Socialism: Utopian and Scientific *[PDF]
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific is a political science classic that needs no preface. It ranks with the Communist Manifesto as one of the indispensable books for any one desiring to understand the modern socialist movement. It has been translated into every language where capitalism prevails, and its circulation is more rapid than ever before. The book explains the differences between utopian socialism and scientific socialism, which Marxism considers itself to embody. The book explains that whereas utopian socialism is idealist, reflects the personal opinions of the authors and claims that society can be adapted based on these opinions, scientific socialism derives itself from reality. It focuses on the materialist conception of history, which is based on an analysis over history, and concludes that communism naturally follows capitalism. Engels begins the book by chronicaling the thought of utopian socialists, starting with Saint-Simon. He then proceeds to Fourier and Robert Owen. In Chapter Two, he summarizes dialectics, and then chronicles the thought from the ancient Greeks to Hegel. Chapter Three summarizes dialectics in relation to economic and social struggles, essentially echoing the words of Marx Read more
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Why Must Read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific?
WARNING: DO NOT BUY THIS COPY. I ordered this book to read more on Engels' philosophy and, first of all, the publishing is atrocious. Pages are not numbered and the book looks like it was printed on computer paper from Microsoft Word. But here's the kicker: right in the middle of the book is a 12 page fundamentalist and homophobic christian pamphlet titled "The Marriage Bed - Can the Marriage Bed be Defiled?" In this excerpt (which Amazon did manage to number the pages!), the author goes on and on about "fornication", "unnatural acts", and even compares "sodimites" (referring to LGBTQ people) to dogs. Shame on you Amazon. One purchases a book with the reasonable expectation that you are receiving just that product, not an anti-gay pamphlet literally printed within the book. This is doubly offensive because I am a gay man. I will avoid Amazon's in-house publishing from here on out and stick with more reputable publishers.
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