2 h 51 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the way people work and produce holds the key to how societies change?
In Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Friedrich Engels traces socialism from dreams of a better world to what he and Karl Marx regard as a science. He begins with the promises of Enlightenment reason and the utopian socialists, including Henri de Saint-Simon, who sees a divide between idle owners and those who work.
Engels then asks you to see society in motion rather than in fixed categories. He argues that production and exchange shape the social order, and that capitalism creates conflicts it cannot resolve. Written for working people and new readers, this short pamphlet offers a direct entry into Marxist thought—not a balanced debate, but a committed argument.
What you’ll discover
- Dreams of a better society Explore why Engels values the utopian socialists yet finds their visions insufficient.
- A world in motion Follow a method that treats change, rather than fixed categories, as central to understanding.
- Work at history's core Consider Engels's claim that how people produce necessities shapes society and class conflict.
- Capitalism under scrutiny Examine his argument that shared production clashes with private control of its results.
- The case for socialist change Discover why Engels links capitalism's crises to his case for a different social order.
Who will love it
For readers who want the core of Marxist thought in a short, clear form, and students of politics, economics or the history of ideas. For anyone interested in class struggle, capitalism's crises and socialist visions of a better society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Enlightenment promised reason and delivered capitalism
- The utopians imagined a better world too early
- Thinking in motion beats thinking in fixed boxes
- Economic life drives history and class conflict
- Capitalism creates its own crisis and its own gravediggers
- The proletariat seizes power and the state withers away
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Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
by Friedrich Engels · 1880
Engels traces socialist dreams into a theory of class struggle, capitalism's crises and control of production.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
The Enlightenment promised reason and delivered capitalism
Engels starts with the great French thinkers of the eighteenth century. These men attacked religion, tradition and the old order in the name of reason. They said that every institution must justify itself before the court of human thought, and that anything that failed the test must go.
The French Revolution put these hopes into action. Engels says the new kingdom of reason was supposed to bring justice, equality and freedom to everyone. Yet when it arrived, it looked very different from the picture. The reign of reason turned out to be the reign of the middle class, the bourgeoisie. Equality before the law meant, in practice, the freedom of the owner of property to do as he liked with it.
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What is Socialism, Utopian and Scientific about?
It is a short pamphlet that explains the development of socialism. Engels describes early utopian socialists, sets out the materialist view of history and the analysis of capitalism, and argues that the working class will bring about a socialist society.
Why does Engels call some socialists utopian?
He means thinkers such as Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen, who drew up ideal societies from reason alone. They lacked a worked-out materialist theory of historical change and did not see the working class as the force that could bring change.
What does scientific socialism mean?
Engels uses it for the socialism of Marx and himself. It rests on the materialist conception of history and the theory of surplus value, and it claims to study real economic forces, not to invent perfect plans.
The author
Friedrich Engels
1820–1895 · German socialist philosopher
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) was a German philosopher and economist born in Barmen, Prussia. He lived in Germany and England, including Manchester and London. He wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) and The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884). With Karl Marx, he wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848).
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