The Condition of the Working Class in England

A major theme connecting the book’s various book is the dehumanizing and atomizing power of capitalism. The industrial revolution marks the beginning of a new way of relating to both other people and to money, or capital. Prior to the 19th century, European social organization was based on patriarchal and familial principles. As Engels describes it, for example, on a large farm the oldest man and owner would be in charge of everyone else living there. The laborers would reside with the farmer’s family year-round and would be taken care of even if at certain times there was no work. A similar system was in place in other spheres of society. The transformation of English society into a capitalist one destroyed these relationships. Workers became hired help, to be used at busy times and discarded when there was no work, not unlike machines. Women and children also entered the workforce, displacing adult men and increasing competition among the proletariat. As a result, relationships between workers and employers and even between family members became similar to commercial transactions, dependent on the exchange of labor for money. This resulted in a process of social isolation in which each individual must take care of themselves, often at the cost of someone else’s interests.