The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

What gains did humanity achieve in the pre-civilization era? How did the historical defeat of the female sex occur, and how can women's liberation be achieved? What can be said today about the family of the future and gender relations? Why did private land ownership dispossess producers? At what historical stage and for what reasons did the state, as we know it today, emerge? What will be the place of the state in humanity's future?

In this book, which Friedrich Engels specifically emphasized he wrote based on the research of American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan, he reaches original conclusions about the historical development of humanity, also drawing upon Karl Marx's extensive notes on the same research and his work, Capital. Expanding the scope of discussions based on his own research, Engels clarifies the economic foundations of the historical processes examined.

The revised and expanded fourth edition of the book, first published in 1884 and dated 1891, incorporates the results of some scientific studies conducted in the intervening period, while also shedding light on how Engels approached scientific developments.