Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a prominent Prussian-born communist philosopher and British industrialist, co-wrote (with Karl Marx) the Communist Manifesto, and used the profits from his Manchester textile mill to provide Marx with financial support during the writing of Das Kapital.

Despite his importance in the development of Marxism, Engels is significantly less cited than his writing partner. Some people would account for this by claiming that he did the impossible and managed to be more boring than Marx; his The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), which Engels wrote based on his experience in the course of running his mill, is sometimes cited as being even more boring than Das Kapital.

His Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) had a large influence on the development of Marxist class theory and of historical determinism. Ironically, it drew mostly from Ancient Society (1877) by an American capitalist  railroad-tycoon and Republican politician.

His Principles of Communism give a brief but concise explanation of communism, its essential ideas/theories, its basic policies, and an analysis of capitalism compared to previous economic systems.