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The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich EngelS. By Tristram Hunt. Allen Lane, 464pp, Pounds 25.00. ISBN 9780713998528. Published 30 April 2009
In the preface to this formidable biography, sure to enthral all those interested in theories of revolution, Tristram Hunt claims that Engels has "been excised from the popular memory", which may explain why the US edition is titled Marx's General; Engels still rides on his co-author's coat-tails. Yet Hunt's biography appeared just as Das Kapital began selling again in Germany, while a Japanese manga version accessed a fresh audience.
In The German Ideology (1846), Marx and Engels, speaking as one, declared: "My frock-coat is private property for me only so long as I can barter, pawn or sell it, so long as it is marketable. If it loses that feature, if it becomes tattered, it can still have a number of features which make it of value to me; it may even become a feature of me and turn me into a tatterdemalion. But no...