Volume 40 part 1 (1995)
Bibliography
General Issues
Continents and Countries
- Africa
South Africa | Zimbabwe - America
Argentina | Canada | United States of America - Asia
Cambodia | India - Australia and Oceania
Australia - Europe
Denmark | Eire - Ireland | France | Germany | Great Britain | Italy | The Netherlands | Poland | Portugal | Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | Spain | Switzerland
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 SCIENCE
Jackman, Mary R. The Velvet Glove. Paternalism and Conflict in Gender, Class, and Race Relations. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1994. xvi, 425 pp. $38.00.
Professor Jackman's comparative analysis of three intergroup relationships in the United States (race, gender and social class) serves to define the varying forms of ideological persuasion developed by dominant groups to retain control of various kinds of relationships, which may be considered forms of paternalism, as well as the ideological responses among their potential protagonists. In contrast to the conventional emphasis on conflict within research of the ideology of inequality, she advocates focusing on the many ways that dominant groups subvert conflict by emotionally disarming subordinates.
Morris, Brian. Bakunin. The Philosophy of Freedom. Black Rose Books, Montréal [etc.] 1993. vii, 159 pp. $37.95. (Paper: $18.95.)
To reaffirm the significance of Michael Bakunin (1814-1876) as a political thinker and as an inspiration to libertarian socialism and the anarchist movement, this book gives an accessible overview of his life and work. The text, however, is based entirely on English translations of Bakunin's writings and relevant literature. The author believes that his work remains relevant, particularly for Bakunin's definitions of freedom and his critiques of Marxism, liberalism and scientism. Dr Morris stresses the importance of Bakunin's desire to achieve a unity of theory and practice, of fact and value, of thought and action.
Sonn, Richard D. Anarchism. [Twayne Studies in Intellectual and Cultural History, No. 4.] Twayne Publishers, New York; Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Toronto; Maxwell Macmillan International, New York [etc.] 1992. xv, 147 pp. $26.95. (Paper: $13.95.)
Combining a historical analysis of anarchist ideas with a concise history of attempts to put them into practice, this textbook deals with the history of anarchism as an ideologic and political movement throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe and the United States. Professor Sonn argues that anarchism, if no longer a mass movement, still remains a valid critical tool, and with communism losing its way it might even become a viable political movement again, with anarchist ideas influencing the radical ecology and feminist movements of the present day.
Wiggershaus, Rolf. The Frankfurt School. Its History, Theories and Political Significance. Transl. by Michael Robertson. Polity Press, Oxford 1994. x, 787 pp. £45.00.
This translation of Die Frankfurter Schule (1986) is the first comprehensive historical study of the famous Frankfurt School since Martin Jay's The Dialectical Imagination (1973) (see IRSH, XIX (1974), p. 280). Dr Wiggershaus traces the School's history including the post-war phase in Frankfurt and the emergence of a younger generation of critical theorists in the 1960s. Using a variety of new archival materials and editions of previously unknown works, the author combines biographical profiles of the key figures with a rigorous analysis of their main theories and ideas to convey how the history of the School reflects the intellectual and political history of Germany throughout this period.
HISTORY
Borsányi, György. The Life of a Communist Revolutionary, Béla Kun. Transl. from the Hungarian original by Mario D. Fenyo. [Atlantic Studies on Society in Change, No. 75.] [East European Monographs, No. CCLXII.] Social Science Monographs, Boulder; Atlantic Research and Publications, Highland Lakes (NJ) 1993; distr. by Columbia University Press, New York. xiii, 520 pp. $52.00.
This biography of Béla Kun (1886-c.1938), founder of the Communist Party of Hungary, member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (1928-36) and victim of one of Stalin's show trials, is translated from the Hungarian and modified somewhat for the benefit of Western readers. It originally appeared in 1979 but was banned immediately afterwards, only to reappear in 1988 after Kádár was replaced as head of the Party. The author claims that in researching this biography, which was commissioned by the Hungarian Institute of Party History, he was able to consult all the available sources except the Soviet files on the circumstances surrounding Kun's trial and execution.
Devin, Guillaume. L'Internationale socialiste. Histoire et sociologie du socialisme international (1945-1990). Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris 1993. 437 pp. F.fr. 220.00.
In this comprehensive history of the Socialist International, which reviews the period from its preliminary history from 1945, through its foundation in 1951, to the present day, political scientist Professor Devin concludes that the most striking feature of the SI is that has remained virtually unchanged since its establishment. It continues to have a predominantly European orientation and deploys very limited efforts to give internationalism a more concrete manifestation.
Das erste Tribunal. Das Moskauer Parteiverfahren gegen Brandler, Thalheimer und Radek. Hrsg. von Jens Becker, Theodor Bergmann und Alexander Watlin. Decaton Verlag, Mainz 1993. 191 pp. DM 29.80.
This source publication contains three previously unpublished documents that mark the beginning of the stalinization of the Comintern and the increasing influence of Russian party officials on the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD): an analysis of the Comintern's fifth World Congress written by August Thalheimer in 1925 criticizing the bolshevization of the Communist Parties and the protocols of the first Comintern tribunals, which were held in 1925 and where critical members of the Comintern's executive committee, such as Brandler, Thalheimer, and Radek, were politically reprimanded. In their introduction the editors describe the development of the KPD, the Comintern, and the relationship with the CPSU.
Kersten, Michael. Die Beiträge deutscher Marxisten in der Programmdiskussion der Komintern. Mit einem Vorwort von Theodor Bergmann. [Decaton Forschung, Band 2.] Decaton Verlag, Mainz 1994. 119 pp. DM 22.00.
Between 1921 and 1928, the Comintern was the scene of heated debates on advisable goals and strategies for the communist workers movement. These exchanges were reflected in the discussions about the Comintern's programme. This small book highlights the German contributions to these talks. The author argues that internal dissent within the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) characterized this input, which concerned themes such as the policy of a united front, transitional demands, an analysis of fascism and post-war imperialism. Prominent participants in these discussions included Clara Zetkin, August Thalheimer, Heinrich Brandler and Arkadij Maslow.
Kessler, Mario. Zionismus und internationale Arbeiterbewegung 1897 bis 1933. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1994. 210 pp. DM 98.00.
In this study of the relationship between Zionism and the international workers movement in the period 1897-1933, Dr Keßler (who previously published writings on this topic and on related subjects, see IRSH, 39 (1994), pp. 120f.) investigates the view of Zionism among major international socialist organizations. Focusing on the Second International, the Comintern and the Socialist and Labour Internationals, the author examines several themes, including the solutions drafted by the international labour movement for the Jewish question, its reactions to zionist ideas and initiatives and the attempts by leftist zionist movements to join the various Internationals.
Ketzer im Kommunismus. Alternativen zum Stalinismus. Hrsg. von Theodor Bergmann [und] Mario Keßler. Decaton Verlag, Mainz 1993. 383 pp. DM 48.00.
The editors, both experts in the field of international communism and Stalinism (see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 402 and 39 (1994), pp. 119 ff., 144 and 492), bring together twenty contributions on heretics within communism, undogmatic Marxists from twelve different countries, who sought alternatives to the development of Stalinism from 1924 onwards. The central question posed is why their views failed as real political alternatives to Stalinism. The principal biographical details are provided for all the Marxists represented here, and an outline is provided of their main political activities and contributions to the development of Marxist theory. Those discussed include Rosa Luxemburg (Jack Jacobs), Leon Trotsky (Enzo Traverso), Arthur Rosenberg (Gert Schäfer), Liu Shaoqi (Theodor Bergmann) and Mikhail Gorbachov (Michael Brie).
