Intellectual Awakening

Abstract

Many of the political issues current in Engels’s life and times are similar to those that occupy us now, though there are also substantial differences that must be taken into account. A discussion of nineteenth-century politics as if it did not raise questions of current interest would make a biography of Engels seem pointless, while an assumption that all his battles are recurring in an unchanged world is obviously false to the historical record. The historical and social context for his activities must be established, so that we can see where his concerns resemble ours, and where our situations differ. History has not buried Engels — far from it — but how and why he lives today is a more controversial subject than might appear at first glance.