Marx and Engels Collected Works (Volume 4)

Author: Marx
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1995-06-01
Features: This anthology is divided into four volumes. Volume I contains works from 1843-1859, Volume II includes works from 1857-1871 and excerpts from The Capital, Volume III features works from 1871-1883, and Volume IV includes works from 1884-1895 and letters between Marx and Engels. The documents selected for the anthology are generally arranged in chronological order of writing or publication. For the convenience of readers, prefaces and introductions written by Marx and Engels for certain works at different periods are usually compiled together with the original works; the 10 articles discussing China and selected chapters from The Capital I, II, and III are also compiled separately; the letters between Marx and Engels are organized chronologically in Volume IV. This volume includes works from 1884-1895 by Engels and Dialectics of Nature, as well as letters between Marx and Engels from 1842-1895. During the period of 1884-1895, the process of free competitive capitalism transitioning to monopolistic capitalism continued to develop, the struggles between capitalist nations intensified, the conditions of the working people deteriorated, and the proletariat was accumulating strength for the future revolution. Based on scientific socialism, independent workers' class parties were established and consolidated in most European countries, the unity of the working-class revolutionary forces was strengthened, and by the late 1880s, a new international organization of the working class, the Second International, was founded.
The first work in this volume, Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, systematically and scientifically elaborates on the early stages of human history, discussing the origin and development of the family, the emergence of private property and classes, and the origin and class nature of the state.