Mouriaux, René. Le syndicalisme dans le monde. [Que sais-je?] Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1993. 128 pp. F.fr. 40.00.
This booklet offers a very general overview of developments in trade-union organizations worldwide, from the beginnings of industrialization in the second half of the eighteenth century to the present day. The author, who together with Guy Groux recently published a history of the CGT (see IRSH, 39 (1994), p. 307), aims to provide a comparative analysis, dealing successively with trade unions in the OECD countries, in communist countries and in the Third World, and the international structures of trade unionism. The author claims free trade unions are a sine qua non of every democratic society.
Quataert, Donald. Ottoman Manufacturing in the Age of the Industrial Revolution. [Cambridge Middle East Library.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xvii, 224 pp. Ill. Maps. £35.00; $59.95.
This comprehensive study of Ottoman manufacturing from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War explores technological methods for producing cotton cloth, wool cloth, yarn, and silk, as well as the organization of home and workshop production and trends in domestic and international markets. Contrary to traditional notions of a stagnating economy, Professor Quataert writes that Ottoman textile manufacturing in homes and small workshops managed to compete with factory production in the West and the Middle East through strategies that reduced production costs by combining cheap technological innovations with low wages that often involved women and children as workers.
Shatzmiller, Maya. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. [Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts, Vol. 4.] E.J. Brill, Leiden [etc.] 1994. viii, 450 pp. D.fl. 240.00; $137.25.
This is a study of the place of labour in the social and economic life of Islamic communities around the Mediterranean in the ninth through the fifteenth centuries. Professor Shatzmiller offers a comprehensive dictionary of trades and occupations, practised by both men and women, as well as an examination of the division of labour, the distribution of the labour force, occupational structures and the role of labour in the Islamic economy. She also describes the ethnic divisions of labour, social status and image and uses literary sources to argue that Muslim theologians, mystics and philosophers gradually formulated a doctrinal framework for labour.
Simon, Hartmut. Die Internationale Transportarbeiter-Föderation. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen internationaler Gewerkschaftsarbeit vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts zur Erforschung der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung. Schriftenreihe A, Darstellungen, Band 5.] Klartext, Essen 1993. 300 pp. DM 89.00.
This revised version of the author's doctoral thesis (Bochum, 1991) charts the history of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) from its foundation in 1896 to 1914. By examining the preconditions for international trade-unionist co-operation within the traffic and transport sector, the author aims to explore the potential of and limits to international trade-unionist co-operation in general.
Socialism and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire 1876-1923. Ed. by Mete Tunçay and Erik Jan Zürcher. British Academic Press, London 1993, in assoc. with The International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. 222 pp. £39.00.
Based on a workshop organized by the International Institute of Social History's Turkish section, which was established in 1989, the contributions in this collection describe the role of ethnic and religious communities of the Ottoman Empire in the genesis and development of the socialist movement from the promulgation of the Ottoman constitution in 1876 to the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Contributions deal with Macedonia (Fikret Adanïr), the Jewish minority of Thessaloniki (Paul Dumont), the Greeks (Panagiotis Noutsos), the Bulgarians (Ibrahim Yalimov) and the Armenians (Anahide Ter Minassian). Feroz Ahmad indicates the context that prevailed, while Mete Tunçay draws some general conclusions.
Sofsky, Wolfgang. Die Ordnung des Terrors: Das Konzentrationslager [The Organization of Terror: The Concentration Camp.] S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt/M. 1993. 390 pp. DM 49.80.
See Jan Philipp Reemtsma's review in this volume, pp. 140-143.
To See the Dawn. Baku, 1920 First Congress of the Peoples of the East. Ed. by John Riddell. [The Communist International in Lenin's Time.] Pathfinder, New York [etc.] 1993. 344 pp. Ill. $19.95; £12.95.
On September 1-7 1920, the First Congress of the Peoples of the East was held in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan. At this Congress, convened by the Communist International, more then two thousand delegates from over 24 Asian peoples met in joint conference with leaders of workers' parties in Russia, Western Europe, and the United States. This book, the fifth volume in a series of source publications on the history of the Communist International up to 1923 (see IRSH 38 (1993), p. 107), provides a new edition of the text of the congress proceedings, based on an English translation by Brian Pearce, published in 1977, and adding translations of addresses, declarations and theses on related subjects. The editor sketches the historical context and impact of the Congress in his introduction, written together with Ma'mud Shirvani.
Von der Arbeiterbewegung zum modernen Sozialstaat. Festschrift für Gerhard A. Ritter zum 65. Geburtstag. Hrsg. von Jürgen Kocka, Hans-Jürgen Puhle und Klaus Tenfelde. K.G. Saur, München [etc.] 1994. xi, 866 pp. DM 198.00.
This Festschrift for Professor Gerhard Ritter, on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, is divided into three themes that reflect the main fields of interest in his research: workers and the labour movement, political parties and parliamentarism, and social policy and the welfare state. In 47 contributions, Ritter's colleagues and students deal with a wide variety of subjects within these themes, which are introduced by the editors. Contributors include Hartmut Kaelble, Heinrich August Winkler, Susanne Miller, A.J. Nicholls, Helga Grebing, Lothar Gall, Fritz Klein, Florian Tennstedt, Gustav Schmidt, Karin Hausen, Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Wolfram Fischer.
The Wages of Slavery. From Chattel Slavery to Wage Labour in Africa, the Caribbean and England. Ed. by Michael Twaddle. [Studies in Slave and Post-Slave Societies and Cultures.] Frank Cass, London 1993. vii, 234 pp. £30.00; $40.00.
Ten of the eleven contributions in this collection examine the transition from chattel slavery to forced labour in Africa and the Caribbean from a proto-proletarian perspective. Themes dealt with include new labour regimes, work practices before and after emancipation and labour negotiations and confrontations. The studies focus on, inter alia, Jamaica (Richard B. Sheridan, Verene E. Shepherd), Surinam (Pieter Emmer), the Cape Colony (Robert Ross) and Western Sudan (Paul E. Lovejoy). David Eltis examines labour and coercion in the English world on both sides of the Atlantic from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century.
Weltbürgerkrieg der Ideologien. Antworten an Ernst Nolte. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag. Hrsg. von Thomas Nipperdey, Anselm Doering-Manteuffel und Hans-Ulrich Thamer. Propyläen, Berlin 1993. 598 pp. DM 68.00.
This Festschrift was published on the occasion of Ernst Nolte's seventieth birthday and it reflects the discussions provoked by his work, which gave rise to the German Historikerstreit. The thirty-one contributions are grouped around five main themes: Marxism and civil society, conservatism and national socialism, fascism and totalitarianism, the epoch of the Cold War, and philosophical historiography and contemporary history. Among the contributors are Karl Heinz Metz, Edward Shils, Bedrich Löwenstein, Klemens von Klemperer, Eckhard Jesse, Hans Maier, Adolf M. Birke, Melvin J. Lasky, Manfred Buhr, Joseph Rovan, and Bernd Rüthers. A bibliography of works by Professor Nolte has been appended.
The Workplace before the Factory. Artisans and Proletarians, 1500-1800. Ed. by Thomas Max Safley and Leonard N. Rosenband. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 1993. xi, 252 pp. $38.50. (Paper: $16.45.)
