Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State

The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State: in the light of the researches of Lewis H. Morgan (Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats) is a historical materialist treatise written by Friedrich Engels and published in 1884. It is partially based on notes by Karl Marx to Lewis H. Morgan's book Ancient Society. He also made use of many and diverse data gleaned in his own studies of the history of Greece, Rome, Old Ireland, and the Ancient Germans. Engels focuses on early human history, following the disintegration of the primitive community and the emergence of a class society based on private property. He looks into the origin and essence of the state, and concludes it is bound to wither away leaving a classless society. The book argues that the first domestic institution in human history was not the family but the matrilineal clan. Engels here follows Lewis H. Morgan's thesis as outlined in his major book, Ancient Society. Lenin would later describe it as "one of the fundamental works of modern socialism."