Volume 51 part 2 (August 2006)
Bibliography
General Issues
Continents and Countries
- Africa
Benin | Zimbabwe - America
Brazil | Cuba | Mexico | United States of America - Asia
India | Vietnam - Australia and Oceania
Papua New Guinea - Europe
Austria | Eire - Ireland | France | Germany | Great Britain | Italy | Poland | Portugal | Russia - USSR | Spain
Book descriptions consist of: author, title, publisher, place and year of publication, number of pages, original price; followed by a brief summary of the contents.
All listed books are available in the IISH library.
General Issues
SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCEAllen, Kieran. Max Weber. A Critical Introduction. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2004. 218 pp. £11.99.
This textbook aims to give a critical introduction to the sociological work and thought of Max Weber. Challenging the frequently stated opinion that Weber was a "value-free" sociologist, Dr Allen explores Weber's political background through his life and his writing to show that Weber was a neo-liberal who thought that the market guaranteed efficiency and rationality, and that he supported the German empire and its role in World War I.
Anarchy, Geography, Modernity. The Radical Social Thought of Élisée Reclus. Ed. by John P. Clark and Camille Martin. Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland. [etc.] 2004. xii, 271 pp. $70.00.
In this study of the French anarchist and geographer Elisée Reclus (1830-1905), Professor Clark and Mrs Martin present in the first part of the book an overview of Reclus' life and work. The editors argue that Reclus may be regarded as an early prophet of globalization, albeit of an egalitarian, libertarian vision of globalization that may offer a theoretical alternative to the current prevailing corporate and statist versions of globalization. The second part includes translations of Reclus' major theoretical writings, some of which are appearing for the first time in English, and several of his popular essays.
Between Sociology and History. Essays on microhistory, collective action, and nation-building. Ed. by Anna-Maija Castrén, Markku Lonkila, and Matti Peltonen. [Studia historica, 70.] SKS / Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki 2004. 344 pp. € 26.00.
This is a Festschrift for Professor Alapuro, Professor of Sociology at the University of Helsinki, comprising sixteen contributions by an international group of historians, sociologists and anthropologists. In the first part, both empirical research and methodological contributions are included on microhistory and social networks. The second part contains essays on nation-building, collective action and the status of sociology. Contributors include Simona Cerutti, Renata Ago, Giovanni Levi, Maurizio Gribaudi, Charles Tilly and Michel Offerlé.
Dube, Saurabh. Stitches on Time. Colonial Textures and Postcolonial Tangles. Duke University Press, Durham, [etc.] 2004. xv, 259 pp. £65.00. (Paper: £18.50.)
Professor Dube critically analyses in this study the theory and practice of historical ethnography and its contemporary historiography in the South Asian subaltern studies. Probing the relationships between empire and modernity, nation and history, the colonial and the postcolonial, and power and difference, he critically assesses the work of the South Asian Subaltern Studies Collective and the major writings by Ranajit Guha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Partha Chatterjee and others, and elaborates the concept and practice of a "history without warranty" as a means of rethinking categories such as modernity, colonialism, the West, the postcolonial and the nation.
Sewell Jr, William H. Logics of History. Social Theory and Social Transformation. [Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning.] University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2005. xi, 412 pp. $70.00. (Paper: $27.50.)
Professor Sewell Jr. brings together in this volume nine essays, of which eight are revised versions of previously published essays, all centering around the theoretical dialogue between history and social science and the different ways they may contribute to a satisfying social theory. In these essays, the authors reflect, for example, on the shift from social to cultural history, historical temporality, the concept of culture, the work of anthropologists Clifford Geertz and Marshall Sahlins, the relationship between event and structure and the linguistic conception of the social. See also Alex Callinicos' review in this volume, pp. 297-301.
Thornton, Arland. Reading History Sideways. The Fallacy and Enduring Impact of the Developmental Paradigm on Family Life. [Population and development.] University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2005. x, 312 pp. $39.00; £27.50.
The central thesis of this fundamental critique of developmental ideas, models and methods in social science research is that for centuries a developmental idealism has dominated social science research, in particular demography and history of the family, and through this has also influenced actions of national governments and international organizations. Tracing the sources of this developmental idealism back to the early social scientist in northwest Europe in the eighteenth century, Professor Thornton argues that "reading history sideways" (by which he means a method where history is described through the use of cross-sectional data rather than simply through static comparisons) has been the source of numerous substantial errors in the description of human history. See also Daniel Smith's review in this volume, pp. 301-304.
HISTORY
Aguirre Rojas, Carlos Antonio. Fernand Braudel et les sciences humaines. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 351 pp. € 29.50.
In this general introduction to the ideas and work of the famous French historian Ferdinand Braudel (1902-1985), Professor Aguirre Rojas aims to show that a specific Braudelian concept of global history exists, consisting of three fundamental key concepts: the three different temporalities (longue durée, conjunctures or temps intermédiaire and events), the concept of history as a global history and the importance of a critical historical method. The way in which Braudel has developed and applied this Braudelian concept of history makes him, according to the author, the greatest historian of the twentieth century.
Downs, Laura Lee. Writing Gender History. [Writing History.] Hodder Arnold, London [etc.] 2004. x, 209 pp. £16.99.
This textbook explores the evolution of historical writing about women and gender from the 1930s to the present and assesses the impact of feminist scholarship on historiography. Dr Downs considers the development from women's history to gender history and analyses the challenges that poststructuralism has posed to women's history and gender history.
Fritzl, Gottfried. Adolf Kozlik ein sozialistischer Ökonom, Emigrant und Rebell. Leben und Werk eines österreichischen Wissenschaftlers und Intellektuellen. [Politik und Demokratie.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2004. 237 pp. € 24.30.
This dissertation (Vienna, 2001) studies the life and work of the Austrian socialist economist Adolf Kozlik (1912-1964). Originating from a Red Vienna background, Kozlik escaped in 1938 to the United States, where he led a team of European émigré economic experts to advise the US Office of Strategic Services, but by 1943 had to flee to Mexico because of his radical position and non-conformism. In the last part of the book, Dr Fritzl analyses and assesses Kozlik's unconventional scholarship in economics: his critique of the United States and other capitalist systems, his radical democratic ideas and his satirical critique of the postwar Austrian educational and academic system.
Gould, Philip. Barbaric Traffic Commerce and Antislavery in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2003. viii, 258 pp. Ill. £29.95.
Covering the period between the rise of the Anglo-American antislavery movement in the 1770s and the abolition of the slave trade in 1808, this study analyses the antislavery literature of this period as an expression of the changing commercial culture in the Atlantic world. Examining the role of sentiment and its relation to capitalism and the formation of racial and cultural boundaries forged by this relationship, Professor Gould challenges the common opinion that objections to the slave trade were rooted in modern laissez-faire capitalism by arguing that for the slave trade to be considered "barbarous", commerce itself had to be understood as a moral and cultural form of exchange.
Manning, Patrick. Navigating World History. Historians Create a Global Past. Palgrave Macmillan, New York [etc.] 2003. xxiii, 425 pp. £18.99.
In this study, Professor Manning aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the growing academic field of world history. He traces the origins of world history in ancient times and its development into the present, reviewing world history studies from the Renaissance to 1900 and twentieth-century macrohistorical syntheses and thematic analyses, describes the institutional dynamics of the field, analyses the impact of new theories on methods in the disciplines of social science, humanities and natural sciences and on the emergence of world history as an autonomous field and offers a series of keynotes for study and research in world history. A bibliography of studies on world history completes the book.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Comparison and History. Europe in Cross-National Perspective. Ed. by Deborah Cohen and Maura O'Connor. Routledge, New York [etc]. 2004. xxiv, 207 pp. £15.99.
This collection brings together eleven contributions, based on a workshop organized at the University of Cincinnati in April 2001, assessing the benefits and dangers of comparative and cross-national research. The contributors, who pursue either comparative or cross-national approaches, raise practical, methodological and theoretical questions, drawing on diverse subjects such as the history of war, welfare, labour, migration and gender. Contributors include David Armitage, Peter Baldwin, Susan Grayzel, Nancy Green, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, Jürgen Kocka, Michael Miller, Susan Pedersen, Marta Petrusewicz and Glenda Sluga.
The Emergence of European Trade Unionism. Ed. by Jean-Louis Robert, Antoine Prost and Chris Wrigley. [Studies in Labour History]. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc]. 2004. xiv, 254 pp. £49.50.
The eleven essays in this collection examine from a comparative perspective the development of trade unions in various European countries, including France, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, during the four decades before World War I. Each contribution is written by a team of two or more authors from different countries. The first five contributions are about trade unionism in the iron, steel and textile industries, as well as in the shipyards, and consider a variety of locations. In the second part, customs and representations in the field of industrial relations are examined from a comparative perspective.
Etzemüller, Thomas. 1968 - Ein Riss in der Geschichte? Gesellschaftlicher Umbruch und 68er-Bewegungen in Westdeutschland und Schweden. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Konstanz 2005. 269 pp. Ill. € 24.00.
In this comparative study of the origins and impact of the 1968 revolt in West Germany and Sweden, Professor Etzemüller concludes that in both countries it was not as clearly a historical turning point and a decisive change as is often assumed. He argues that the social and cultural changes in the two countries can be seen as the result of the rise of modern consumer society, and that a new discourse of societal change became prominent. At the same time, he identifies distinct differences between the two societies in the way they dealt with the social and cultural changes in the 1960s.
Searching for Home Abroad. Japanese Brazilians and Transnationalism. Ed. by Jeffrey Lesser. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2003. xii, 219 pp. £65.00. (Paper: £16.95.)
Tens of thousands of Japanese immigrants entered Brazil during the first half of the twentieth century, while in the final decades over 20,000 Japanese Brazilians relocated to Japan. The nine contributions to this collection explore the ethnicity and national identity issues that arose when the original Japanese immigrants, their descendants in Brazil and the Japanese Brazilians in Japan sought to fit into the culture of each country, reveal the problems with prejudice and discrimination that had to be addressed and analyse the role of ethnic minorities in Brazilian and Japanese national identities.
"Wir sind auch da!" Über das Leben von und mit Migranten in europaïschen Grossstädten. Hrsg. Von Angelika Eder. [Forum Zeitgeschichte, Band 14.] Dölling und Galitz Verlag, Hamburg 2003. 428 pp. Ill. € 30.00.
