The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: With a Preface written in 1892

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The Condition of the Working Class in England is a seminal work by Friedrich Engels, originally written in German as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. This study focuses on the working class during the Victorian era, based on Engels' observations and contemporary reports while living in Manchester from 1842 to 1844. At the center of the Industrial Revolution, Manchester served as a backdrop for Engels' argument that the revolution negatively impacted workers' lives. He highlights alarming statistics, revealing that mortality rates from diseases in large industrial cities were significantly higher than in rural areas. For instance, cities like Manchester and Liverpool experienced mortality rates from smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough that were four times greater than those in the countryside, with convulsions causing ten times more deaths. The overall death rates in these industrial cities were considerably above the national average. Engels provides a compelling example from Carlisle, where the introduction of mills led to an increase in child mortality rates from 4,408 to 4,738 per 10,000 children before the age of five, and adult mortality rates from 1,006 to 1,261 per 10,000 before reaching 39 years old.