The Condition of the Working-Class in EnglandFriedrich Engels
The Condition of the Working-Class in England
by Friedrich Engels · first published 1973
10mentions
5recommended by
9HN commenters
2015–2026first – last mentioned
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A firsthand, detailed account of working conditions in industrial England, useful for understanding how capitalism shaped urban life and housing. Cited for urban policy thinking and how economic forces produce poverty.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…approach the whole question of urban regeneration, which is very much on the agenda there. It was extraordinary to me that some of the ideas I got for that came out of reading Engels's famous saying on the condition of the working class in England in 1844; and also the housing question where he says the bourgeoisie had only one way to solve its housing problem: it moved it around. When I started to look at what some of the proposals were, they…
on “Fire at a homeless encampment sparked Bel-Air blaze that destroyed homes” ↗…want a reminder to be grateful for your own modern middle-class living conditions. The poverty described can be deeply overwhelming. It's also basically the American counterpart to Engels' classic The Condition of the WOrking Class in England [1]. [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45502/45502-h/45502-h.htm [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17306/17306-h/17306-h.htm
on “Photographer Jacob Riis showed “How the Other Half Lives” in 1890s NYC (2017)” ↗If you read Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England, you'll see how capital works. It is the LAW of the capital, not an arbitrary decision: http://www.theinternationalism.org/2021/06/engels-in-new-cen...
on “Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation” ↗A few books to recommend here: "The Condition of the Working Class in England" by Friedrich Engels, a firsthand account of the struggles and conditions faced by workers in industrial England. "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, about the exploitative conditions in the meatpacking…
on “Amazon Is Running Out of Warehouse Workers. Cue the Robots” ↗_The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844_ would be a classic on the subject: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17306
on “Most tech revolutions made work worse for employees” ↗Sweatshops as a necessary evil has been a hallmark of the ideology of capital ever since 19th century Britain. The 1844 book by Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, basically a report on the sweatshops of the time, was a huge influence on Marx. From the preface: > Having, at the same time, ample opportunity to watch the middle-classes, your opponents, I soon came…
on “SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more” ↗The “industrial revolution” term was spread from Engels’s book about England (“The Condition of the Working Class in England“). So basically, the definition of “Industrial Revolution” is bound to the phenomenon that started in England. “industrialization” is another thing, and was a more progressive thing that was already…
on “Korea shatters its own record for world’s lowest fertility rate” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_murder : Social murder (German: sozialer Mord) is the unnatural death that occurs due to social, political, or economic oppression. The phrase was coined by Friedrich Engels in his 1845 work The Condition of the Working-Class in England whereby "the class which at present holds social and political control" (i.e. the bourgeoisie) "places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural…
on “Shit Life Syndrome” ↗"This is our archaeological handbook," says Chris Wild, brandishing The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, a muddy, thumbed paperback. "Engels." This, though, is far from being the only contemporary account of late 19th-century living conditions in this part of inner-city Manchester. In 1870, the…
on “Unearthing Manchester's Victorian slums (2009)” ↗…philanthropy upon them, placing yourselves before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity when you give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them! Friedrich Engels: The Condition of the Working-class in England
on “DeepSeek Open Infra: Open-Sourcing 5 AI Repos in 5 Days” ↗