"Engels wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in just two months---beginning toward the end of March 1884 and completing it by the end of May. It focuses on early human history, following the disintegration of the primitive community and the emergence of a class society based on private property. Engels looks into the origin and essence of the state, and concludes it is bound to wither away leaving a classless society. Engels: 'Along with [the classes] the state will inevitably fall. Society, which will reorganize production on the basis of a free and equal association of the producers, will put the whole machinery of state where it will then belong: into th museum of antiquity, by the side of the spinning-wheel and the bronze axe.' In 1890, having gathered new material on the history of primitive society, Engels set about preparing a new edition of his book. He studied the latest books on the subject---including those of Russian historian Maxim Kovalevsky." (back cover)