The eleven essays in this collection, originally presented at a colloquium held in Philadelphia in October 1990, range across a wide variety of crafts and industries to examine the influence of the work process and technological innovation in labour and production before the Industrial Revolution, i.e. 1500-1800. The contributions deal with the various ways in which workers lost control over the shops, capitalist production advanced and proletarianization developed. They focus on, among other areas, artisanal crafts in New England, 1750-1830 (Christopher Clark), mining women in early modern Europe (Christina Vanja), the textile industry in Upper Swabia, 1580-1660 (Thomas Max Safley) and printing workshops in preindustrial Europe (Jan Materné).
Zur Kulturgeschichte des Alterns/Toward a Cultural History of Aging. Hrsg. von/Ed. by Christoph Conrad [and] Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz. Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen e.V., Berlin 1993. iii, 177 pp. DM 5.00 plus postage.
Based on an international workshop on the cultural history of aging, the five contributions to this collection consider new trends in the history of old age, highlighting postmodern, cultural-theoretical approaches. Contributions address old age in English history (Pat Thane and Thomas Sokoll), old age in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France (David G. Troyansky), old age in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theological texts (Gerd Göckenjan), and American formative literature on gerontology and geriatrics (1890-1930) (Thomas R. Cole and Martha Holstein). A bibliography on the subject has been appended.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Breaking the Chains. Slavery, Bondage, and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia. Ed. by Martin A. Klein. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1993. xiv, 222 pp. $40.00. (Paper: $14.95.)
The nine contributions to this collection deal with the emancipation from slavery and other forms of bondage in the African and Asian societies which were either colonized or came under the domination of European powers in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The editor argues that this emancipation led to a struggle between employers and workers to control former slave labour. This struggle has had a continuing impact on the social order in former slave societies. The contributions cover the Ottoman Empire (Ehud R. Toledano), Indonesia (Anthony Reid), Thailand (David Feeny), India (Dharma Kumar and Gyan Prakash), the Gulf of Guinea (William Gervase Clarence-Smith), French West Africa (Martin Klein), and Senegal (Mohamed Mbodj).
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Moser, Johannes. Jeder, der will, kann arbeiten. Die kulturelle Bedeutung von Arbeit und Arbeitslosigkeit. [Materialien zur Arbeiterbewegung, Nr 65.] Europaverlag, Wien [etc.] 1993. 316 pp. S 348; DM 49.80; S.fr. 50.80.
In this book the author investigates the contemporary cultural significance of unemployment on the basis of more than 300 interviews with the unemployed, employers and employees made in Graz (Austria) in 1988-89. Moser's most important conclusion is that, in contrast to what recent theories have claimed, work - and particularly salaried work - continues to assume a central place in people's lives in the post-industrial era.
Rubin, Barry. Revolution Until Victory? The Politics and History of the PLO. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 1994. xvi, 271 pp. $29.95; £19.95.
This study chronicles the development of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from its foundation in 1964 to the agreement with Israel in September 1993. Focusing on the PLO's ideology, strategy and tactics, its relationships with Arab states and its confrontations with Israel, Professor Rubin aims to show that PLO leader Yasir Arafat, despite his often antipragmatic and even self-damaging politics, has always managed to retain command and to extricate the PLO from many seemingly hopeless situations to recapture centre stage. CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES
AFRICA
Fall, Babacar. Le travail forcé en Afrique-Occidentale française 1900-1946). Préf. de Boubacar Barry. [Hommes et Sociétés.] Éditions Karthala, Paris 1993. 346 pp. Ill. Maps. F.fr. 160.00.
This study of forced labour in French West Africa (Senegal, Guinea, and Mali) in the period 1900-1945 is a revised version of a thèse de troisième cycle (Dakar, 1984). The author focuses on a number of areas that used forced labour, such as transporting goods on workers' backs, building railways, war production, and public works. According to Dr Fall, public works projects were especially disruptive to the local population. In addition to describing various forms of forced labour, this study contains a detailed exploration of popular resistance to this practice.
South Africa
Kraak, Gerald. Breaking the Chains. Labour in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 1993. xxvi, 309 pp. £35.00. (Paper: £12.95.)
This study of labour in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s aims to situate recent trade-union history within an analysis of current legal, social and economic conditions and to give an account of the relationship between the trade unions and the political organizations which opposed the apartheid state in the 1980s. It is one of the first studies of the modern trade-union movement in South Africa to appear (see also Jeremy Baskin's Striking Back, noticed in IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 265). The author concludes that, unless active measures are taken, the social relations inherited from apartheid are likely to remain for generations to come.
Zimbabwe
Tyrie-Laing, D. The Matabele Rebellion 1896. Roberts Medals Publications Ltd, Reading n.d. [1992.] viii, 137 pp. £6.00.
This is a reprint of a contemporary account of the Matabele Rebellion in 1896, an uprising of the indigenous population in an area of Southern Africa, now Zimbabwe, against white, principally British, colonists. The author, himself an officer in the British army who headed the colonist force formed from British soldiers and volunteers of several nationalities to put down the rebellion, gives a factual report which emphasizes, above all, the military aspects of the uprising and the subsequent fighting.
AMERICA
Look Lai, Walton. Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar. Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918. Introd. by Sidney W. Mintz. [Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture.] The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore [etc.] 1993. xxviii, 370 pp. Ill. Maps. $48.00.
See Ralph Shlomowitz's review in this volume, pp. 133-135.
Argentina
Walter, Richard J. Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires 1910-1942. [Cambridge Latin American Studies, 74.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xii, 278 pp. Ill. £35.00; $59.95.
Throughout the twentieth century, the role of Buenos Aires - with between one quarter and one third of the country's population - as Argentina's main political and economic centre has exceeded that of most other capitals. This study traces the city's history through a period of continued growth and expansion, from 1910 to the early 1940s. Professor Walter focuses on the role of politics and municipal government in directing the city's growth.
Canada
Greer, Allan. The Patriots and the People. The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 1993. [Social History of Canada, 49.] xiv, 385 pp. Ill. $50.00; £32.00. (Paper: $18.95; £12.50.)
In 1837 a movement of "patriots" in Lower Canada pushed towards democracy and independence and revolted. The Lower Canadian Rebellion, as it became known, was crushed by the British. The author aims to reinterpret the Rebellion in this study by arguing that the inhabitants were responding to democratic appeals because the language of popular sovereignty and republicanism reflected their experience and outlook. Focusing on the actions, motives, and mentality of rural plebeians, who formed the backbone of the rebellion, Professor Greer seeks to explain the revolutionary actions of the traditionally peace-loving French-Canadian peasants.
See, Scott W. Riots in New Brunswick: Orange Nativism and Social Violence in the 1840s. University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 1993. [The Social History of Canada, 48.] x, 266 pp. $50.00; £32.50. (Paper: $19.95; £13.00.)
During the mid to late 1840s, bloody riots between Irish Catholic immigrants and Protestants of the anti-Catholic Loyal Orange Order took place in New Brunswick, Canada. This study depicts the history of these riots as well as their background and the events that preceded them. The author focuses on the Orange Order, which originated in Ireland in 1795 as an ultra-Protestant organization with a strong loyalty to the British crown. Contrary to other studies on the Order, the author concludes that the similarities to xenophobic groups active in the United States at that time are more important than the Order's ties to Old World sectarianism.
Yates, Charlotte A.B. From Plant to Politics. The Autoworkers Union in Postwar Canada. [Labor and Social Change.] Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1993. xi, 305 pp. $39.95.
