Friedrich Engels, born to a prosperous Prussian mercantile family, is noted as the most attractive and interesting figures of the nineteenth century.
While he spent his career in Manchester and enjoying the middle class life of a Victorian gentleman, he was also the co-founder of international communism. This philosophy came to control one third of the human race in the 20th century.

He co-wrote "The Communist Manifesto" and also sacrficed his best years so Karl Marx could write "Das Kapital", but far more than Marx's wing-man, he also possessed profound opinions on warfare, feminism, Darwinism, and colonialism. He predicted the social effects of today's free-market fundamentalism and unstoppable globalization.

Tristram Hunt relishes the diversity of Engel's story and shows us how one of the great bon viveurs of Victorian Britain reconciled his exuberant personal life with this uncompromising political philosophy. This title, at last brings Engels out from the shadow of his famous friend and collaborator.