Friedrich Engels ‘took creative liberties’ with descriptions of class divides in Manchester

Cambridge historian Emily Chung finds philosopher’s blistering depictions of segregation may have been exaggerated

Friedrich Engels stands accused of exaggerating, or perhaps taking “creative liberties”, with just how segregated Manchester was in the mid-19th century, a study has found.

The great socialist thinker, who co-authored with Karl Marx the Communist manifesto, was a Manchester resident, appalled and galvanised by the squalor and inequality he saw in the city.