The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

By Frederick Engels, Foreword by Eleanor Burke Leacock

In this book, "Engels outlines the successive social and economic forms which underlay the broad sweep of early human history, as mankind gained increasing mastery over the sources of subsistence....Although Engels' book was written well before most of the now available material on primitive and early urban society had been amassed, the fundamentals of his outline for history have remained valid." --from Eleanor Leacock's introduction

About the author

Eleanor Burke Leacock (1922–1987) was a trail blazer in the field of cultural anthropology, not only for her watershed research and analysis, but also as one of the most successful women in the anthropological academy. In 1983, Leacock became the first woman to receive New York Academy Science Award for Behavioral Sciences.