# The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/engels-marx/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state/9780141958347

![The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/friedrich-engels/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state_978-01-4195-834-7.jpg?v=2026-04-24%2001%3A25%3A05)

- Book: [The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State](https://www.bookquiver.com/engels-marx/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state) ([The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/engels-marx/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state.md))
- Authors: [Engels Marx](https://www.bookquiver.com/engels-marx)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-01-4195-834-7
- Published: 2010-04-29
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies. Under this patriarchal system, women were servants and, effectively, prostitutes. Only Communism would herald the dawn of communal living and a new sexual freedom and, in turn, the role of the state would become superfluous.