Immigration and issues concerning the integration and position of ethnic minorities in larger cities have been central to twentieth-century Europe. The 22 contributions to this volume, based in part on a colloquium organized in Hamburg in February 2002, deal with these issues from both a social-historical and an ethnological-ethnographic perspective. Comparing the city of Hamburg to Athens, London and Rotterdam, the contributors deal with relations between immigrants and indigenous residents throughout the twentieth century; self-images among immigrants and the way they were perceived by others after 1945, in particular in the 1990s; and experiences of "otherness" in social practice and cultural education.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Arbeit und Vernetzung im Informationszeitalter. Wie neue Technologien die Geschlechterverhältnisse verändern. Hrsg. Von Heike Kahlert [und] Claudia Kajatin. [Politik der Geschlechterverhältnisse, Band 26.]. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2004. 319 pp. € 34.90.
The thirteen essays in this volume explore to what extent the digital information revolution that has been in progress since the late twentieth century is leading to fundamental change in gender relations in modern society. After a critical assessment in the first part of whether this information revolution has indeed brought about a fundamental shift towards a network society, the contributors in the second part explore how gender relations are affected in the production-related applications of the digitalization, while in the third part the authors deal with how the communication and culture-related forms of the digital revolutions have influenced gender relations.
Changing Anarchism. Anarchist Theory and Practice in a Global Age. Ed. by Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2004. x, 259 pp. £45.00.
The eleven contributions in this collection aim to give an overview of the links between the incipient social movements challenging economic globalization and Western military imperialism and contemporary anarchist theory and practice. The contributors examine anarchist theory and practice concerned with technology, the environment and identity, and argue that these offer useful tools for understanding power, how power may be resisted, and how anarchist ideals may affect many different areas of everyday life.
Mut zur konkreten Utopie. Alternativen zur herrschenden Ökonomie. Loccumer Initiative kritischer Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler. Mit Beiträgen von J. Beerhorst, K. Jürgens, M.R. Krätke, C. Müller-Plantenberg, U. Müller-Plantenberg, P. v. Oertzen, I. Schlosser, R. Schwendter, M. Steinrücke, E. Voß. [Kritische Interventionen, Band 8.] Offizin, Hannover 2003. 184 pp. € 12.80.
Based on two colloquia, organized in Kassel-Fuldatal in October 2002 and March 2003, the nine contributions in this collection from critical German scholars explore utopias as theoretical and practical alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal economic and social ideology worldwide. Included are essays by Peter von Oertzen on the utopia of a stateless and classless society in the contemporary context; Michael R. Krätke on the relation between economic democracy and market socialism; Joachim Beerhorst on the role of trade unions in a utopian vision; Elisabeth Voss on objective and subjective preconditions of alternative economies; and Clarita Müller-Plantenberg on solidarity in the Brazilian economy under Lula.
Terranova, Tiziana. Network Culture. Politics for the Information Age. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2004. vii, 184 pp. £14.99.
This study explores the extent to which the recent information and communication revolution might change our understanding of power relations and politics. Focusing on the history and technology of e-mail and internet, and the ways in which these new technologies bring together users, consumers, workers and activists from around the globe, Dr Terranova analyses the power and control structures that figure in a self-organizing system such as the internet and explains how this influences the political dimension of the emerging network culture.
CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES
AFRICA
Benin
Law, Robin. Ouidah. The Social History of a West African Slaving 'Port' 1727-1892. [Western African Studies.] James Currey [etc.] Oxford [etc.] 2004. xi, 308 pp. Maps. £50.00. (Paper: £18.95.)
From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries the city of Ouidah (in present-day Benin) was one of the main embarkation points for slaves on the coast of West Africa, with ten per cent of all transatlantic exports originating there. Covering the period between 1727, when the city was conquered by the inland sate of Dahomey, and 1892, when the French colonial occupation began, this study explores Ouidah's role in the operation of the slave trade and deals with the problems that affected Ouidah in the transition from the slave trade to that of palm produce in the nineteenth century. See also Ibrahima Thiaw's review in this volume, pp. 312-314.
Zimbabwe
Lyons, Tanya. Guns and Guerilla Girls. Women in the Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle. Africa World Press, Inc. Trenton NJ [etc.] 2004. xxiii, 338 pp. Ill. $29.95.
This study explores the variety of ways that women were represented in the struggle for national independence during the Zimbabwean National Liberation war, from 1965 to 1980. Based on interviews with women ex-combatants, Dr Lyons aims to convey the actual involvement of these women in guerrilla warfare and to analyse the different experiences that women have when they participate in the struggle for national liberation. The author criticizes the Western feminist preoccupations with glorified and heroic figures of African women. See also Teresa Barnes' review in this volume, pp. 315-316.
AMERICA
Contemporary Indigenous Movements in Latin America. Ed. by Erick D. Langer and Elena Muñoz. [Jaguar Books on Latin America]. Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Del. 2003. xxix, 220 pp. $65.00. (Paper: $19.95.)
This collection is subdivided into four parts, of which the first three address indigenous movements and the land issue, their political participation and their views on guerrilla warfare, respectively. Five of the eight contributions have been published previously. The fourth part comprises six statements from leaders of indigenous movements in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. In the introduction Langer sketches the vast diversity of the movements. Only in the 1980s did indigenous ethnicity begin to be accepted. The movement gained ground rapidly after 1992 (Quincentenary of Columbus' Journey to the New World and the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit). Since then, indigenous movements have strengthened their position through coalitions with NGOs.
Fonow, Mary Margaret. Union Women. Forging Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America. [Social Movements, Protest, and Contention, Vol. 17.] University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis [etc.] 2003. x, 250 pp. Ill. $19.95.
This book explores the emergence, growth and development in recent decades of union feminism in the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) - a large US and Canadian union representing over 700,000 steelworkers. Professor Fonow aims to show how a group of women steelworkers succeeded in creating a secured space within the male-dominated union from which women could challenge sex discrimination and advocate women's rights. She concludes that in the process of transforming the USWA to represent their interests as working-class women, these women activists themselves became union feminists.
Brazil
French, John D. Drowning in Laws. Labor Law and Brazilian Political Culture. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill [etc.] 2004. xviii, 233 pp. Ill. £40.50. (Paper: £16.95.)
Concentrating on the period 1945-1964, this study explores the influence of labour legislation on the cultural and political development of the Brazilian working class. Since 1943, Brazilian labour relations were governed by the Consolidation of Labour Laws (CLT), a relatively advanced body of social legislation. Dr French aims to show that, although the CLT's legal promises were hardly ever fulfilled in practice, they did provide Brazilian workers with an ideal to pursue. See also Michael Hall's review in this volume, pp. 317-319
Cuba
Báez, Antonio Carmona. State Resistance to Globalisation in Cuba. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2004. viii, 264 pp. £50.00. (Paper: £16.99.)
This book aims "to discover the possibilities and limitations of state resistance to neo-liberal globalization". The author analyses changes introduced in Cuba during the 1990s. After the downfall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Cuba was obliged to allow a measure of foreign influence. The negative consequences, which included growing income discrepancies and a rise in prostitution, were contained. The author argues that because of the truly popular indigenous nature of the Cuban revolution and the negative example of globalization in neighbouring countries, support for the Cuban state and party has remained widespread.
Mexico
Dawson, Alexander S. Indian and Nation in Revolutionary Mexico. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2004. xxvi, 222 pp. Ill. $45.00.
This study addresses the role of indigenismo in the establishment of Mexico's revolutionary state. After 1917, under the Dirrección de Antropología, the Indigensitas campaigned actively to elevate the status of Indians to that of citizens in modern Mexico. These reformist efforts derived primarily from the North-American and West-European form of modernity. Despite this position, the established powers perceived the campaign as a threat to their authority. Nor did the movement have strong adherence among indigenous groups. Professor Dawson concludes that relations grew somewhat more equal only under Cárdenas in the 1930s. The small group of indigenas capacitados that emerged became pivotal between Cárdenas' PRI state and the indigenous communities.
Ducey, Michael T. A Nation of Villages Riot and Rebellion in the Mexican Huasteca, 1750-1850. University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2004. xii, 235 pp. $39.95.
This study explores the riots and rebellions in rural villages in the Mexican region of Huasteca from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, a period in which republican national institutions replaced colonial rule. The peasant rebellions around this time involved more people and were longer and more violent than the ones that occurred in the colonial era and culminated in the Caste War of the Huasteca. Professor Ducey aims to show how the villagers in these rebellions appeared to care far more about political disputes than about land and argues that rural people thus played an important role in shaping the republican state.
Snodgrass, Michael. Deference and Defiance in Monterrey. Workers, Paternalism, and Revolution in Mexico, 1890-1950. [Cambridge Latin American Studies, vol. 88.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. xii, 321 pp. £50.00; $70.00.
Focusing on the first half of the twentieth century, Professor Snodgrass explores in this study the emergence of the Mexican city of Monterrey as one of Latin America's pre-eminent industrial cities and the rise of two distinct systems of industrial relations that both arose from the Mexican revolutions: company paternalism and militant trade unionism. Comparing four local industries - steel, beer, glass and smelting - he aims to demonstrate how workers and managers joined forces to form labour regimes that built upon working-class traditions of mutual aid and elitist resistance to state labour policies.
United States of America
Agnew, Elizabeth N. From Charity to Social Work. Mary E. Richmond and the Creation of an American Profession. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2004. xi, 288 pp. £17.99.
This biography of the influential leader in the American charity movement Mary E. Richmond (1861-1928) explores her contributions to the field of charity and her role in its transformation into professional social work. Professor Agnew portrays Richmond as someone whose progressive civic philosophy of social work was to a large extent informed by the social gospel movement, and who sought practical applications of the teachings of Christianity in response to the social problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization and poverty. The author argues that Richmond's life illustrates, among other things, the tensions among private charity and public welfare.
Black Workers' Struggle for Equality in Birmingham. Ed. by Horace Huntley and David Montgomery. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2004. x, 244 pp. $35.00.
In this volume, a set of seventeen annotated interviews of participants in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, undertaken by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, are brought together. In his introduction, Professor Montgomery places in a broader historical context the experiences of the interviewees with sharecropping, migration to the city of Birmingham and adjacent mining towns, police brutality and their efforts to improve the position of African Americans through their unions and the community movement for civil and voting rights. In her afterword, Mrs Woolfolk, founding president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, recounts the background and origins of this institute.
