Engels as an Ecologist

Royle, Camilla

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55211-4_8

Camilla Royle⁴

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

435 Accesses
2 Citations

Abstract

Recently, there has been renewed interest in recovering the ecological content of Marx’s thought. But relatively little attention is Engels and some authors have differentiated his approach from that of Marx. However, this chapter will argue that an ecological sensibility is evident throughout Engels’s work, especially his writings on urban life. In his classic The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), Engels described the air and water pollution associated with industrial capitalism and produced an analysis of the social roots of public health problems that was far ahead of his time. In The Housing Question (1872), Engels returned to the question of ecological relations within cities. His sharp criticism of proposed solutions to the problem of poor housing that were based on the acquisition of commodities is relevant to debates over environmental strategy today.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

eBook: USD 16.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
U. Irfan, “The Law That’s Helping Fuel Delhi’s Deadly Air Pollution,” Vox, December 16, 2019. www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/11/8/20948348/delhi-india-air-pollution-quality-cause.
2.
R. Wallace, A. Liebman, L. Fernando Chaves and R. Wallace, “COVID-19 and Circuits of Capital,” Monthly Review 71, no. 12 (May 2020). https://monthlyreview.org/2020/04/01/covid-19-and-circuits-of-capital/.
3.
A. Bracken and L. Cecco, “Canada: Protests Go Mainstream as Support for Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Fight Widens,” The Guardian, February 14, 2020. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-allies.
4.
M. T. Huber, “Ecological Politics for the Working Class,” Catalyst 3, no. 1 (2019). https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no1/ecological-politics-for-the-working-class
5.
For example, Kohei Saito’s award winning 2017 book Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism is (as the title suggests) almost entirely focussed on Marx. Engels is mentioned very rarely. Kohei Saito, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2017).
6.
Saito, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism, 9–11.
7.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology, in MECW vol. 5, 31.
8.
Karl Marx, Capital vol. 1 (London: Penguin, 1976), 283.
9.
John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark, “The Robbery of Nature: Capitalism and the Metabolic Rift,” Monthly Review 70, no. 3 (July 2018).
10.
Huber, “Ecological Politics for the Working Class.”
11.
Saito, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism, 14 and 19.
12.
Jason W. Moore, “Metabolic Rift or Metabolic Shift? Dialectics, Nature, and the World-Historical Method,” Theory and Society 46 (2017): 307.
13.
Saito, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism.
14.
WilliamCronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, ed. William Cronon (London: W. W. Norton, 1995), 69–90.
15.
NikHeynen et al., eds., In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006).
16.
ErikSwyngedouw, “Metabolic Urbanisation: The Making of Cyborg Cities,” in In the Nature of Cities, 24–28.
17.
Neil Smith, Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space, 3rd ed. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008), 34–35.
18.
Ibid., 48.
19.
John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Nature (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020), 16–19.
20.
BrettClark and John Bellamy Foster, “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class,” Organization & Environment 19, no. 3 (2006): 376.
21.
Foster, The Return of Nature.
22.
Ibid., 178.
23.
Friedrich Engels, “The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man,” in MECW vol. 25, 460–461.
24.
See CamillaRoyle, A Rebel’s Guide to Engels (London: Bookmarks, 2020).
25.
Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (London: Penguin, 2009).
26.
Friedrich Engels, The Housing Question, in MECW vol. 23, 317–391.
27.
The Housing Question was written for Der Volksstaat (people’s state or republic), a paper of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany. Engels’ articles were republished in various editions in pamphlet form.
28.
Engels, The Condition, 34.
29.
Tristram Hunt, The Frock-Coated Communist: The Life and Times of the Original Champagne Socialist (London: Penguin, 2009), 98–100.
30.
Friedrich Engels, “Letters from Wuppertal,” in MECW vol. 2, 7–25.
31.
Friedrich Engels, “Preface to the Second Edition of The Housing Question,” in MECW vol. 26, 429.
32.
Engels, The Condition, 55.
33.
Clark and Foster, “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class,” 379.
34.
AndreasMalm, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming (London: Verso, 2016).
35.
ErikSwyngedouw and NikHeynen, “Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale,” Antipode 35, no. 5 (2003): 900.
36.
Saito, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism, 203–205.
37.
Foster, The Return of Nature, 183.
38.
Engels, The Condition, 234 and 238–239.
39.
Ibid., 71 and 83.
40.
Ibid., 128.
41.
Ibid., 89.
42.
Ibid., 175.
43.
Clark and Foster, “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class,” 383.
44.
Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, 101.
45.
Clark and Foster, “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class,” 380–381.
46.
Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2007), 37.
47.
Engels, The Condition, 128.
48.
See Paul Farmer, “An Anthropology of Structural Violence,” Current Anthropology 45, no. 3 (2004).
49.
Clark and Foster, “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class,” 376.
50.
Engels, The Housing Question, 323.
51.
Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, 64. Engels, The Housing Question, 347–348.
52.
Ibid., 324.
53.
Ibid., 323.
54.
Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, 64.
55.
See also Foster’s discussion of William Morris: Foster, The Return of Nature, 139.
56.
Engels, The Housing Question, 365. As Engels explains, this method was associated with Baron Haussman’s renovation of Paris during the reign of Napoleon III, but the process had been carried out in many of cities with similar results.
57.
Ibid., 319.
58.
Ibid., 367.
59.
See Neil Smith, “The Housing Question Revisited,” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15, no. 3 (2016).
60.
Friedrich Engels, “Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy,” in MECW vol. 3, 437.
61.
Engels, “Preface to the Second Edition,” 425.
62.
Engels, The Housing Question; See also Henrik G. Larsen, et al., “Introduction: The Housing Question Revisited,” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15, no. 3 (2016): 581.
63.
Quoted by Engels, The Housing Question, 343.
64.
Larsen et al., “Introduction.”
65.
Engels, “Preface to the Second Edition,” 431.
66.
Ibid., 431.
67.
Engels, The Housing Question, 319–320.
68.
Ibid., 330.
69.
Smith, “The Housing Question Revisited.”
70.
Engels, The Housing Question, 337.
71.
Huber, “Ecological Politics for the Working Class.”
72.
Ibid.
73.
Ibid.
74.
Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 2–6.
75.
Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, 221.
76.
Foster, “The Return of Engels.”
77.
Foster, The Return of Nature, 13–14.
78.
Engels, The Housing Question. Engels refers especially to the first volume of Capital which had been published five years earlier.
79.
Hunt, Frock-Coated Communist, 249 and 301–302 on the Marx-Engels relationship.
80.
Engels, The Condition, 292; although see Lee Humber, Vital Signs: The Deadly Costs of Health Inequality (London: Pluto Press, 2019) for a recent exception that does occasionally refer to Engels.

