Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

The industrial revolution of the 19th century created a commercial society that was soley interested in money. Imposing cities were bursting at the seams with humanity. The citizens who worked and lived in these conditions developed an indifference towards the others that surrounded them. It is interesting that people who were forced to be so physically close to one another would end up being so mentally apart. Friedrich Engels, in “Barbarous Indifference,” paints a vivid picture of the lack of compassion in the commercial capital of the world, London. He begins by illustrating the enourmity of the city of London through detailed descriptions of the masses of industrial structures and the turmoil that inhabits the many streets between them. Engels wants to give the reader an image of exactly how overbearing the city has become. He is successful in that one gets the impression that the city itself envelopes all who approach it; pulling them into it’s overcrowded depths. Engels also delves into the toll that the residents of the city have had to pay for all of the advances they made. He introduces the idea that it is not without sacrifice on the part of the Londoners that all of these “marvels of civili