Chester, Eric Thomas. True Mission. Socialists and the Labor Party Question in the U.S. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2004. xii, 260 pp. £45.00. (Paper: £14.99.)
In this study, Professor Chester - vice-presidential candidate for the Socialist Party in 1996 - explores a number of events that he regards as crucial in United States history, where the stranglehold of the two-party system was nearly broken: Henry George's campaign for mayor of New York City in 1886; Robert La Follette's independent presidential campaign of 1924 up to Ralph Nader's campaign of 2000. Analysing the key reasons why other political movements have failed, he proposes as an alternative a mass-based Socialist Party as the way forward towards independent progressive politics.
Costin, Lela B. Two Sisters for Social Justice. A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2003. xv, 315 pp. Ill. $17.95.
This biography of the sisters Grace (1878-1939) and Edith Abbott (1876-1957) focuses on their role as social reformists and activists around a wide range of social, political and legal issues in the United States during the Progressive Era and the New Deal era: women's suffrage; the rights of working women; child labour; the international traffic in women for prostitution; immigrants; tenement housing; delinquency and prison reform; the peace movement; and many more. Professor Costin aims to show how the Abbott sisters were pivotal role in transforming "charity work" into the new profession of social work.
Dawson, Andrew. Lives of the Philadelphia Engineers. Capital, Class and Revolution, 1830-1890. [Modern Economic and Social History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xii, 302 pp. £52.50.
Surveying the development of mechanical engineering and the machine building industry in the city of Philadelphia during the nineteenth century, Dr Dawson combines economic, social and political history in examining the emergence of a new class of industrial entrepreneurs and their political economy. Rejecting the common opinion that these manufacturers were mostly a-political, conservative supporters of slavery, the author argues that workshop owners were for good economic reasons committed to free labour, which brought them into political conflict both with the plantation owners and the mercantile elite, as well as with many of their employees, and, in the mid-nineteenth century American political constellation, actually made them revolutionaries, albeit bourgeois ones.
DeLamotte, Eugenia C. Gates of Freedom. Voltairine de Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind. With Selections from her Writing. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2004. x, 334 pp. $65.00. (Paper: $22.95.)
Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912), a leading anarchist and feminist, was, according to Emma Goldman, "the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced", but she has remained unknown to most people. In this study, Professor DeLamotte explores de Cleyre's contributions to the anarchist movement and theory, her analyses of justice and violence and her views on women, sexuality and the body and assesses her literary significance and the importance of her work to feminist theory, women's studies, American history and contemporary social and cultural analysis. In the second part of the book, a selection of de Cleyre's writings is listed by theme.
DeVault, Ileen A. United Apart. Gender and the Rise of Craft Unionism. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2004. xi, 244 pp. $49.95; £28.95. (Paper: $19.95; £11.50.)
Looking at forty strikes across the United States in the tobacco, textile, clothing and boot and shoe industries, in the period from the formation of the American Federation of Labor in 1886 to the establishment if the Women's Trade Union League in 1903, Professor DeVault explores in this study how gender influenced the outcome of job actions. By focusing on strikes in which both male and female workers participated - "cross-gender strikes", as she labels them - the author aims to show both the cooperation between the sexes and the ways in which the gender bias became central to trade unionism in the United States.
Haney López, Ian F. Racism on Trial. The Chicano Fight for Justice. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2003. x, 324 pp. Ill. £18.95.
Focusing on two criminal cases following the protest marches of Mexican Americans in East Los Angeles in March 1968, Professor Haney-Lopéz examines the origins of the Chicano movement and the ways in which judicial discrimination and legal violence in this period convinced the Chicano activists that they were considered nonwhites, thereby encouraging their use of racial ideas to redefine their aspirations, culture and identity. He describes the common-sense nature of race in this respect, which, he argues, largely explains the persistence of racism and racial affiliation.
Herr, Lois Kathryn . Women, Power and AT&T. Winning Rights in the Workplace. Northeastern University Press, Boston 2003. xxii, 200 pp. Ill. $47.50. (Paper:$18.95.)
These are the memoirs of a women's rights activist in the American telecom industry. Working at AT&T in the late 1960s, Louise Herr encountered strong barriers to career advancement for women within the largest company in the world, as well as senseless dress codes and unequal benefits. Herr's personal conflict soon developed into a nation-wide movement through the convergence with the challenge of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which culminated in the landmark 1973 agreement between EEOC and AT&T that set a precedent for important changes in how women and minority employees were treated at the workplace.
A House Divided. The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865. Ed. by Mason I. Lowance, Mason. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2003. lxxi, 492 pp. Ill. £17.95.
This anthology comprises the most important abolitionist as well as proslavery documents written in the United States between the American Revolution and the Civil War. In addition to an extensive historical introduction that reviews the antebellum slavery debate and its key issues and participants, each selection is introduced and situated in its context. Included are examples of race theory, Bible-based arguments for and against slavery, constitutional analyses, writing by former slaves and women's rights activists, economic defences and critiques of slavery and writings by major authors such as William Lloyd Garrison, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville.
The New Left Revisited. Ed. by John McMillian and Paul Buhle. [Critical Perspectives on the Past.] Temple University Press, Philadelphia 2003. 274 pp. £66.95.
This collection brings together twelve essays from a younger generation of scholars on the history of the New Left and the 1960s in the United States. According to the first editor, internal differences within the New Left movement have often been obscured in the historiography of the period, which long has been dominated by participants in the movement itself. The social and ideological roots of the New Left movement, regional and ideological differences and gender dynamics in the movement are among the issues covered in the contributions. In the afterword, empirical expert Paul Buhle reflects on the role of scholars in the New Left movement and its aftermath.
Sealander, Judith. The Failed Century of the Child. Governing America's Young in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. x, 374 pp. Ill. £60.00; $75.00. (Paper: £21.99; $28.00.)
In the twentieth century, the American government drafted a variety of activist public policies affecting children. In this study, Professor Sealander examines how these policies, based on contemporary developments in social sciences and statistics, failed to achieve their own objectives and often reveal a vast discrepancy between ideals and actual outcomes. She aims to show how these policies emphasizing universality, objectivity and democracy, often in fact deepened racial and class separations.
Zinn, Howard [and] Anhony Arnove. Voices of a People's History of the United States. Seven Stories Press, New York, NY [etc.] 2004. 665 pp. $36.00. (Paper: $15.16.)
This collection is a companion volume to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (originally published in 1980), which aims to relate American history from the point of view of ordinary men and women. Professor Zinn and Mr Arnove have brought together a selection of source documents to voice this bottom-up history in the people's own words. The selections are arranged in chronological order and by theme, from Christopher Columbus' diary, through documents on the American Revolution, the early women's movement, labour struggle in the Gilded Age, to the anti-war movements in the late twentieth century.
ASIA
India
Hardiman, David. Gandhi in his time and ours. The global legacy of his ideas. Hurst & Company, London 2003. xiii, 338 pp. $50.00.
"In this book, I intend to examine Gandhi as a figure whose life and work represented a dialogue between the many complex strands of thought of his day, both Indian and extra-Indian, as well as his legacy in India and the world since his death." Examining the origins of Gandhi's thought, Dr Hardiman aims to show that it derived from a broader vision of an alternative society based on mutual respect, lack of exploitation, non-violence and ecological harmony. He argues that Gandhi's programme for women was a key issue in his life and thought.
Vietnam
Giebel, Christoph. Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism. Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory. [Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian Studies.] University of Washington Press [etc.] Seattle, WA [etc.] 2004. xxii, 256 pp. Ill. $40.00. (Paper: $30.50.)
This study combines a biography of Ton Duc Thang (1888-1980), a celebrated revolutionary activist and Vietnamese communist icon, second only to Ho Chi Minh in prominence and public visibility, with an analysis of the inner working of official Vietnamese historiography. Ton Duc Thang lacked any real power in the communist party, but, according to Professor Giebel, his life story was used and partly fabricated to link the party to "ancestries" that were seen as crucial to legitimize Vietnamese communism. He argues that since the late 1950s the stories about Ton Duc Thang's life have come to be used by competing ideological and regional interests within the party.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Papua New Guinea
Errington, Frederick and Deborah Gewertz. Yali's Question. Sugar, Culture, and History. [The Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures 2002.] The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2004. xiv, 319 pp. Ill. $27.50; £19.50.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a sugar estate was established in recently independent Papua New Guinea. In this study, Professors Errington and Gewertz examine the political and national identity-related issues around the establishment of this symbol of prestige and the perspectives of the diverse participants that played a role in the establishment of this sugar plantation, among them Yali, a well-known Papua New Guinean political leader. The authors argue that the implicit objective of the sugar plantation, to help build a coherent Papua New Guinea, was for the most part successful.
EUROPE
Andreassi Cieri, Alejandro. Arbeit macht frei. El trabajo y su organización en el fascismo (Alemania e Italia). Fundación Investigaciones Marxistas/El Viejo Topo, Madrid 2004. 502 pp. € 20.00.
In this book the author analyses the cultural and political context from the period before World War I and between the two World Wars in an effort to identify factors that nurtured later fascist views about labour in Germany and Italy. He argues that fascism reinforced all the characteristics associated with labour under capitalism, which at the same time became a means toward repression and annihilation.
Culture Wars. Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Ed. by Christopher Clark and Wolfram Kaiser. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. viii, 368 pp. £50.00; $70.00.
In all European countries the emergence of constitutional and democratic nation-states in the nineteenth century coincided with severe conflict between Catholics and anticlerical forces, which affected virtually every sphere of social life. The twelve contributions to this volume interpret these conflicts as "culture wars" in the process of emerging modernity. The contributors examine the character and development of the conflicts in a selection of European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom) and place them in a comparative context.
Europäischer Sozialismus im Kalten Krieg. Briefe und Berichte 1944-1948. Hrsg. von Peter Heumos. [Quellen und Studien zur Sozialgeschichte, Band 20.] Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2004. 557 pp. € 69.90.
