving Engels with the "young Hegelians" before 1850 and the bizarre relationship Engels maintained with his capitalist family. The author's critical and sympathetic account raises some thought-provoking questions about Engels's early revulsion for the industrial order and his attraction toward atheism. Although this book complements William Henderson's two-volume The Life of Friedrich Engels (o.p.) and David McLellan's short work, Engels ( LJ 2/15/79), its appeal may be restricted to libraries with large collections in Marxism or political theory.
- Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (July 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312045018
• ISBN-13: 978-0312045012
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,993,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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