This study of the Canadian Automobile Union (CAW) explains the unions' role in the politics and economic development of Canada after the Second World War. Dr Yates considers the CAW an especially illustrative subject for a case study, as its emergence as a leading force for a return to militancy following its split from its American parent union in 1984 has given the union a position of power. The author uses this study to show that the state-centred European theories of political economy do not fit the Canadian and American experience.
United States of America
Brody, David. In Labor's Cause. Main Themes on the History of the American Worker. Oxford University Press, New York [etc.] 1993. xi, 250 pp. £25.00.
This collection, intended as a capita selecta for teaching purposes, combines six previously published long essays on main themes in American labour history. Professor Brody deals with the early nineteenth-century struggle for shorter working hours; the course of American labour politics; the influence of ideology, career leadership and ethnicity on the development of the American labour movement; a case study of unionism within the American coal mining industry; unionism during the New Deal and the Second World War; and a comparative analysis of the development and consequences of workplace contractualism.
Building with Our Hands. New Directions in Chicana Studies. Ed. by Adela de la Torre [and] Beatríz M. Pesquera. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1993. xiv, 246 pp. $45.00. (Paper: $14.00.)
This collection brings together fourteen contributions dealing with the history of Chicana women from the Spanish conquest of California to the present day. The contributors examine the way Chicana women have dealt with and continue to deal with the political subordination and sexual exploitation they endure, focusing on the intersection of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. The last contribution in the book is a discussion among the contributors about the challenges and problems for Chicana scholarship.
Findlay, James F., Jr. Church People in the Struggle. The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970. [Religion in America Series.] Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 1993. xi, 255 pp. Ill. £27.50.
In the beginning of the 1960s, mainstream Protestant churches in the United States became actively involved with the national African-American community in its struggle for racial justice. This study explores the development of the relationship of the predominantly white, mainstream Protestant churches (organized in the National Council of Churches) with the Civil Rights movement. Professor Findlay argues that the contribution of liberal religious groups to the Civil Rights movement is far greater than generally acknowledged.
Holmes, T. Michael. The Specter of Communism in Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1994. xiii, 258 pp. Ill. $36.00.
This study is about Hawaii's version of the McCarthy Era: the perceived or purported threat of communism in Hawaii between 1947 and 1954. From the perspective of the United States response to communism from the Russian Revolution onward and the careers of famous anticommunists, such as Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy, Dr Holmes focuses on the years 1947-1949, which marked the climax of Hawaii's "red scare". The anticommunists' two main targets were the Democratic Party and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), of which the second organized a strike in 1949.
Huls, Mary Ellen. United States Government DOCUMENTS on Women, 1800-1990. A Comprehensive BIBLIOGRAPHY. Vol. II: Labor. [Bibliographies and Indexes in Women's Studies, Nr 18.] Greenwood Press, Westport [etc.] 1993. xvi, 481 pp. $79.50.
This bibliography lists most of the reports published by agencies, commissions, and Congress on women or on topics affecting women's health and welfare in the period 1800-1990. The present publication is the second of two volumes and describes, in 3362 entries, documents concerning women in paid employment, covering topics such as protective labour legislation, affirmative action, federal employment and training programs, vocational counselling, and day care. These documents are arranged in chapters by subject, with a short introduction preceding the bibliographical entries and highlighting documents of a particular note. A personal author index and subject index have been appended.
Kunzel, Regina G. Fallen Women, Problem Girls. Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work 1890-1945. [Yale Historical Publications.] Yale University Press, New Haven [etc.] 1993. xi, 264 pp. Ill. $30.00; £22.50.
During the first half of the twentieth century, out-of-wedlock pregnancy came to be seen as an important and compelling problem in the United States. This study offers a social and cultural history of this phenomenon. Professor Kunzel analyses how three groups of women - evangelical reformers, a new generation of social workers, and unmarried mothers - themselves struggled to define the meaning of unmarried motherhood, and shows how social workers tried to achieve professional legitimacy.
Montgomery, David. Citizen Worker. The Experience of Workers in the United States with Democracy and the Free Market during the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. x, 189 pp. £27.95; $21.95.
In this book, based on the Tanner Lectures given in Oxford in 1991, Professor Montgomery deals with the relationship between developing democracy and the free-market economy in the United States in the nineteenth century, and the role workers played in shaping economic development. Although the voting rights and freedom of association given to working men hastened the dismantling of personal forms of subordination, workers were unable to influence the new rules for a society based on wage labour.
Roediger, David R. Towards the Abolition of Whiteness. Essays on Race, Politics, and Working Class History. [The Haymarket Series.] Verso, London [etc.] 1994. xiii, 201 pp. £34.95.
The eleven essays collected in this volume suggest that race and class are so imbricated in the consciousness of working-class Americans that labour history should consider race as important a factor as class. The first six essays in this collection, of which five were published previously, deal with the historiography of new American labour history and race. The essays in the second part examine the possibility of studies in whiteness and consider replotting American working class history. An earlier version of "The Crisis in Labor History: Race, Gender and the Replotting of the Working Class Past in the United States" appeared in the supplement of IRSH, 38 (1993), pp. 127-143.
Shirley, Michael. From Congregation Town to Industrial City. Culture and Social Change in a Southern Community. [The American Social Experience.] New York University Press, New York [etc.] 1994. xvi, 320 pp. Ill. $50.00.
This study describes the transformation of the towns of Winston and Salem, in the Upper South, into the urban industrial centre Winston-Salem under the influence of industrialization and urbanization in the period 1835-1885. Dr Shirley shows how the originally congregational Moravian community of Salem paved the way for entrepreneurial activities and participation in a developing market economy by doing away with the congregational order and its restrictions in the 1850s. Despite the peculiarity of the congregational origins of Winston-Salem, the author argues that this development reflected a pattern that typified the South.
Stearns, Peter N. American Cool. Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style. [The History of Emotions Series, 3.] New York University Press, New York [etc.] 1994. ix, 368 pp. $45.00. (Paper: $19.95.)
In this study of American "cool", Professor Stearns writes that a major change took place in the emotional culture of the American middle class between approximately 1918 and the 1960s. The author, also the editor of the series The History of Emotions, defines "cool" as an emotional mantle, sheltering the whole personality from embarrassing excess. This culture of emotional restraint contrasts sharply with Victorian emotional culture. Focusing on the decades of transition from Victorianism to solidification of the "cool" culture in the 1960s, the author examines the origins of this new culture, as well as the causes and long-term consequences of this change.
Stromquist, Shelton. Solidarity & Survival. An Oral History of Iowa Labor in the Twentieth Century. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 1993. xii, 346 pp. Ill. $39.95. (Paper: $14.95.)
Selected from a collection of 937 interviews made by the Iowa Labor History Oral Project between 1979 and 1992, the interviews in this book deal with the origins and developments of Iowa trade unionism from the 1880s to the 1980s. Professor Stromquist provides a general introduction to the development of the Iowa labour movement, and in his text he draws extensively on the fragments of the interviews he has selected. The main themes dealt with are the origins and traditions of the Iowa labour movement, working conditions, the rebirth of unionism in the 1930s, and the unions coming to terms with questions of gender and race.
Teitelbaum, Kenneth. Schooling for "Good Rebels". Socialist Education for Children in the United States, 1900-1920. Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1993. xi, 258 pp. $44.95.
See Marvin E. Gettleman's review in this volume, pp. 138-140.
Tomlins, Christopher L. Law, Labor, and Ideology in the Early American Republic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xviii, 406 pp. £40.00; $54.95. (Paper: £14.95; $18.95.)