This source edition documents the relations and dialogue between socialists and social democrats and their parties from Western and Eastern Europe in their quest for a third way between Soviet communism and American capitalism in the period between the end of World War II and the foundation of the Socialist International in 1951. Included are 121 documents, of which 119 are published here for the first time, encompassing correspondence of Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian, Czech-Slovakian and Hungarian, socialists and social democrats with Western European socialist and social democratic individuals and party officials and with international socialist organizations and reports and protocols.
Kowalsky, Daniel. La Unión Soviética y la guerra civil española. Una revisión crítica. Prólogo de Stanley G. Payne. Trad. castellana de Teófilo de Lozoya y Juan Rabasseda-Gascón. Crítica, Barcelona 2003. xv, 534 pp. Ill. € 29.00.
This revised edition of a dissertation (University of Wisconsin, 2002) examines aspects of Spanish-Russian relations during the Civil War, such as diplomatic issues, humanitarian aid, propaganda, cultural relations, military aid and intervention. Dr Kowalsky conducted research in Spanish and Russian archives and investigated previously untapped sources, including the papers of the Spanish ambassador in Moscow Marcelino Pascua. Half of this book is about the Russian military intervention. One appendix contains an essay about published sources; another lists historical Spanish sources in the Russian Federation.
Mastellone, Salvo. Mazzini. Scrittore politico in inglese. Democracy in Europe (1840-1855). [Il Pensiero Politico, 25.] Leo S. Olschki, Firenze 2004. 322 pp. € 29.00.
In this study Mr Mastellone examines Mazzini's political position during his London years (1837-1855) based on his writings in English about democracy in Europe. The author analyses his debate with Marx and Engels, with the Polish exiles in London and his relations with the English progressive movement (which published his writings in its press), from the "Letter-opening affair" in 1844 to his Manifesto of the Republican Party, which he published with Kossuth and Ledru-Rollin in 1855. The author has examined The Northern Star, The People's Journal, The Democratic Review, The Red Republican and The English Republican.
Rahikainen, Marjatta. Centuries of Child Labour. European Experiences from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xi, 272 pp. £45.00.
Comparing the European "core countries" Britain and France to the experiences of the Northern European "periphery" (Sweden, Finland and Russia), this study explores changes in child labour and attitudes toward working children from the perspective of the demand for labour. Examining the developments in child labour from the early modern manufacturing period and during the agricultural revolution to the late twentieth-century, Dr Rahikainen argues that child labour was discovered during the ancien régime as new resource of labour, which needed to be disciplined and mobilized. See also Kristoffel Lieten's review in this volume, pp. 304-306.
Schauff, Frank. Der verspielte Sieg. Sowjetunion, Kommunistische Internationale und Spanischer Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939. [Quellen und Studien zur Sozialgeschichte, Band 21.] Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2004. 405 pp. € 45.00.
In this dissertation (University of Cologne, 2004), Dr Schauff evaluates the role of the Soviet Union and the Comintern in the Spanish Civil War, based in part on the archives recently opened in Moscow. From the perspective of the Spanish Civil War as the first international conflict in which the new Soviet state became involved, the author analyses how the internal developments of progressive Stalinization and the concurrent manifestation and elaboration of the terror and international involvement in Spain exerted a reciprocal influence.
Austria
Rieger, Barbara. Roma und Sinti in Österreich nach 1945. Die Ausgrenzung einer Minderheit als gesellschaftlicher Prozess. [Sinti- und Romastudien, Band 29.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2003. 274 pp. € 48.10.
This dissertation (University of Vienna, 1997) examines the continuous discrimination and marginalization of the Roma and Sinti minorities in Austria in the post-World War II era as a social process. Dr Rieger focuses on sources from various national, regional and local administrative and judicial bodies to demonstrate how the discriminatory practices originating from the Nazi period and before have lived on in the policies of the postwar period.
Wodrazka, Paul Bernhard. Und es gab sie doch! Die Geschichte der christlichen Arbeiterbewegung in Österreich in der Ersten Republik. Mit einem Vorwort von Herbert Matis. [Europäische Hochschulschriften, Reihe III: Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften, Bd. 950.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2003. 340 pp. € 46.80.
This study explores the history of the Christian labour movement in Austria from the end of World War I to 1933. Dr Wodrazka aims to examine Christian trade union organizations and Catholic labour associations in the context of conflicting interests within the Christian milieu, between workers and employers and in the competition with the numerically far superior free trade unions and the social democratic labour movement. At a micro-economic level, the author traces how effective the organizations were at representing the interests of their members.
Eire - Ireland
Elliott, Marianne. Robert Emmet. The making of a legend. Profile Books, London 2003. xi, 292 pp. Ill. £20.00.
In this study, Professor Elliott aims to unravel the myths around Robert Emmett, who was executed in September 1803 at age 25 for leading the doomed July 1803 rebellion in Ireland, and soon became one of the most powerful Irish nationalist symbols as well as a mythical Romantic hero. Arguing that the story of Emmett's rebellion and death had the ideal ingredients of a classic story, including a tragic love affair, the author aims to show how myth-makers and patriots from various ilk created one of the most powerful and enduring legends in modern Irish history.
France
Antonini, Bruno. État et socialisme chez Jean Jaurès. Préface de André Tosel. [Ouverture Philosophique.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. v, 274 pp. € 25.00.
In this philosophical essay, Professor Antonini explores the answer to the question: what is the role of the state according to Jean Jaurès in the conversion of the bourgeois Republic into the socialist Republic? Starting from Jaurès' metaphysics in his doctoral theses in philosophy (1892), the author argues that Jaurès has tried to create a reformist socialist method to renovate the revolutionary political praxis of the proletariat. This model revolved around the reformist action of the socialist party, trade unions and workers' cooperatives, leading to the withering of capitalism through the state.
Aston, Nigel. The French Revolution, 1789-1804. Authority, Liberty and the Search for Stability. [European History in Perspective.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2004. xx, 310 pp. £16.99.
This textbook aims to offer a fresh perspective on the French Revolution and the Counter-Revolution by focusing on the darker side of this period: the toll in human lives of revolutionary change and the political ruthlessness of its key players, the militarization of France, the violence and vandalism and the social effects of economic changes. Covering the period from 1789 to 1804, Dr Aston examines the continuities and discontinuities in the course of the Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. A separate chapter is devoted to the appreciation of revolutionary values in Europe, the French colonies and the United States.
Barzman, John. Quelque part, ça laisse des traces. Mémoire et histoire des électriciens et gaziers de la région du Havre. Avec la collaboration de Claude Bec, Jacques Doublet, Lisabeth James et l'équipe de la CMCAS du Havre. Publications des Universités de Rouen no 340 et du Havre no 13, [Mont-Saint-Aignan] 2003. 312 pp. Ill. € 15.00.
In this volume, a historical overview of the energy industry (power plants and gasworks) in the region of Le Havre and the role of labour in this industry is combined with memoirs of both employers and employees and trade union militants. In the first part Professor Barzman provides a chronological overview of the developments up to 1980, while in the second part and the annexes personal memoirs sketch the effects of the reforms in the energy industry in the period 1980-1995.
Biondi Nalis, Franca. Etienne Cabet tra Utopia e Rivoluzione. G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino 2004. 147 pp. € 12.00.
This is an analysis of the development until 1848 of the political ideas of Étienne Cabet (1788-1856). Based in part on the various remaining archives of Cabet, the author investigates the different stages in his career: his work as a lawyer, as a deputy, as secretary to the Association libre pour l'éducation du peuple and his involvement with the two editions of the journal Le Populaire (1833-1835; 1841). The author also examines Étienne's main works Histoire de la Révolution française and Voyage en Icarie and concludes with a review of the rise of Icarian communism in the 1840s.
Ceamanos Llorens, Roberto. De la historia del movimiento obrero a la historia social. L'Actualité de l'Histoire (1951-1960) y Le Mouvement Social (1960-2000). [Ciencias socials, 51.] Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 2004. 290 pp. Ill. € 30.00.
This study is about contemporary French social historiography and its progression from the history of the labour movement to social history. The author has reviewed the two major journals L'actualité de l'histoire (1953-1960) and Le mouvement social (1960-), analysing their content, their stated objectives and development and their relations with the social, economic, political and historiographic context in which they evolved. Mr Ceamanos Llorens has also investigated the ties with Spanish historiography, had access to the editorial records of Le mouvement social and interviewed the most prominent members of the editorial board.
The Color of Liberty. Histories of Race in France. Ed. by Sue Peabody and Tyler Stovall. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2003. xii, 384 pp. £18.95.
Challenging the French self-image of a colour-blind nation devoid of racial bias, the sixteen essays in this collection deal with the history of race from the early modern period to the present to show that racial markers have been important in French national life over the last three hundred years. Included are contributions on the origins of race as an idea in France, changes in the representation of racial differences in French writing and iconography and race and racism during the colonial period and in the postcolonial French cities.
Crozier, Michel. À contre-courant. Mémoires 1969-2000. Fayard, Paris 2004. 371 pp. € 22.00.
This is the second of two volumes of the memoirs of the leading French sociologist Michel Crozier, well-known in part for his work on bureaucratization and on the social position and class consciousness of white-collar workers (see IRSH, 10 (1965), pp. 503f., 17 (1972), p. 758, and 49 (2004), p. 369). Covering the years 1969-2000, Professor Crozier relates experiences such as his extensive academic career in France and the United States and his own "discovery" of East Asia.
Dauphiné, Joël. Henri Rochefort déportation et évasion d'un polémiste. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 340 pp. Maps. € 29.00.
This biographical study of Henri de Rochefort (1831-1913) aims to portray this politician and polemic writer in the context of his complex relationship with French national history and in particular the history of the end the Second Empire, the Commune de Paris and the birth of the Third Republic. Dr Dauphiné focuses on the period from Rochefort's arrest by the Versailles government in 1871, through his conviction and deportation to New Caledonia and his spectacular escape.
Deutsche Handwerker, Arbeiter und Dienstmädchen in Paris. Eine vergessene Migration im 19. Jahrhundert. Hrsg. von Mareike König. [Pariser Historische Studien, Band 66]. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2003. 203 pp. € 34.80.
Although German migration to Paris in the nineteenth century has been covered extensively in historiography, the focus of such publications has remained limited to well-known figures such as Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and many others, and knowledge about less famous German migrants is far more superficial. The nine contributions to this collection, in both German and French, based on a seminar organized at the German Historical Institute in Paris in June 2002, address the history of the artisans, skilled and unskilled workers and domestic servants, who accounted for around 95 to 99 per cent of the German migrants in Paris during the nineteenth century.
