A review by unionmack
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels

4.0

As someone who's still intimidated by Capital, I came away from this feeling like I'd gotten the Spark Notes from a man whose name will forever be remembered alongside Marx's. Its brevity makes it a worthy recommendation for anyone interested in Marxist or socialist thought; its clarity—aside from a few passages I found somewhat muddled—makes it all the more worthwhile. Engels succinctly addresses the contributions of he and Marx's greatest influences—Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen, Hegel, etc—to economics, politics, and philosophy, critiquing their shortcomings and praising their ingenuities along the way. But the greatest strength of the pamphlet is his rapid-fire breakdown of historical / dialectical materialism and why socialism should not be viewed as a pie-in-the-sky hope, but a scientific necessity. Of course, since this book was written, many a socialist revolution has failed and created the exact same oppressive conditions he critiques the French Revolution for. Still, it's hard to read this and not still find these ideas compelling. Clearly, the theories enumerated here need to be reformed, as their implementation has so often led to adverse and horrific outcomes. But, at least for me, this serves as further proof they should not be discarded entirely. There's still a lot of truth here, we just have to find a better way to ensure its success in the real world.