In this study Dr Tomlins, who recently edited a collection on labour law in America (see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 415), describes how law interacted with labour in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. Focusing on three areas of law (criminal conspiracy, master and servant relations, and common law rules which immunized employers from liability to their employees for accidental injuries in the course of employment), the author aims to show that the law assumed a pivotal role in the production and reproduction of post-revolutionary American society.
The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South. Ed. by Ira Berlin, Steven F. Miller, Joseph P. Reidy [and] Leslie S. Rowland. [Freedom. A documentary history of emancipation 1861-1867. Ser. I, Vol. II.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xxxvii, 776 pp. Ill. £60.00; $79.95.
This is the fourth volume of the series Freedom: a documentary history of emancipation, 1861-1867 (see IRSH, 39 (1994), p. 488). In documents, preceded by interpretive essays, the editors review the development of free labour in the Upper South in the period 1861-1867: the Union-occupied parts of Virginia, North Carolina, central Tennessee and northern Alabama, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky. This documentary history describes the experiences of former slaves and the labour arrangements that arose.
Whisker, James Biser. Pennsylvania Workers in Brass, Copper and Tin: 1681-1900. The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston [etc.] 1993. vii, 228 pp. £39.95.
This book provides a list of the various tradesmen working in copper, brass and tin in Pennsylvania between c. 1680 and 1900. The concise introduction sketches the origins and the development of apprenticeship and indentured labour in this trade.
ASIA
Cambodia
CHANDLER, DAVID P. Brother Number One. A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Westview Press, Boulder [etc.] 1992. xv, 254 pp. Ill. $24.94; £16.95.
See Leo van Rossum's review in this volume, pp. 143-145.
India
Bose, Sugata. Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal Since 1770. [The New Cambridge History of India, III:2.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xvi, 203 pp. Maps. £24.95.
Demography, commodity production, agrarian social structure and changing forms of peasant resistance are the main themes Professor Bose examines in this study of agrarian continuity and change in India from 1770 to the present. By focusing on "peasant labour" the author aims to integrate the histories of land and capital, and he also explores the relationship between the capitalist development of the colonial economy and elements of both continuity and change in primary production and appropriation. Although drawing most of his empirical material from rural Bengal, he also makes comparisons with regional agrarian histories across India and beyond.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar. The Emancipator of the Oppressed. A Centenary Commemoration Volume. Ed.: K.N. Kadam. Popular Prakashan, Bombay 1993. xx, 247 pp. Rs. 225.
As the founder of the Republican Party of India, Dr Ambedkar (1891-1956), was, together with Gandhi, one of the main leaders of the Indian independence movement, a major advocate for the lower castes, and the architect of India's constitution in 1946. This commemorative volume contains eighteen contributions on his philosophy, his relation to Buddhism, and his political activities. It was published on the occasion of his hundredth birthday by the Buddhist Forum and Research Institute, an organization dedicated to studying Dr Ambedkar's intellectual legacy.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Australia
Blackmur, Douglas. Strikes: Causes, Conduct & Consequences. The Federation Press, Leichhardt (NSW) 1993. xvi, 232 pp. Ill. A$
This study examines the meat-industry strike of 1946 and the 1948 railways strike, two of the bitterest strikes in the history of Australia's labour relations in the twentieth century. Blackmur places these industrial conflicts in the international and national context of the reconstruction period and aims to explain the dynamics and long-term effects of the strikes, using "traditional historical methods" and clearly and consciously avoiding the techniques of non-historical social sciences or social science history.
EUROPE
Bürokratisierung und Professionalisierung der Sozialpolitik in Europa (1870-1918)/Bureaucratisation et professionalisation de la politique sociale en Europe (1870-1918). Hrsg. von Erk Volkmar Heyen. [Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte, 5.] Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1993. xi, 394 pp. DM 98.00; S.fr. 89.00; S 690.50.
The fifth Yearbook of European Administrative History is devoted to the bureaucratization and professionalization of social policy in Europe between 1870 and 1918. The central questions addressed are: how did the different dimensions of the administration of social policy develop in various European countries, and what was the role played by different elements within society? The thirteen contributions consider inter alia a comparison between Germany and England, health-care and hygiene policies in France, the German influence on Italian invalidity and old-age pension arrangements, the emergence of a corporate social security system in the Netherlands, and the role of professions and administrative personnel in Danish social policy.
Die Entstehung der Nationalbewegung in Europa 1750-1849. Hrsg. von Heiner Timmermann. [Dokumente und Schriften der Europäischen Akademie Otzenhausen, Band 71.] Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1993. 315 pp. DM 128.00; S.fr. 128.00; S 999.00.
The twenty-two contributions in this collection consider European nationalist movements in the period 1750-1849. The first part addresses the unification of peoples: inter alia the rise of German national sentiment (Detlef Rogosch) and the nationalist movement during the Italian Risorgimento (Angelica Gernert). The second part deals with Russia, while the third part describes a variety of smaller peoples and nationalist movements. In a concise general introduction, the editor gives an overview of general characteristics of successful nationalist movements.
Denmark
Bryld, Claus. Den demokratiske socialismes gennembrudsår. Studier i udformningen af arbejderbevægelsens politiske ideologi i Danmark 1884-1916 på den nationale og internationale baggrund. [SFAH skriftserie nr. 29.] Selskabet til forskning i arbejderbevægelsens historie, n.p. [København] 1992. 577 pp. Ill. D.kr. 350.
This dissertation (Roskilde, 1992) reconstructs the development of social-democratic political ideology in Denmark between 1884 and 1916, when the social-democrats first joined the government. After searching for the major influences on the ideological and political development of the Danish in this period, Dr Bryld concludes that the rapprochement between the social liberals and the social democrats (who were mostly reformist) was the main national factor, while the development of the Second International and international relations in Europe were the most important international elements.
Eire - Ireland
Interpreting Irish History. The Debate on Historical Revisionism 1938-1994. Ed. by Ciaran Brady. Irish Academic Press, Dublin [etc.] 1994. xii, 348 pp. £32.50. (Paper: £14.95.)
This collection of eighteen articles (of which most were published previously) gives an overview of the debate that has been in progress for six decades among Irish historians on the character and purpose of historical writing and on trends within the practice of history in Ireland that gave rise to this debate. The Irish "new history", developed by T.W. Moody and R.D. Edwards from the 1930s onward, the reactions to this school in the 1970s and 1980s, marxism in Irish historiography and Irish historical "revisionism" are the themes of this anthology of influential texts on Irish history.
France
Cherrier, Claude. Michel Rondet. Biographie. Préf. de Thierry Veyron. Action Graphique, St. Etienne 1993. 165 pp. Ill. F.fr. 140.00.
This popularized biography of Michel Rondet (1841-1908), militant miner and founder of the French Federation of Miners' Unions, was published on the occasion of an exhibition devoted to Rondet in the Musée de la Mine in Saint-Etienne. The author has based this book on his thèse de troisième cycle (Lyon, 1977) and aims to find a balance between the very critical image created by Rondet's contemporary adversaries and the mythical image which emerged in André Philippe's 1949 romanticized biography.
Duprat, Catherine. "Pour l'amour de l'humanité". Le temps des philanthropes. La philanthropie parisienne des Lumières à la monarchie de Juillet. Tome I. Préface de Maurice Agulhon. [Mémoires et DOCUMENTS, XLVII.] Éditions du C.T.H.S., Paris 1993. xxxiv, 485 pp. F.fr. 160.00.