Divo, Jean. L'affaire Lip. Et les catholiques de Franche-Comté. Besançon, 17 avril 1973-29 janvier 1974. Éditions Cabédita, Yens sur Morges 2003. 200 pp. € 24.00.
The labour conflict at the Lip watch factory in northeast France led the workers to occupy the company and to install a temporary form of labour autonomy between April 1973 and January 1974, attracting national and international attention and sympathy. This study explores the context and development of the conflict and focuses in particular on the role of the Christian trade unionists within the factory, especially those organized in the Action catholique.
Dupuy, Christian. Saint-Junien, un bastion anarchiste en Haute-Vienne 1893-1923. PULIM, Limoges [2003]. 227 pp. Ill. € 16.00.
This study reviews the social and political developments in the city of Saint-Junien, a small industrial town in the Haute-Vienne near Limoges, in the decades around the turn of the nineteenth century. Under the influence of the rapid industrialization in the region, a distinct anarchist political culture came to dominate the town, leading between 1901 and 1905 to a series of violent labour conflicts and a climate of revolutionary expectations that disappeared as quickly as it had emerged. Mr Dupuy explores the origins of this short-lived radicalism and its consequences for the political climate in the following decades.
Eichner, Carolyn J. Surmounting the Barricades. Women in the Paris Commune. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN [etc.] 2004. xii, 279 pp. Ill. $55.00; £24.95.
Focusing on three revolutionary women leaders in the Paris Commune, André Léo, Elisabeth Dmitrieff and Paule Mink, Professor Eichner examines in this study feminist socialism both within the Paris Commune of 1871 and, during its aftermath, in fin-de-siècle gender and class politics. She investigates how these three women, in their varied roles as a journalist (Léo), an organizer of working-class women (Dmitrieff) and a socialist agitator (Mink), elaborated critiques of gender, class and religious hierarchies in the 1860s and considers their respective roles in the insurrection itself, and how their feminist socialism affected gender and class politics in the decades that followed.
Gannett, Robert T. Tocqueville Unveiled. The Historian and His Sources for The Old Regime and the Revolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2003. xiii, 246 pp. $39.00; £27.50.
Alexis de Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution, originally published in 1856, is one of the seminal historical works on the French Revolution. Based on Tocqueville's private archives, Professor Gannett Jr. traces the evolution of the ideas expressed in his work, among others on issues of peasant landownership, administrative centralization and public opinion in ancien régime France. The author also aims to show how Tocqueville was inspired by intellectual encounters with authors like Edmund Burke, Benjamin Constant and C. Dareste de la Chavanne.
Hanson, Paul R. The Jacobin Republic under Fire. The Federalist Revolt in the French Revolution. The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park (Penn.) 2003. x, 262 pp. $49.95.
In this study of the Federalist Revolt in the French Revolution, when in 1792 four provincial cities rebelled against the Montagnards, the radical Jacobin revolutionaries in Paris, Professor Hanson aims to provide a synthetic overview and analysis of this crucial phase in the Revolution, which marked the beginning of the Terror. Examining what divided the federalist rebels the Girondins from the Montagnards, the author concludes that the central controversy was over the question of popular sovereignty: who constituted the sovereign people, and how could they exercise their sovereignty?
Jones, Peter. Liberty and Locality in Revolutionary France. Six Villages Compared, 1760-1820. [New Studies in European History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. xiv, 306 pp. Ill. Maps. $65.00; £45.00.
Using micro-historical research about six villages in different parts of France in the course of six decades around the French Revolution, Professor Jones pursues a comparative approach to shed light on the impact on local rural societies of the changes brought about by the end of the ancient regime. He explores, among others, how the village elites reacted to the institutional change and widening social and political horizons after 1789, how villagers came to terms with the new psychological landscape of citizenship, how the symbolic practices of the Revolutionary era were absorbed internally, and what the impact was of libertarian and egalitarian ideologies in the realm of land use and ownership.
La Révolution française au carrefour des recherches. Sous la direction de Martine Lapied et Christine Peyrard. Pref. de Michel Vovelle. Publications de l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence 2003. 356 pp. € 30.00.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium with a similar title, organized in Aix en Provence in October 2001, that bring together new results of recent research into the history of the French Revolution. The twenty-two contributions by French, American, British, Italian, Spanish and Dutch scholars cover the economic, social and political history of the French Revolution, as well as the history of culture and public opinion, women's history and the pictorial history of the Revolution. Professor Vovelle contributed the preface.
Riviale, Philippe. Proudhon. La justice, contre le souverain. Tentative d'examen d'une théorie de la justice fondée sur l'équilibre économique. Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2003. 186 pp. € 16.80.
This essayistic study explores the ideas of the French utopian socialist and anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) on the issue of justice. Proudhon, who has become famous for his slogan "Property is theft!" in his most famous work Qu'est-ce que la propriété? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement (1840), is, according to Mr Rivale, far less known for his ideas on revolutionary violence as a legitimate force of the people to attain justice and economic freedom.
Seidman, Michael. The Imaginary Revolution. Parisian Students and Workers in 1968. [International Studies in Social History.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2004. x, 310 pp. Ill. $75.00; £50.00. (Paper: $24.95; £14.95.)
This study aims to offer a critical examination of the actual May 1968 events in Paris to analyse to what extent the mythical significance ascribed to the May revolution as a decisive turning point in the Western world is justified. Exploring the period leading up to the May events, the role of violence among the student movement, the role and different aims of workers' protests and the successful response by the authorities and lower middle class, Professor Seidman concludes that the actual effects of the May events were rather limited, but that their significance lies primarily in the transformative power that the media and scholars afterwards have attributed to them.
Zéphirin Camélinat (1840-1932). Une vie pour la Sociale. Actes du Colloque Historique Organisé au Musée Saint-Germain à Auxerre le 11 octobre 2003 par Adiamos-89. Textes rec. et mis en ordre sous la resp. de Michel Cordillot. [Colloque Adiamos, 89.] Société des Sciences Historiques et Naturelles de l'Yonne, Auxerre 2004. 159 pp. Ill.
The nine contributions to this collection, based on a colloquium organized in Auxerre in October 2003, review the life of the French socialist and militant Zéphirin Camélinat (1840-1932) and his significance for French socialism. The contributors deal with various aspects of Camélinat's political activities: as one of the founders of the union of bronze workers and the First International, as a Communard, as a co-founder of the SFIO and as a founding member of the French Communist Party. The volume concludes with a report on the October 2003 commemoration of Camélinat in the village of his birth Mailly-la-Ville.
Germany
Brecher, Volker. Kriegswirtschaft in Worms. Arbeitsbedingungen ausländischer und deutscher Beschäftiger in der Lederindustrie und anderen Wirtschaftszweigen 1939-1945. [Der Wormsgau: Beiheft 37.] Verlag Stadtarchiv Worms, Worms 2003. 386p. Ill. € 25.00.
This study focuses on the leather industry in the city of Worms to explore the working and living conditions of the forced labourers put to work in the war economy during World War II. Mr Brecher aims to describe the deployment of forced labour from the perspective not only of the foreign workers - prisoners of war and civilian workers alike - but also from that of the employers to generate a broader picture conveying the restraints and demands that they encountered.
Ehmer, Josef. Bevölkerungsgeschichte und historische Demographie 1800-2000. [Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte, Band 71.] Oldenbourg, München 2004. xii, 168 pp. € 34.80. (Paper: € 19.80.)
This encyclopaedic overview of German historical demography and population history in the last two centuries, published as Volume 71 in the longstanding textbook series Encyclopaedia of German History, is a chronological sequel to Christian Pfister, Bevölkerungsgeschichte und historische Demographie 1500-1800 (1994) (see IRSH 41 (1996), p. 266). This volume describes long-term trends in migration, mortality, fertility, age structure and marriage practices and examines the demographic breaks of the World Wars and the effects of National Socialist population policies, as well as those of the German reunification. In the second part, Professor Ehmer reviews old and new theories about demographic tends.
Fischer, Ilse. Versöhnung von Nation und Sozialismus? Lothar Erdmann (1888-1939): Ein "leidenschaftlicher Individualist" in der Gewerkschaftsspitze. Biographie und Auszüge aus den Tagebüchern. [Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, Beiheft 23. Heft 3 der Veröffentlichungen aus dem Archiv der sozialen Demokratie der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.] Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Bonn 2004. 513 pp. € 48.00. [incl. CD-ROM]
This volume combines a biography of the German trade union militant and socialist Lothar Erdmann (1888-1939) and a selection from his diaries. The biography deals with the main phases in Erdmann's life: his bourgeois background, his experiences in World War I, his activities for the International Trade Union Federation and the Allgemeine Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (AGDB) and his role in the discussion about the SPD and AGDB strategy to cope with the rise of National Socialism. The selection from his diaries in this collection and, more extensively, on the CD-ROM included is intended to provide insight into his political and personal development.
Fontaine, Karin. Nationalsozialistische Aktivistinnen (1933-1945). Hausfrauen, Mütter, Berufstätige, Akademikerinnen. So sahen sie sich und ihre Rolle im "tausendjährigen Reich". Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003. 134 pp. € 15.00.
This study of the active role of women in the National Socialist movement in the period 1933-1945 examines the motives of German women for participating in the movement. Mrs Fontaine discerns three different positions: the opportunities the movement provided for education and employment within the movement were both important motives; on the other hand, academically educated women activists were a minority in the National Socialist movement.
Grimmer-Solem, Erik. The Rise of Historical Economics and Social Reform in Germany, 1864-1894. [Oxford Historical Monographs.] Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003. xiii, 338 pp. £55.00.
Examining the thought and milieu of the German historical economist Gustav Schmoller (1838-1917) and the group of young scholars around him, Professor Grimmer-Solem aims to show how they transformed German economics into a tool of social reform in the final decades of the nineteenth century. He analyses the influence of empiricism, statistics and natural sciences on Schmoller's choice of methods and deals with both the well-known differences of opinion that Schmoller had with Carl Menger (the Methodenstreit) and Max Weber and his position in the German liberal social reform movement.
