Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di L’origine della famiglia, della proprietà privata e dello Stato
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About 4 h 20 min to read.A chi è rivolto
Readers who enjoy big questions about where marriage, property and government come from will find a clear, pointed argument here. It suits lovers of history, anthropology and political thought.
Che cos’è questo libro
How did people live before there were kings, police, prisons and taxes? Friedrich Engels says that for most of human history there was no state at all. Among the Iroquois, the community settled quarrels, and elected leaders ruled without any force set apart.
He wrote this book in 1884, soon after the death of Karl Marx. Marx had planned to present the research of Lewis Henry Morgan, and Engels took up the task. The argument runs in a line: the family changed as wealth grew, private property set men over women, and class division called up the state. Engels tests this on the Greeks, the Romans and the Germans.
In questo riassunto
- 1Engels completes a task left by MarxFree
- 2Human history moves through three great stages
- 3Kinship words preserve traces of vanished families
- 4Marriage narrowed step by step to the pair
- 5Herds and wealth overthrew mother right
- 6Monogamy began as the rule of men over women
- 7The Iroquois gens shows life without a state
- 8Athens, Rome and the Germans each built a state
- 9Trade, money and slavery broke the old order
- 10The state serves the strongest class and may fade
Punto chiave 1 di 10
Engels completes a task left by Marx
Engels opens by calling his book a bequest. Marx had meant to present Morgan's research alongside the materialist view of history, and he left notes behind. Engels reproduces them and adds his own work on Greece, Rome, the Celts and the Germans.
The core claim comes in the preface. The decisive factor in history is the production and reproduction of life. That means making food, shelter and tools on one side, and having children on the other.
Where wealth is small, kinship rules society. As labor grows more productive, private property and exchange appear, and they strain the old order of kin until it breaks. A new society forms, built on territory and property, and it is called the state.
Engels admits some of Morgan's guesses have aged, yet holds that his frame has survived. Engels judges institutions by how a society makes its living and renews its people.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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About 4 h 20 min to read.Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 66,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about L’origine della famiglia, della proprietà privata e dello Stato
What is The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State about?
It traces how family forms changed from group marriage to monogamy, how private property arose, and how the state emerged once society split into classes. Engels draws on Lewis Henry Morgan's study of the Iroquois, then tests the idea on Greece, Rome and the Germans.
Who was Lewis Henry Morgan and why does Engels rely on him?
Morgan was an American scholar who lived among the Iroquois and wrote Ancient Society in 1877. He showed that clans, phratries and tribes were the old building blocks of society. Engels saw in this work a match for the materialist view of history.
What does gens mean in this book?
A gens is a group claiming common descent, originally forbidding marriage within itself, though Greek inheritance rules later introduced exceptions. It shares burial grounds, names and mutual protection. Engels shows that Iroquois, Greek and Roman clans share this same basic form.
When was the book written and is it based on real research?
Engels wrote it in 1884 and revised it in 1891. It draws on Morgan's fieldwork, on missionary reports, and on ancient writers such as Homer, Tacitus and Caesar. Some details have been revised by later scholars, which Engels himself anticipated.
What is the main message of Engels in this book?
The family and the state are not fixed or eternal. They change as the ways of producing food and goods change. Engels argues that private property and class division created both male rule in marriage and the state itself.
Cite this edition
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state.
Engels, F. (2026). The origin of the family, private property, and the state. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state (Original work published 1884)
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state.
@book{engels2026origin,
author = {Engels, Friedrich},
title = {The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state},
note = {First published 1884}
}