This is the first volume of a two-volume doctoral thesis (Université de Paris I, 1993) on philanthropy in Paris between 1780 and 1840. This study is intended to provide a comprehensive and extensive overview of the philanthropic ideas, proposals and practices from the foundation of the Société Philanthropique to the 1840s, which, according to the author, signified the end of the first age of philanthropy. This first volume discusses the origins of the phenomenon during the Enlightenment and the circle of the Encyclopédie, as well as the development of philosophical ideas and the practical and political realization of philanthropic initiatives during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era.
Frankreich 1815-1830. Trauma oder Utopie? Die Gesellschaft der Restauration und das Erbe der Revolution. Hrsg. von Gudrun Gersmann [und] Hubertus Kohle. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1993. 229 pp. Ill. DM 84.00; S.fr. 84.00; S 655.00.
The fifteen contributions in this collection - most of which were presented at a colloquium in Bad Homburg in 1991 - examine various aspects of the Restauration in France (1815-1830) involving approaches to dealing with the Revolution during this period. The contributions address topics that include parliamentary debates in 1825 on compensation payments to emigrants (Winfried Schulze), memoirs of revolutionaries and émigrés during the Restauration (Fred E. Schrader), constitutional debates in France (Michael Erbe), police, press and politics during the Restauration (Ruth Jakoby), and the repressed Revolution in Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir (Johanna Kahr).
Groux, Guy [et] Catherine Lévy. La possession ouvrière. Du taudis à la propriété (XIXe - XXe siècle). Les Editions de l'Atelier/Les Editions Ouvrières, Paris 1993. 247 pp. F.fr. 140.00.
Based on a series of public housing surveys conducted from 1869 onward, this study relates the development of public housing to the rise of home ownership among the working class in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors address legal, social, and economic aspects of this trend, as well as changes in the value of property among various social theorists and within the workers' movement.
Monahan, W. Gregory. Year of Sorrows. The Great Famine of 1709 in Lyon. Ohio State University Press, Columbus 1993. x, 246 pp. $55.00.
The Great Famine of 1709, which has become prototypical for the recurring phenomenon of famines under the absolutist regime of Louis XIV, was a severe blow to Lyon, as the city depended on the surrounding countryside for food. This study describes the origins, background, and course of this crisis in the second largest city of France. According to Professor Monahan, this famine reveals much about the larger problems of absolutism, the clientage networks of both the monarchy and the merchants of Lyon, and the dilemmas of order and disorder, survival and starvation that afflicted eighteenth-century French.
Monar, Jörg. Saint-Just. Sohn, Denker und Protagonist der Revolution. [Pariser historische Studien, Band 39.] Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1993. xi, 830 pp. Ill. Maps. DM 160.00.
This biography of Saint-Just (1767-94), which is based on the author's doctoral thesis (Munich, 1989), aims to offer a complete picture of this revolutionary figure, the history of whose life has been obscured by the legends perpetuated about him. While historians have often portrayed Saint-Just as a figure entirely conditioned by the circumstances of the Revolution, Monar's purpose in this biography is to highlight precisely those traits that were not shaped by the circumstances of the times but which were a product of Saint-Just's own character and personality.
Moses, Claire Goldberg and Leslie Wahl Rabine. Feminism, Socialism, and French Romanticism. Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 1993. ix, 371 pp. $39.95. (Paper: $19.95.)
In the 1830s Paris experienced the emergence of a separatist women's movement within the Saint-Simonian movement. In the first part of this collection the authors, one a feminist historian and the other a feminist literary critic, examine the ideas of these women in relation to the notions of "text" and "context", drawing on critical theory as well as post-structural social history. They conclude that in their writings these Saint-Simoniennes were in many ways unmistakable predecessors of modern radical and post-structuralist feminists. In the second part of the book a selection of translated texts (memoirs, letters, articles from their journal), including writings by Flora Tristan, are published.
Panné, Jean-Louis. Boris Souvarine. Le premier désenchanté du communisme. Robert Laffont, Paris 1993. 491 pp. Ill. F.fr. 149.00.
Boris Souvarine (né Lifschitz, 1895-1984), one of the founders of the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1920, was, despite his role as Lenin's confidant, one of the first important members of the Comintern to break with Moscow and Bolshevism (1924) and the author of the first critical study of bolshevism and Stalin, Staline, aperçu historique du bolchevisme (1935). This is a comprehensive biography by a historian who worked with Souvarine toward the end of his life and gained access to his documentation and correspondence. Panné discusses Souvarine's political and intellectual life and argues that he eventually became a leading advocate of truth in politics.
Pottrain, Martine. Le Nord au cœur. Historique de la Fédération du Nord du Parti Socialiste 1880-1993. Préface de Pierre Mauroy. Postface de Bernard Roman. Nord Demain, Lille 1993. Ill. F.fr. 120.00.
This textbook for general readers sketches the history of the federation of the North of the French Socialist Party from its foundation in 1880 to the present. The author, also the federation's archivist, reviews the history chronologically. The annexes contain chronological overviews of the lives of important socialist leaders from Northern France, such as Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue, and Jean Lebas, as well as statistical data on membership and electoral support.
Singer, Madeleine. Le SGEN de 1937 à mai 1986. [Histoire.] Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris 1993. 353 pp. F.fr. 180.00.
The Syndicat général de l'Éducation nationale (SGEN) is the largest teachers' union in France. Founded in 1937, it was part of the CGT until it broke away in 1948. The SGEN subsequently entered a looser affiliation with the Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT). This history of the SGEN from its foundation to the present day, based on Dr Singer's doctoral thesis Le SGEN: 1937-1970 (Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Université Charles de Gaulle, 1987), is intended for a general readership. It focuses on the ideology and on the efforts of the SGEN to reform the state school system.
Smith, Leonard V. Between Mutiny and Obedience. The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division During World War I. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xvii, 274 pp. Ill. Maps. $35.00; £30.00.
The Fifth Division of the French Infantry established a distinguished combat record from 1914 to 1916, became the most mutinous division in the French army in 1917 and regained its reputation for excellence in 1918. By examining military culture and the relationship between soldiers and their commanders in the Fifth Division, Professor Smith explains how soldiers and commanders achieved a balance of conduct between mutiny and obedience. Contrary to historical conventions, he argues that the soldiers' experiences were more complex than simple victimization.
Sociologie de la protestation. Les formes de l'action collective dans la France contemporaine. Sous la dir. de Olivier Fillieule, avec la collab. de François Bourneau, Jean-Marie Durand, Patrick Hassenteufel [et al.] Préf. de Pierre Favre. [Dossiers sciences humaines et sociales.] Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 1993. 288 pp. F.fr. 150.00.
The eight contributions to this collection examine contemporary forms of collective action by pressure groups and social movements in France. They consider protests launched by officials from the Ministry of Finance in 1989 (Catherine Polac), by nursing staff between 1988 and 1992 (Patrick Hassenteufel), and by persons denied asylum (Johanna Siméant), as well as organizations of unemployed individuals (Olivier Fillieule, and François Bourneau and Virginie Martin) and the mobilization of pacifists during the Gulf War in 1990 (Jean-Marie Durand) and in 1991 (Arnaud Mercier). In a general introductory essay, Olivier Fillieule analyses common features of these protest movements.
Trempé, Rolande. Solidaires. Les Bourses du travail. [Racines du futur.] Scandéditions, Paris 1993. 119 pp. Ill. F.fr. 180.00.
This exceptionally beautiful book (size: 25 x 36 cm with many full-colour illustrations) is both a volume of photographs and pictures and a textbook on the history of the Bourses du Travail, the French Labour Exchanges, from their initial establishment in Paris in 1886 until the present. The bourses served as employment agencies and fraternal organizations and soon became centres for organizing trade unions. The Fédération des Bourses du Travail, founded in 1892, was the most important national trade-union organization until its merge with the Confédération Général de Travail. The bourses organized various social, cultural, and educational activities for the working class.
