In this challenging and now classic work, Friedrich Engels explores the intertwined development of the family and the state from ancient society to the Victorian era. Drawing from new anthropological theories of his time, Engels argues that matriarchal communal societies were dethroned by class society and the emphasis on private, not communal, property as well as on monogamous, rather than polygamous, sexual organization. This historical development, Engels argued, constituted "the world-historic defeat of the female sex." A masterpiece in applying materialist thought to history and anthropology, touching on love, monogamy, property, and human development, this landmark work remains foundational in Marxist and socialist feminist theory.