Günther, Dagmar. Wandern und Sozialismus. Zur Geschichte des Touristenvereins "Die Naturfreunde" im Kaisserreich und in der Weimarer Republik. [Studien zur Geschichtsforschung der Neuzeit. Band 30.] Verlag Dr. Kova?, Hamburg 2003. ii, 138 pp. € 68.00.
Founded in 1895 in Vienna, the social democratic tourist association Die Naturfreunde grew into a large, internationally active organization after World War I. This study focuses primarily on the German Naturfreunde movement to explore the conflict-ridden process of identity formation within this movement of nature lovers that emerged between the extremes of Alpine tourism and membership of the social democratic labour movement subculture.
Langkau-Alex, Ursula. Deutsche Volksfront 1932-1939. Zwischen Berlin, Paris, Prag und Moskau. Erster Band: Vorgeschichte und Gründung des Ausschusses zur Vorbereitung einer deutschen Volksfront. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004. xix, 358 pp. € 39.80.
Langkau-Alex, Ursula. Deutsche Volksfront 1932-1939. Zwischen Berlin, Paris, Prag und Moskau. Zweiter Band: Geschichte des Ausschusses zur Vorbereitung einer deutschen Volksfront. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004-2005. xvii, 590 pp. € 59.80.
Langkau-Alex, Ursula. Deutsche Volksfront 1932-1939. Zwischen Berlin, Paris, Prag und Moskau. Dritter Band: Dokumente zur Geschichte des Ausschusses zur Vorbereitung einer deutschen Volksfront, Chronik und Verzeichnisse. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004-2005. xvi, 544 pp. € 59.80.
With this trilogy, Dr Langkau-Alex completes her history of the German Popular Front and the German labour movement in exile between 1932 and 1939. The first volume of this trilogy is a fully revised and expanded version of Volksfront für Deutschland? Band 1: Vorgeschichte und Gründung des "Ausschusses zur Vorbereiting einer deutschen Volksfront", 1933-1936 (Frankfurt am Main, 1977) (see IRSH, 23 (1978), p. 160 for the first edition), in which the author examines the preliminary activities and founding of the Ausschuss zur Vorbereitung einer deutschen Volksfront (Commission for the Preparation of a German Popular Front) and concludes with the Lutetia Conference in 1936, at which a Popular Front Committee was organized, with Heinrich Mann as its chairman. The second volume focuses on the development and activities of the Ausschuss, while the third volume contains an extensive collection of related source documents, which are annotated in some cases. See also Mario Kessler's review in this volume, pp. 306-309.
Der Rechtsradikalismus - ein Randphänomen? Kritische Analysen. Mit Beiträgen von M. Buckmiller, K. Christoph, W. Kreutzberger, C. Lemke, S. Salzborn, Gert Schäfer. Hrsg. von Joachim Perels. Offizin, Hannover 2003. 147 pp. € 9.80.
The six contributions to this collection, based on a colloquium in recognition of the retirement of Wolfgang Kreutzberger as director of the Institut für politische Wissenschaft at the University of Hannover, examine the emergence and resurgence of radical right-wing and populist movements in Germany, in particular after the reunification in 1989. Issues covered in this volume include the rise of the Sozialistische Reichspartei, the debates about the debt question in relation to the Historikerstreit and a comparison of right-wing radicalism in Germany and the United States.
Rote Kapellen - Kreisauer Kreise - Schwarze Kapellen. Neue Sichtweisen auf den Widerstand gegen die NS-Diktatur 1938-1945. Hrsg. von Karl Heinz Roth and Angelika Ebbinghaus. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2004. 293 pp. € 19.80.
The eight chapters in this collection encompass the first results of the "Widerstand" (resistance) research project of the Stiftung Sozialgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. The German reunification and the resulting relaxation of ideological and political controversies opened the door for new research questions and theses about the existing historiography and witnesses. The book is focused on the group behind 20 July 1944 assassination attempt, which is portrayed not as a heroic act but as the result of a varied elite group within the Nazi system that disintegrated with the failure of the attempt.
Tech, Andrea. Arbeitserziehungslager in Nordwestdeutschland 1940-1945. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003. 331 pp. € 66.00.
Arbeitserziehhungslager (labour education camps) were relatively unknown institutions of the National Socialist forced labour policy and war economy. In this study, Dr Tech examines the extent to which these camps were continuations of disciplinary instruments previously established during the Weimar Republic, how the camps developed in the period 1933-1945, what living conditions were like inside the camps (in particular in Northwest Germany) and their role as locally governed institutions of the Gestapo in the larger system of Nazi camps.
"Der Teufel hole Hitler". Briefe der sozialdemokratische Emigration. Hrsg. von Stefan Appelius. Klartext, Essen 2003. 406 pp. Ill. € 21.90.
Fritz Heine (1904-2002) figured prominently in organizing the social democratic resistance and the Exil from 1933 onward. This source edition features 174 letters from a great many German social democrats in exile. In his introduction, the editor provides a biographical sketch of Heine and describes the course of his activities as organizer of the social democratic exile in the period 1933-1941. Also appended are several documents, relating, for example, to his activities to help German refugees in the South of France, as well as fragmentary memoirs of Heine.
Wilhelminism and Its Legacies. German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890-1930. Essays for Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann. Ed. by Geoff Eley and James Retallack. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2004. ix, 269 pp. $59.95; £40.00. (Paper: $25.00; £15.00.)
In this Festschrift for Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann the fourteen contributors explore German public and political culture in the Wilhelmine era and its ongoing effect in the Weimar Republic. Included are essays on citizenship in Wilhelmine Germany (Geoff Eley), economic democracy and cooperative movements (Brett Fairbairn), Lebensreform as an alternative culture (Matthew Jeffries), the imperialist socialism of Gustav Schmoller (Erik Grimmer-Solem), legal codification in German colonies (Nils Ole Oermann) and continuity and change in post-Wilhelmine Germany (Conan Fischer).
Zwangsarbeitende im Kreis Nordfriesland 1939-1945. Hrsg. von Uwe Danker, Nils Köhler, Eva Nowottny [etc.]. [IZRG Schriftenreihe, Band 12]. Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld 2004. 406 pp. Ill. € 24.00.
The present volume, another example of the manifold local and regional studies of forced labour in Germany during World War II, deals with forced foreign labour in the war economy in the region of Nordfriesland, in the northwest part of Schleswig-Holstein. Most of the foreign workers in this region were employed in agriculture. The twelve contributions to this collection explore quantitative and structural dimensions of the employment of foreign and forced labour in this region, while the everyday experiences of workers are disclosed through interviews with empirical experts.
Great Britain
Cowman, Krista. Mrs Brown is a Man and a Brother. Women in Merseyside's Political Organisations, 1890-1920. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2004. x, 196 pp. £40.00. (Paper: £18.50.)
In this regional study of women's politics in England in the decades before World War I, Dr Cowman examines how women functioned in politics at the grass roots level. Investigating membership, activities and campaign methods among a variety of formal political organizations, she analyses how women moved between different priorities of class, gender and religious affiliation in their political activities, and what the impact was of the autonomous, all-female suffrage campaigns on more longstanding political groups.
Cressy, David. Society and Culture in Early Modern England. [Variorum Collected Studies Series.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2003. 1 vol. (various pag.). £57.50.
This collection brings together fifteen articles by a well-known specialist on early modern social and cultural history of England, published previously between 1976 and 1996. Professor Cressy has selected as the common theme the interaction between rulers and subjects and examines to what extent ordinary people of Stuart and Tudor England could participate in the central events of their age. Included are essays on literacy, educational opportunity and teaching, migration to New England, kinship and cross-dressing in early modern England.
Dictionary of Labour Biography. Volume XI. Ed. by Keith Gildart, David Howell, and Neville Kirk. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2003. xiv, 331 pp. £80.00.
This eleventh volume of the British Dictionary of Labour Biography is the first to appear under the new editorial team, after the first ten volumes were edited between 1972 and 2000 under the aegis of Professor John Saville and Dr Joyce Bellamy, based at the University of Hull (see IRSH, 18 (1973), p. 157, for the first volume). As in the previous volumes, a wide range of periods, backgrounds and political traditions are covered here. The new editorial team emphasizes the contributions of women and the multi-nationality of the British labour movement, whereas it also aims to draw on the revolution in communist studies that followed the opening of Russian archives.
Freeman, Mark. Social Investigation and Rural England 1870-1914. [Studies in History New Series.] The Royal Historical Society [etc.], Woodbridge [etc.] 2003. xi, 217 pp. $70.00; £40.00
This study explores how a developing "passion for inquiry" in the period 1870-1914 drew to the English countryside a wide range of social investigators concerned with issues such as agricultural trade unionism, rural depopulation, rural poverty, the condition of rural housing and the land question. Adopting a broad definition of social investigation, Dr Freeman includes reports of royal commissions and special correspondent journalists, popular literary accounts and the rural investigations of social reformists such as Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree. He also aims to illustrate how social and political conflicts in the English countryside influenced the information-gathering process.
Gall, Gregor. The Meaning of Militancy? Postal Workers and Industrial Relations. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2003. xvi, 348 pp. $55.00.
This study examines the relatively militant response of British postal workers to increased commercialisation of their industry from the late 1980s onward and compares this response to that of postal workers in nine other major industrial countries. Focusing on issues in trade union research such as militancy and moderation, trade union bureaucracy, workplace unionism, factionalism and political consciousness and theories of social partnership, Dr Gall aims to explain why UK postal workers have been relatively successful in resisting new management techniques and privatization through militancy and oppositionalism.
Gazeley, Ian. Poverty in Britain, 1900-1965. [Social History in Perspective.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2003. xiii, 239 pp. £49.50.
This study examines poverty in Britain in the first six decades of the twentieth century and emphasizes the definition and measurement of poverty, both in research and in policies. Dr Gazeley uses Rowntree's social survey of York in 1899 as a starting point and Abel-Smith and Townsend's survey in Poor and the Poorest in 1965 as a concluding moment to examine how poverty and its definitions and causes changed over this period, and to what extent state policy was effective in alleviating poverty.
Harker, Dave. Tressell. The real story of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Zed Books, London [etc.] 2003. xx, 282 pp. $75.00; £50.00. (Paper: $25.00; £12.99.)
Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1914) is among the best-sold novels ever on working-class life and is generally seen as one of the more influential novels in twentieth-century Britain. This study offers both a biographical study on its author, about whom surprisingly little was known, and an examination of the novel's historical context and its remarkable long-lasting popularity among and influence on the British left.
