Examining the excerpt from Friedrich Engels in Learning From a Primary Source: Friedrich Engels Describes the Condition of the Working Class in England (page 643), what problems did he point to in industrialization that affected the workers? Why was he concerned?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Engels became the manager of a factory in Manchester, Britain, and subsequently wrote about his findings of the horrors of impoverishment and dreadful, dangerous working conditions in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 . He described people living in crowded, unsanitary, dangerous conditions, deprived of the most basic human rights. He described their working conditions and the progress of urbanization, arguing that if these worker were not treated better, or the system of industrialization did not take into account the human cost of manufacturing, people would eventually take matters into their own hands, as had been the case in the French Revolution. His exposure to the exploitation of the working class made Engels determined to bring light to the situation and effect changes for the working class. In his firsthand studies of how these conditions arose and continued to exist, Engels looked at the more fundamental problem, which he attributed to the "new" economic model of capitalism in conjunction with industrialization.