1800's biologist, supporter of Darwin and avid fighter of extremist Christian interpretation. Weaver uses him as an example of how scientific rhetoric utilized logic and reason to dominate debate, especially with the religiously inclined as their opposition.

Also, was it a requirement for writers of the 1800's and early 1900's to have bad ass hairstyles? I mean, my God. Mustaches, beards and sideburns everywhere.

Engels was a German philosopher, and one of the two folks who founded Marxism and wrote The Communist Manifesto... with that other guy, what was his name again?

Interesting how Burke weaves him in to his work and uses him as a portrait of expressing a secular (albeit impressively negative) account of history.