Marx and Engels in Manchester

This chapter examines the role of Marx and Engels in the various topics covered in this book. It is impossible to conduct a study of Manchester, journalism, the cotton industry, the American Civil War and poverty without paying some attention to Marx and Engels. Both men are a significant part of Manchester’s radical history. Engels’s understanding of the cotton industry and of poverty was dependent upon his living in the city and informed his view of the grim future of capitalism. His knowledge of the cotton industry also informed Marx’s Capital. Both men worked as journalists, Engels providing copy for two of the newspapers in this study, the Manchester Examiner and Times and Manchester Guardian. Both wrote about the American Civil War, in journalism and in correspondence.