Bibliography

Bracken, Amber, and Leyland Cecco. “Canada: Protests Go Mainstream as Support for Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Fight Widens.” The Guardian, February 14, 2020. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/14/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-allies.
Clark, Brett, and John Bellamy Foster. “The Environmental Conditions of the Working Class: An Introduction to Selections from Frederick Engels’s The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.” Organization & Environment 19, no. 3 (2006): 379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026606292483.
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 69–90. London: W. W. Norton, 1995.
Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. “Letters from Wuppertal.” In MECW, vol. 2, 7–25. New York: International Publishers, 1975.
Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. “Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy.” In MECW vol. 3, 418–443. New York: International Publishers, 1975.
Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working Class in England. London: Penguin, 2009 [1845].
Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. “The Housing Question.” In MECW, vol. 23, 317–391. New York: International Publishers, 1988.
Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. “The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man.” In MECW, vol. 25, 452–464. New York: International Publishers, 1987.
Google Scholar
Farmer, Paul. “An Anthropology of Structural Violence.” Current Anthropology 45, no. 3 (June 2004). www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/382250.
Foster, John Bellamy. “The Return of Engels.” Monthly Review 68, no. 10 (March 2017). https://monthlyreview.org/2017/03/01/the-return-of-engels/.
Foster, John Bellamy. The Return of Nature. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020.
Google Scholar
Foster, John Bellamy, and Brett Clark. “The Robbery of Nature: Capitalism and the Metabolic Rift.” Monthly Review 70, no. 3 (July 2018). https://monthlyreview.org/2018/07/01/the-robbery-of-nature/.
Heynen, Nik, Maria Kaika, and Erik Swyngedouw, eds. In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006.
Google Scholar
Huber, Matt T. “Ecological Politics for the Working Class.” Catalyst 3, no. 1 (2019). https://catalyst-journal.com/vol3/no1/ecological-politics-for-the-working-class.
Humber, Lee. Vital Signs: The Deadly Costs of Health Inequality. London: Pluto Press, 2019.
Google Scholar
Hunt, Tristram. The Frock-Coated Communist: The Life and Times of the Original Champagne Socialist. London: Penguin, 2009.
Google Scholar
Irfan, Umair. “The Law That’s Helping Fuel Delhi’s Deadly AIR Pollution.” Vox, December 16, 2019. www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/11/8/20948348/delhi-india-air-pollution-quality-cause.
Larsen, Henrik Gutzon, Anders Lund Hansen, Gordon MacLeod, and Tom Slater. “Introduction: The Housing Question Revisited.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15, no. 3 (2016): 580–589. www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1347.
Levins, Richard, and Richard Lewontin. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2007.
Google Scholar
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “The German Ideology.” In MECW, vol. 5, 19–539. New York: International Publishers, 1975.
Google Scholar
Moore, Jason W. “Metabolic Rift or Metabolic Shift? Dialectics, Nature, and the World-historical Method.” Theory and Society 46 (2017): 285–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-017-9290-6.
Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
Google Scholar
Royle, Camilla. A Rebel’s Guide to Engels. London: Bookmarks, 2020.
Google Scholar
Saito, Kohei. Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2017.
Google Scholar
Smith, Neil. Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. 3rd ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008.
Google Scholar
Smith, Neil. “The Housing Question Revisited.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15, no. 3 (2016): 679–683. https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1352.
Swyngedouw, Erik. “Metabolic Urbanisation: The Making of Cyborg Cities.” In In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, edited by N. Heynen, M. Kaika, and E. Swyngedouw, 20–39. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006.
Google Scholar
Swyngedouw, Erik, and Nik Heynen. “Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale.” Antipode 35, no. 5 (2003): 898–918.
Google Scholar
Wallace, Rob, Alex Liebman, Luis Fernando Chaves, and Rodrick Wallace. “COVID-19 and Circuits of Capital.” Monthly Review 71, no. 12 (May 2020). https://monthlyreview.org/2020/04/01/covid-19-and-circuits-of-capital/.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

King’s College London, London, UK
Camilla Royle

Authors

Camilla Royle
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Department of Economics, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan
Kohei Saito

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Royle, C. (2021). Engels as an Ecologist. In: Saito, K. (eds) Reexamining Engels’s Legacy in the 21st Century. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55211-4_8

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55211-4_8
Published: 03 February 2021
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55210-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55211-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics