change. With the transfer of the means of pro
duction into common ownership, the single
family ceases to be the economic unit of soci
ety. private housekeeping is transformed into a
social industry. The care and education of the
children becomes a public affair; society looks
after all children alike, whether they are legiti
mate or not. This removes all the anxiety about
the “consequences,” which today is the most
essential social—moral as well as economic—
factor that prevents a girl from giving herself
completely to the man she loves. Will not that
suffice to bring about the gradual growth of
unconstrained sexual intercourse and with it
a more tolerant public opinion in regard to a
maiden’s honor and a woman’s shame? and,
finally, have we not seen that in the modern
world monogamy and prostitution are indeed
contradictions, but inseparable contradictions,
poles of the same state of society? Can prosti
tution disappear without dragging monogamy
with it into the abyss?
Friedrich Engels, from The origin of the
Family, private property, and the state. Born into
a wealthy mill-owning family in 1820, Engels was
confirmed into a Calvinist church in 1837, marking
the occasion with a poem which began, “Lord Jesus
Christ, God’s only son/O step down from Thy
heavenly throne/ And save my soul for me.” Having
become a communist in 1842, Engels published The
Condition of the Working Class in england in
1844 and coauthored The Communist Manifesto
with Karl Marx in 1848.
