In 1845, Friedrich Engels published The Condition of the Working Class in England.
 In this work, Engels briefly described and analyzed the ideas of notable utopian socialists such as Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, pointed out their strongpoints and shortcomings, and provides an explanation of the scientific socialist framework for understanding of capitalism, and an outline of the progression of social and economic development from the perspective of historical materialism
 In condemning this action, Engels wrote to Marx on 3 December 1851, characterising the coup as "comical" and referred to it as occurring on "the 18th Brumaire", the date of Napoleon I's coup of 1799 according to the French Republican Calendar

