Tristram Hunt appearing at a University near you soon!
Our final session of the 2008/09 academic year approaches. You need not be disconsolate, as it is to be given by Dr Tristram Hunt (Queen Mary University), and is derived from his eagerly-awaited biography of Engels, The Frock-coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels (Penguin, forthcoming i.e. April 2009). His abstract has been published here before, but it is worth reprinting it as a reminder.
Manchester, Engels and the Making of Marxism
Dr Hunt: "Friedrich Engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto and life long ideological ally of Karl Marx, lived in Manchester from 1842-44 and 1850-1870. Each period of residency proved instrumental in the development of Marxism. The first gave Engels an understanding of materialism, the proletariat and the function of private property – all of which came to be expressed in The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). His longer stay in 'Cottonopolis' – as a merchant in the cotton industry – not only brought to light the troubling contradictions of Engels's bourgeois existence, but through Manchester's public culture of science helped turn his thinking in a markedly scientistic direction. This proved the essential and under-appreciated intellectual preamble for Engels's far more scientific interpretation of Marxism in the 1870s and 1880s (Anti-Dühring; Dialectics of Nature) and much of what constituted official, 20th century Marxism. "
Wear Something Pink for Free Food
In honour of the occasion, please wear something pink. [ed. Pink is the New History Lab's theme colour, btw] It could be anything - scarves, jumpers, pocket handkerchiefs, socks - you name it! Those wearing an item of pink clothing will be pleased to learn that the pub will be offering the complimentary nibbles to celebrate the occasion.
REMEMBER THAT WE START AT 3:30PM not 4:30PM this week. And I'd get there early to be sure of a seat.
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