Germany
Brüchert-Schunk, Hedwig. Städtische Sozialpolitik vom wilhelminischen Reich bis zur Weltwirtschaftskrise. Eine sozial- und kommunalhistorische Untersuchung am Beispiel der Stadt Mainz 1890-1930. [Geschichtliche Landeskunde, Band 41.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1994. xiii, 413 pp. Ill. DM 138.00; S.fr. 138.00; S 1077.00.
This thesis (Mainz, 1993) examines social policy at a community level and is based on a comprehensive history of social policy in the city of Mainz in the period 1890-1930. The author concludes that the existing interpretation of the imperial epoch (until 1914) as the heyday of communal autonomy in social policy is correct for Mainz, and that in the subsequent Weimar period the national government intervened to an increasing extent. This study also confirms, Dr Brüchert-Schunk claims, that in terms of social policy the southwest of Germany was clearly more advanced than other regions, particularly Prussia.
Buchsteiner, Ilona. Großgrundbesitz in Pommern 1871-1914. Ökonomische, soziale und politische Transformation der Großgrundbesitzer. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993. 447 pp. DM 118.00.
The subject of this study is the economic, social and political transformation of Pomerania's landed élites into a group of capitalist entrepreneurs in the period 1871-1914. It is based on the author's Habilitationschrift (Rostock, 1988). Drawing on a range of statistical source material, Buchsteiner looks at the structure of ownership and the social structure of the large landowners, the productivity of their companies, and their political influence in order to examine how these élites were integrated into Germany's emerging capitalist economy.
Bürgerliche Feste. Symbolische Formen politischen Handelns im 19. Jahrhundert. Hrsg. von Manfred Hettling und Paul Nolte. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993. 232 pp. DM 39.00.
The seven contributions to this collection deal with the political symbolism of bourgeois public and political festivals in nineteenth-century Germany. The festival is used by the contributors as a way to understand how the German Bürgertum viewed themselves socially and politically in this period. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Gerhard Stahr, Hans-Walter Schmul, Monika Wienfort, and Charlotte Tacke.
Demokratie und Emanzipation zwischen Saale und Elbe. Beiträge zur Geschichte der sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterbewegung bis 1933. Hrsg. von Helga Grebing, Hans Mommsen [und] Karsten Rudolph. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts zur Erforschung der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung, Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 4.] Klartext, Essen 1993. 401 pp. DM 58.00.
This collection brings together twenty-five articles on social movements in the different regions of central Germany, defined as the area between the Saale and the Elbe. They cover the period between the end of the eighteenth century and 1933. Most of the contributors are young historians from the former DDR. The contributions deal with the origins of the working class and its social movements, the attitude of social democrats towards (the outbreak of) the First World War, and the development of social democracy and left-wing opposition in central Germany between 1918 and 1933. The collection concludes with a contribution on the historiography on these themes in the GDR, and an essay by Helga Grebing on the value of a regional approach to labour history.
Geschlechterhierarchie und Arbeitsteilung. Zur Geschichte ungleicher Erwerbschancen von Männern und Frauen. Hrsg. von Karin Hausen. [Sammlung Vandenhoeck.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993. 239 pp. DM 39.00.
This collection addresses the gender-based distribution of labour that results from a historically dictated hierarchy of the sexes. The nine contributions here explore the development and the consequences of this gender-specific distribution of labour over different periods and economic brackets in Germany. Contributions deal with, inter alia, gender-specific labour distribution and evaluation in the early modern era (Heide Wunder), gender-related labour allocation in the context of mechanization in the textile industry during the nineteenth century (Karin Zachmann), as well as the reinstatement of the gender hierarchy following the First World War (Susanne Rouette) and gender divisions in the field of social work in the 1920s (Christine Eifert).
Groebner, Valentin. Ökonomie ohne Haus. Zum Wirtschaften armer Leute in Nürnberg am Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts. [Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, 108.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993. 291 pp. DM 65.00.
At the end of the fifteenth century, Nuremberg was probably the second largest city in Germany. This dissertation (Bielefeld, 1991) examines the micro-economy of impoverished, wage-dependent workers in the period 1470-1510. Contrary to the impression provided by extended overviews of actual commodity prices, the poor, who often lacked proper housing, faced drastic short-term fluctuations in their purchasing power. The author aims to show readers who these poor were and how they supported themselves.
Groß-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution 1918/19. Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates. Vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongreß. Hrsg. von Gerhard Engel, Bärbel Holtz und Ingo Materna. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993. lxxxvi, 958 pp. DM 248.00.
The present source publication may be considered a sequel to source publications on the German Revolution of 1918/1919, which started with the volume on the Zentralrat der Deutschen Republik (1968) (see IRSH, XIII (1968), pp. 484f.), the government of the Volksbeauftragten (1969) (see IRSH, XV (1970), p. 335), and the Kabinett Scheidemann (1971) (see IRSH, XVI (1971), pp. 275f.). The first volume of this publication deals with the period between November 10, 1918, the date of the first meeting of the Berliner Vollzugsrat and December 19-21, 1918, when the Zentralrat was elected and the central powers of the Vollzugsrat were transferred to the Zentralrat. These 151 documents, which appear in chronological order, include pamphlets, appeals, and official announcements and accounts of meetings. In addition to explanatory remarks about the documents, the introduction summarizes the history of the German Revolution 1918/1919. Indexes of persons and subjects have been appended.
Hardtwig, Wolfgang. Nationalismus und Bürgerkultur in Deutschland 1500-1914. Ausgewählte Aufsätze. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 328 pp. Ill. DM 39.00.
This collection consists of ten essays on nationalism and German bourgeois culture from the Reformation to 1914 by Dr Hardtwig. All but one of the articles were previously published between 1982 and 1992. The topics dealt with include early forms of nationalism in Germany, the German character of the German Enlightenment, the student reform movement 1750-1818, citizenship, state symbols and state consciousness in the German Empire 1871-1914.
Kruse, Wolfgang. Krieg und nationale Integration. Eine Neuinterpretation des sozialdemokratischen Burgfriedensschlusses 1914/15. Klartext, Essen 1993. 336 pp. DM 78.00; S.fr. 78.00; S 609.00.
This book, a revised version of the author's doctoral thesis (Technical University, Berlin, 1990), provides a new interpretation of the background to and reasons for the decision in August 1914 of the German Social Democratic Party to support the politics of war and the consequences this subsequently had for the German labour movement. According to Kruse, traditional interpretations have been dominated either by East German or West German political and ideological motives. Partly on the basis of previously unpublished source material from East German archives, he concludes that it was primarily the party leadership and not a rank and file driven by enthusiasm for war (as West German historiography has often claimed) that was the most important motive behind this decision.
Oberkrome, Willi. Volksgeschichte. Methodische Innovation und völkische Ideologisierung in der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft 1918-1945. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 101.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993. 307 pp. DM 54.00.
After the First World War, the Volksgeschichte arose in Germany as a social-scientific movement that combined conservative, anti-democratic, and nationalist constructs with modern research methods and designs. In this dissertation (Bielefeld, 1992), the author analyses the content, methodology, and objectives of this historical intellectual movement, which expanded dramatically after 1933, in the context of German cultural and intellectual history between 1918 and 1945. Dr Oberkrome argues that the objectives and operating methods of this historical school exerted an especially strong influence on postwar German structural social history.
