This biography is an attempt to bring Engels out of the shadow of his lifelong friend Karl Marx. Why a biography of Engels now? Engels is one of the most overlooked personalities of 19th century political life. Unlike his collaborator Marx, who spent most of his life in the hallowed halls of the British Library, Engels was a man of both action and intellect, fighting with a small revolutionary force in the hills of Germany, setting up socialist groups throughout Europe and a pioneering writer, journalist and pamphleteer. One can say without exaggeration that he was the Che Guevara of his time and an intellect on a par with Marx.