Hilton, Matthew. Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain. The Search for a Historical Movement. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. xiii, 382 pp. Ill. £45.00. (Paper: £17.95.)
Examining consumer movements, ideologies and organizations, such as the Co-operative movement and the Consumers' Association, this study aims to give a comprehensive history of consumerism as an organized social and political movement in twentieth-century Britain. Dr Hilton explores how many people came to regard consumers and consumerism as a third force in society, in addition to employers and trade unions, and analyses visions of many consumer activists who saw in consumption a force to promote liberation for women, the working class and new social movements.
Howkins, Alun. The Death of Rural England. A social history of the countryside since 1900. Routledge, London [etc.] 2003. xi, 260 pp. Ill. £16.99.
This study surveys the social history of the rural areas and their population in England and Wales in the twentieth century. Giving a chronologically ordered overview, Professor Howkins argues that it was in particular the "second agricultural revolution" and the industrialization and mechanization of agricultural production following the end of World War II that led to enormous changes in the character and role of the countryside and eventually to the crisis in the 1990s, with the foot-and-mouth catastrophe, the outbreak of BSE and concerns about pollution and factory farming.
A New Imperial History Culture. Identity, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660-1840. Ed. by Kathleen Wilson. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xv, 385 pp. Ill. £45.00; $75.00.
The sixteen essays in this collection take stock of a recently emerging field in British studies, labelled as "new imperial history": the ways in which Britain and its colonies influenced each other and the related problems of identity, modernity and difference. Covering the period between 1660 and 1840, scholars from history, literature and cultural studies examine the reciprocal influences of empire and culture; the movement of peoples, practices and ideas effected by slavery, diaspora and British dominance; and the ways in which subaltern, non-western and non-elite people shaped British power and knowledge.
The poor in England 1700-1850. An economy of makeshifts. Ed. by Steven King and Alannah Tomkins. [Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2003. x, 285 pp. £47.50.
The phrase "economy of makeshifts" has often been used to describe the various strategies of the poor for material survival. The nine essays in this collection explore survival strategies among the English poor between 1700 and 1850. Contributors look at the roles of poor relief at the parish level, charity, the poor law, crime, pawn broking, and kinship and other networks in the efforts of the poor to make ends meet.
Italy
Alla ricerca della simmetria. Il Pci a Torino, 1945-1991. A cura di Bruno Maida. Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino 2004. xxxviii, 646 pp. € 35.00.
While historical research about the national Italian communist party is well established, thanks to the access to the archives, Aldo Agosti, the author of the preface, explains that research about local efforts has gotten under way only recently. This collection about the Turin Federation is the first outcome of such investigations. The 12 contributions, which are based on research in the newly arranged Federation archive at the Fondazione Istituto piemontese Antonio Gramsci, cover themes such as: the members, officials and administrative culture within the party, local politics, terrorism, intellectuals and relations with the trade union, former partisans and the women's movement.
Barbagallo, Corrado. Napoli contro il terrore nazista. 28 settembre-1º ottobre 1943. A cura de Sergio Muzzupappa. Pref. di Luigi Parente. [Archivio Storico del Movimento Operaio.] La Città del Sole, Napoli 2004. xxvii, 129 pp. Ill. € 10.00.
In Naples the anti-Nazi resistance chased the Nazi troops from the city between 28 September and 1 October 1943, thereby making the city the first European metropolis credited with such an achievement. This is a reprint of the report issued in 1943 about those four days. In the preface, Luigi Parente has placed the events in their historical context. Sergio Muzzupappa wrote the introduction to the text.
Bertucelli, Lorenzo. Piazze e palazzi. Il sindacato tra fabbrica e istituzioni. La CGIL (1969-1985). [Biblioteca di storia contemporanea.] Edizioni Unicopli, Milano 2004. 218 p. € 13.00.
This is an analysis of the role of the communist Confederazione generale italiana di Lavoro (CGiL) in Italian politics during the period from the hot autumn of 1969 until the referendum about salaries in 1985. Trade unions are perceived here as intermediary institutions at the interface of politics and society. In the 1970s the CgiL tried to translate its social influence into a political strategy. After this effort proved unsuccessful, the CgiL highlighted its role as an institution in politics and - in what became known as the historical compromise - left political reform to the political parties.
Capobianco, Giuseppe. Sulle ali della democrazia. Il Pci in una provincia del Sud (1944-1947). Pref. di Paolo Broccoli. Introd. di Aurelio Lepre. [La Campana, 4.] Edizioni Spartaco, Santa Maria Capua Vetere 2004. 190 pp. € 14.00.
This is the history of the resurgence of the communist party in the southern province of Caserta. Written by a party official, the work is nonetheless richly documented and was published previously in 1981. Following an introductory chapter about the preceding history of the province from 1900, the author describes the transition to democracy after the fall of fascism, the recovery of the party and its involvement in the social struggle of 1946, including that of the hemp growers. Each chapter includes an appendix, featuring e.g. statistical charts of membership, internal party documents and congress proceedings.
De Martino, Giulio and Vincenza Simeoli. La polveriera d'Italia. Le origini del socialismo anarchico nel Regno di Napoli (1799-1877). [Scienze Storiche, 14.] Liguori, Napoli 2004. viii, 157 pp. € 13.50.
The authors of this essay about the origin of anarchism in Naples examine the roots of such Neapolitan anarchism in the struggle for liberation from Spanish rule and in the Carboneria, as well as the role of Carlo Pisacane, from his collaboration with Mazzini to his progression toward socialism. They subsequently address the arrival in Naples of Michael Bakunin in 1865 and the first generations of anarchists in the South that were involved in the periodical Il popolo d'Italia and the "Libertà e Giustizia" movement. The authors conclude by placing the history of southern anarchism in the social-historical context of the South.
Giulianelli, Roberto. Pier Carlo Masini, storico e giornalista (1945-1957). Associazione Amici della Civica Biblioteca "Angelo Mai", Bergamo 2004. 75 pp. € 5.00.
This is an essay about the historian of Italian anarchism Pier Carlo Masini (1923-1998) (see IRSH, 49 (2004), pp. 178f.). This essay is intended as a sketch of the main features in Masini's cultural background, based on his journalist and historiographic publications between 1945 and 1957, the period in which he was an anarchist. The author examines in detail Masini's writings about various aspects of the history of Italian and international anarchism, the related polemics and his anarchist activities.
Labriola, Antonio. Carteggio IV 1896-1898. Bibliopolis, Napoli 2004. xxxi, 714 pp. € 65.00.
This is the fourth volume in the annotated edition of the correspondence of Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) published under the auspices of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici and the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples (see IRSH, 50 (2005), p.147 for the first two volumes). The years 1896-1898 were by far the most productive period of Labriola's correspondence. This volume comprises 295 letters to Croce and four responses from him, as well as the most important part of the letters to Bernstein, Mr and Mrs Kautsky and the most complete remaining correspondence with the Polish socialist Boles³aw Jêdrzejowski. This volume consists of 573 letters he wrote or received, including 26 hitherto unpublished ones from Labriola.
Mattera, Paolo. Il partito inquieto. Organizzazione, passioni e politica dei socialisti italiani dalla resistenza al miracolo economico. [Studi e recherche, 12.] Carocci editore, Roma 2004. 317 pp. € 22.30.
This is the history of the Partito socialista italiano in the period from the liberation until 1957. The work focuses in particular on the down-top party dynamics and on the activities and passions of members and party officials. In the party rank and file the demands from the base and the decisions of the leadership exerted a reciprocal influence. The book revolves around this interaction, with contemporary social developments figuring in the background. The study is based on a broad range of archive files, including those of Pietro Nenni and Lelio Basso.
Nieddu, Luigi. Antonio Gramsci. Storia e Mito. Marsilio, Venezia 2004. 250 pp. € 21.00.
This is a biographical essay about Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) based on his ideological journey from Croce and Gentile to Lenin. The author analyses the wealth of literature about Gramsci's involvement with the communist movement and attributes previously unknown writings to him as well. The book also reconstructs the circumstances surrounding his arrest, the attitude of the party toward Gramsci's imprisonment and the final stage of his life.
Orsini, Alessandro. L'eretico della sinistra. Bruno Rizzi élitista democratico. [Confini sociologici.] FrancoAngeli, Milano 2004 . 176 pp. € 14.00.
This is a study of the work of Bruno Rizzi (1901-1977). In 1921 Rizzi helped found the Italian communist party. After fleeing to France, he published his most important work: La bureaucratisation du monde (1939). He became known in particular for his analysis of the Soviet Union, in which he introduced the "bureaucratic collectivism" concept. He later devised the "market socialism" concept. The author also reviews the relationship between the ideas of Rizzi and those of elitist thinkers from the early twentieth century based on previously unpublished archive material and correspondence. In the appendix he has reprinted the texts of various manuscripts.
Rossi, Ernesto, e Gaetano Salvemini. Dall'esilio alla Repubblica. Lettere 1944-1957. A cura di Mimmo Franzinelli. Pref. di Mario Isnenghi. Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2004. lvi, 994 pp. Ill. € 55.00.
After being separated for fifteen years, due to their imprisonment and exile, Ernesto Rossi (1897-1967) and Gaetano Salvemini (1873-1957) resumed their friendship through a correspondence consisting of 613 letters, printed and annotated in chronological sequence in this book. Both figured prominently in "Giustizia e Libertà". In 1943 Rossi founded the "Movimento federalista europeo". The correspondence discloses interesting information about liberal socialism in post-war Italy. The subjects addressed include fascism, anti-fascism, resistance, the European federalist movement, Italian politics and the third current between the socialist-communist and Christian-democratic poles. The introduction is by Mimmo Franzinelli.
Poland
Bogucka, Maria. Women in Early Modern Polish Society, Against the European Background. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xxxiii, 192 pp. £47.50.
This study examines the position of women in Polish society from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Dr Bogucka explores the role of women's work in rural and urban areas; religious life and the ways it enabled women to appear and act outside their home; the impact of Reformation; the participation of women in the creation and consumption of culture; and the involvement of women in politics. In a concluding chapter she compares the Polish situation with those in Germany, France and England, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Bohemia and Russia).
