This work, Marx's analysis of events in France, a part of the European revolutionary upsurge of the late 1840's, was written while the events analyzed were still taking place. It is, as Frederick Engels says, "Marx's first attempt, with the aid of his materialist concept, to explain a section of contemporary history from the given economic situation." The work has long been considered to be a classic in historical materialism as applied to current events, having withstood the test of later and fuller analyses.