Contribution to the housing problem

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Friedrich Engels

"The book is written in the form of a polemic against the positions of petty-bourgeois socialism (represented in Proudhonian ideas) and bourgeois philanthropy on the matter. One invoking “revolutionary justice” and the other “harmony between classes”, both conceptions propose as the main solution to the housing problem that workers become owners of their own homes. Giving a master class in political economy, Engels demonstrates how these measures are nothing more than a reactionary attempt to “tie workers to the land”, making them even more dependent on their employers and reproducing in them the petty and narrow-minded mentality of the serf and the small owner. Faced with this impasse, Engels argues that only the workers, once in possession of political power and the main levers of the economy, will be able to provide a rapid solution to the housing shortage. Whether through the expropriation of idle or underused housing and its distribution among the poor, needy, or through the construction of new housing by the State."

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Index

- Preface to the second edition of 1887
- Part One: How Proudhon Solves the Housing Problem
- Part Two: How the Bourgeoisie Solves the Housing Problem
- Part Three: More on Proudhon and the Housing Problem

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