Portugal
Grupos sociais e estratificação social em Portugal no século XIX. Coord.: Benedicta Maria Duque Vieira. Centro de Estudos de História Contemporânea Portuguesa, Lisboa 2004. 199 pp. € 12.50.
This collection comprises eleven papers presented in September 2003 at a scholarly convention about social groups and social stratification in nineteenth-century Portugal. The book consists of three parts: urban and rural trajectories, including e.g. an article about artisans and politics in the first part of the nineteenth century; the elite and the working class, including e.g. a contribution about the "dangerous class" in the nineteenth century; and gender, family and emigration, including e.g. an article about selected economic and social issues concerning women in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Oliveira, Luísa Tiago de. Estudantes e Povo na Revolução. O serviço cívico estudantil (1974-1977). Celta Editora, Oeiras, 2004. xvii, 417 pp. € 29.40.
This study is based on a doctoral thesis defended at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa in Lisbon in 2000. The Serviço Cívico Estudiantil (SCE), which resulted from the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, was an organization of student volunteers who taught literacy courses and general subjects. The author aimed to analyse in depth an innovative type of education that facilitated contact between different social groups. She has based her work on public and private archives, as well as interviews with people active in the SCE.
Uma Revolução na Revolução. Reforma Agrária no Sul de Portugal. Dir. e proj. António Murteira. Campo das Letras, Porto 2004. 511 pp. Ill. € 30.00.
The agricultural reforms introduced in the South of Portugal after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 affected over one million hectares of large landownership, provided employment for 72,000 farm workers and led 550 production cooperatives to be established. In this collection António Murteira provides an introductory review of the reforms, followed by nine chapters by their protagonists covering various aspects, including relations with the military and political potentates. The book also contains a statistical breakdown of production, based on data supplied during the ten conferences about the agricultural reforms (1976-1986). A list of cooperatives appears in an annex.
Ventura, António. A carbonária em Portugal 1897-1910. Livros Horizonte, Lisboa 2004. 102 pp. € 13.20.
This study is about two Carbonária organizations, established toward the end of the 19th century: the Carbonária Portuguesa of Luz de Almeida and the Carbonária Lusitana, also known as the Carbonária dos Anarquistas. Both organizations were active during the Republican revolution of 1910. Primary sources about these covert organizations are lacking. The author bases his account on everything known about the Carbonária, its organization and its role in preparing the revolution of 1910. An annex lists the 1896 membership of the Obreiros do Trabalho lodge of freemasons, as well as charts of those involved in the attacks between 1908 and 1910.
Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Austin, Richard Cartwright. Building Utopia. Erecting Russia's First Modern City, 1930. The Kent State University Press, Kent [etc.] 2004. xii, 225 pp. £34.50.
In 1928 the Soviet government joined forces with the American Austin automobile company to build "Europe's largest automobile factory" and an adjacent city, Nizhny Novgorod, later Gorky. Allan Austin, father of the author and son of the president of Austin Company at that time, helped supervise the construction as part of a team of twenty American engineers. The author uses the elaborate correspondence between his father and grandfather, Russian and American documents and extensive photographic resources to describe this joint project until its conclusion in 1931.
Boobbyer, Philip. Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia. [BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European studies.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2005. xiii, 282 pp. £65.00.
The focus of this book is the alternative moral and spiritual culture, which emerged alongside stagnation and corruption in the final decades of Soviet rule and undermined the Soviet system and ideology. Among the sources used are some fifty semi-structured interviews about the dilemmas of late Soviet Russia and issues of conscience, most with Soviet dissidents and party reformers, conducted by the author from 1994-2003.
Breyfogle, Nicholas B. Heretics and Colonizers. Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. xvii, 347 pp. Ill. $49.95; £25.95.
In 1830 the tsar ordered religious sectarians, including Dukhobors, Molokans and Subbotniks, to relocate to the South Caucasian borderlands in an attempt to cleanse Russian orthodoxy of heresy and to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs. The author explores both the role of sectarian colonization in the broader pattern of tsarist empire-building and the social and cultural experiences of the peasant migrants. A special chapter is devoted to the Dukhobor pacifist rebellion at the end of the nineteenth century.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Tear Off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia. Princeton University Press. Princeton [etc.] 2005. xii, 332 pp. Ill. £41.95
This book investigates how individuals in revolution situations deal with the question of identity and examines which social practices and mentalities materialize as a result. It contains fifteen essays, many of which have been published previously in a different form. The first two parts are devoted to class identities and the impact of class ascription on individual lives. Parts three and four address self-presentation and are based on letters of appeal, complaint and denunciation that individuals sent to the authorities. The last part looks at criminal imposture. Most of the book covers the period 1917-1941, two chapters are about the 1940s and 1950s, and the final chapter forges ahead to the 1990s.
Koenker, Diane P. Republic of Labor. Russian Printers and Soviet Socialism, 1918-1930. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. xii, 343 pp. Ill. $49.95; £27.50.
This book investigates the experiences of workers in the printing trades, before and during the First Five-Year Plan, the work process, labour relations and the workers' culture. It explores the meaning and politics of socialism in the lives of ordinary workers and considers the discrepancy between material reality and ideological dreams, highlighting gender issues as well. Theoretical and methodological issues of class analysis provide the foundation for this study.
Late imperial Russia. Problems and prospects. Essays in honour of R.B. McKean. Ed. by Ian D. Thatcher, Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2005. 208 pp. € 14.99.
Could tsarism have evolved peacefully into a capitalist democracy, or was revolution inevitable? The ten essays in this volume reflect different outlooks on this subject. The authors investigate topics such as peasants, urban workers, civil society, revolutionaries, the Okhrana, foreign relations of the Tsarist regime and Nicolas II.
Spain
Domingo, Alfonso. Retaguardia la Guerra Civil tras los frentes. Oberon, Madrid 2004. 453 pp. Ill. € 22.00.
This book is the outcome of the author's research on the situation in the hinterlands on both sides of the front during the Spanish Civil War. Based on eyewitness testimonies, the author outlines the violent repression, everyday existence between hope and fear and work. He focuses most extensively on the persecutions by Francoist troops, and on how the surviving relatives came to terms with such acts.
Fernández, Eliseo [y] Dionísio Pereira. O anarquismo na Galiza (1870-1970). Apuntes para unha enciclopedia. [Colección Plural.] Positivas, Santiago de Compostela 2004. 290 pp. Ill. € 14.40.
This encyclopaedia of anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism in Galicia contains 500 entries featuring descriptions of the most representative persons, groups, periodicals, cultural associations and organizations. With few exceptions, the chronological span ranges from 1870 to 1970. The authors have based their work on published documentation, research in periodicals and interviews. Two appendices conclude the book: a bibliography of works by Galician authors with anarchist connections (1870-1970); and another of anarchist works published in Galicia between 1870 and 1970. The book is written in Galician.
Los grandes olvidados. Los republicanos de izquierda en el exilio. Eds.: Ángeles Égido León [y] Matilde Eiroa San Francisco. Centro de Investigación y Estudios Republicanos, Madrid 2004. 530 pp. Ill. € 30.00.
This collection comprising twenty contributions is divided into four parts. The first one sketches the historical background of the left-wing republicanism that was institutionalized in Manuel Azaña's Izquierda Republicana party in 1934. The other parts address aspects of exile and repression in Spain and are entitled: escape and repression; restructuring of the republican institutions; culture and propaganda; and intellectual activity in exile. The authors are university scholars specialized in these subjects.
Lozano, Irene. Federica Montseny. Una Anarquista en el Poder. Espasa, Pozuelo de Alarcón 2004. 430 pp. Ill. € 24.75.
This is the first of the two biographies published in recognition of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Federica Montseny (1905-1994). Montseny was a prominent anarchist propagandist, a talented orator at meetings, an author of popular and edifying novellas, a journalist for the anarchist press and minister of public health under the Largo Caballero administration during the Civil War from November 1936 to May 1937. Of the two biographies, this one provides the most detail about the exile. The author has used a multitude of interviews and previously unknown archive material. Also see Eduardo Romanos Fraile's review in this volume, pp. 309-311.
La memoria de los olivados. Un debate sobre el silencio de la represión franquista. Coord.: Emilio Silva, Asunción Esteban, Javier Castán y Pancho Salvador. Prólogo de Paul Preston. Ámbito, Valladolid 2004. 219 pp. € 12.00.
This collection comprises 14 contributions to the first national convention of the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, which took place in Valladolid in 2003. The organization is dedicated to excavating mass graves from the Civil War and thereafter. At the convention historians, psychiatrists, writers and other participants reflected on how the Spanish today commemorate or have forgotten about the victims of the terror under Franco.
Pons Prades, Eduardo. Los niños republicanos en la guerra de España. Prólogo Eduardo Haro Tecglen. Epílogo Paco Lobatón. Oberon, Madrid 2004. 406 pp. € 20.00.
This history, based in part on oral and in part on written testimonies, is about people who experienced the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side as children and subsequently the repression under Franco or went into exile. The author has divided his material by region and subject (exile and repression) and has added an introduction. In an appendix he elaborates on several subjects. This text was published previously in 1997, as part of the book Las guerras de los niños republicanos (1936-1995).
Prieto Prieto, Ángel. Guerrilleros de la libertad. Resistencia armada contra Franco. Oberon, Madrid 2004. 186 pp. € 17.00.
This is a study about the guerrilla campaign of the Agrupación Militar de Extremadura under the Franco dictatorship. The author has used oral testimonies to provide an account of the armed resistance in the mountains of the North Extremadura from 1944 until the group was neutralized by the Guardia Civil in 1946. The book contains facsimiles of several documents for example from the historical archive of the Spanish communist party.
Tavera, Susanna. Federica Montseny. La indomable (1905-1994). Temas de hoy, Madrid 2005. 352 pp. Ill. € 22.00.
This is the second of the two biographies published in recognition of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Federica Montseny (1905-1994). Montseny was a prominent anarchist propagandist, a talented orator at meetings, an author of popular and edifying novellas, a journalist in the anarchist press and minister of public health under the Largo Caballero administration during the Civil War from November 1936 to May 1937. Of the two biographies, this one deals more extensively with the social-political and cultural context in which Montseny operated. The general bibliography is more elaborate as well. Also see Eduardo Romanos Fraile's review in this volume, pp. 309-311.