Schlumbohm, Jürgen. Lebensläufe, Familien, Höfe. Die Bauern und Heuerleute des Osnabrückischen Kirchspiels Belm in proto-industrieller Zeit, 1650-1860. [Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, 110.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 690 pp. Loose-leaf folders. DM 142.00.
This Habilitationsschrift (Oldenburg, 1992) is a very detailed examination of a local society and its population in Germany between 1650 and 1860. In the tradition of German micro-history, Dr Schlumbohm uses parochial registers maintained since approximately 1650 to reconstruct the lives of landowning and landless farmers' families and households as well as individuals of the community of Belm (in the vicinity of Osnabrück) to assess the current general theory on the relationship between economic, social and demographic development in the early modern period. The author concludes that the population was far less an innocent victim of circumstances than this general theory implies.
Schmidt, Dorothea. Massenhafte Produktion? Produkte, Produktion und Beschäftigte im Stammwerk von Siemens vor 1914. [Theorie und Geschichte der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, Band 8.] Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1993. 413 pp. DM 65.00.
The German Siemens company is often regarded as a classic example of the application of Fordist and Taylorist models in the history of industrialization and the development of mass production in Germany in the period c. 1850-1914. In her history of the development of Siemens' main factory during this period, the author challenges this long-accepted view and aims to show that the development of new production methods, of the mechanization and centralization of production and of new labour relations was not as linear as contemporaries and historians have suggested.
Seywald, Aiga. Die Presse der sozialen Bewegungen 1918-1933. Linksparteien, Gewerkschaften, Arbeiterkulturbewegung, Anarchismus, Jugendbewegung, Friedensbewegung, Lebensreform, Expressionismus. Kommentiertes Bestandsverzeichnis deutschsprachiger Periodika im Institut zur Erforschung der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung (Bochum), im Institut für Zeitungsforschung der Stadt Dortmund und im Fritz-Hüser-Institut für deutsche und ausländische Arbeiterliteratur der Stadt Dortmund. [Reihe 2: Forschungen zur Arbeiterliteratur, Band 9.] Klartext, Essen 1994. 465 pp. Ill. DM 98.00; S.fr. 98.00; S 765.00.
This is an annotated inventory of 1,200 periodicals of the labour movement, sympathetic social-liberal groups, and social associations that arose between 1918 and 1933 in the Ruhr region. It combines periodical files from the Institut zur Erforschung der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung (Bochum), the Institut für Zeitungsforschung der Stadt Dortmund and the Fritz-Hüser-Institut für Deutsche und Ausländische Arbeiterliteratur der Stadt Dortmund. The periodicals include the following groups and themes: political parties, trade unions, working-class culture, expressionism, leftist youth movements, pacifism, Christian socialism and denominational workers associations, reform movements, physiocrats, social rebels and vagabonds. Indexes on subjects, organizations and persons have been appended.
Sieg'l, Christian. Arbeitskämpfe seit dem Spätmittelalter. [Rechtsgeschichtliche Schriften, Band 3.] Böhlau Verlag, Köln [etc.] 1993. xxvii, 227 pp. DM 78.00.
This book gives a summary of the legal history of labour conflicts in Germany in the pre-industrial period, the period from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, and specifically of conflicts between masters and journeymen in the craft guilds and between mineworkers, those leasing the mines and landowners. The author concludes what whereas the journeymen were able to organize above local and regional levels, and so achieved some success in labour conflicts, mineworkers almost never succeeded in doing so in this period.
Die Sozialpolitik in den letzten Friedensjahren des Kaiserreiches (1905-1914). Band 4,1. Die Jahre 1911 bis 1914. Bearb. von Karl Erich Born, Reiner Flik, Klaus Hess [u.a.] [Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der deutschen Sozialpolitik 1867 bis 1914. IV. Abt.] Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart [etc.] 1993. iv, 397 pp. DM 128.00; S.fr. 128.00; S 999.00.
This is the first part of the fourth volume of the fourth section of this source edition, which started in 1966 and has since appeared irregularly (see IRSH, XI (1966), p. 497, XXVIII (1983), pp. 371f., this volume.). This fourth section covers the period between 1911 and 1914. The volume contains documents concerning the main social-political problems and developments in Germany in 1911: inter alia discussions on the state insurance system, forms of social insurance for civil servants, tighter restrictions for legislation concerning associations, communal interference in unemployment insurance, and social policy in companies.
Steinmetz, George. Regulating the Social. The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany. [Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History.] Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 1993. xv, 375 pp. $45.00.
In this study, Professor Steinmetz explores the complex origins of local and national social policies in the German Empire (1871-1914/1918) to examine changes in welfare policies throughout this period, differences between state and municipal interventions, and policy variations between cities. He uses this research to address more general issues, such as the reasons for the uneven development of the welfare state across different countries, regions, and localities and the conceptions of the social question among the elite and the general population. The author concludes that while some aspects of the German welfare state before 1914 reinforced social division, others actually alleviated the social issue.
Von der Reichsgründungszeit bis zur kaiserlichen Sozialbotschaft (1867-1881). Band 2. Von der Haftpflichtgesetzgebung zur ersten Unfallversicherungsvorlage. Bearb. von Florian Tennstedt und Heidi Winter, unter Mitarb. von Heinz Domeinski. [Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der deutschen Sozialpolitik 1867 bis 1914. I. Abt.] Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart [etc.] 1993. xxxiv, 635 pp. DM 148.00.
This is the fourth volume of the first section of a series of source editions, which started in 1966 and has since appeared irregularly (see IRSH, XI (1966), p. 497, XXVIII (1983), pp. 371f., this volume). This first section covers the period between 1867 and 1881. The volume focuses on the discussions and development of legislation concerning legal liability regarding accidents at work in the emerging branch of heavy industry. Bismarck initiated the creation of public accident insurance arose, which the editors view as the beginning of the German welfare state. This process is illustrated through largely unknown documents.
Great Britain
Burnett, John. Idle Hands. The Experience of Unemployment, 1790-1990. Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. ix, 368 pp. £45.00. (Paper: £14.99.)
Covering the past two centuries, this history of unemployment in Britain focuses on the experiences of people without work and on the impact of unemployment on the lives of the unemployed. Autobiographies and memoirs of working people who experienced and described periods of unemployment in their lives are important sources for this study. Professor Burnett concludes that, although the causes and circumstances have changed, public reactions over the past 200 years are remarkably similar and generally strike a balance between human compassion and suspicion, changing in accordance with prevailing ideological values.
A Documentary History of Jewish Immigrants in Britain, 1840-1920. Ed. and comp. by David Englander. Leicester University Press, Leicester [etc.] 1994; distr. excl. in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York. xv, 380 pp. Ill. £45.00. (Paper: £14.99)
This documentary history of Anglo-Jewry explores the immigrant experience and its impact on the position and structure of new and established Jewish communities in Britain between 1840 and 1920. The themes include the causes of Jewish immigration to Britain, the status of Jewish immigrants in the institutions of Anglo-Jewry, settlement localities, labour and employment issues, politics, religion, the conflict between native and immigrant Jews, and Jews and the First World War. In addition to his general introduction, Dr Englander introduces each theme separately.
Evans, Chris. "The Labyrinth of Flames". Work and Social Conflict in Early Industrial Merthyr Tydfil. University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1993. [Studies in Welsh History, 7.] xiv, 237 pp. Ill. £25.00.
This study, originally a doctoral thesis, examines the impact of the iron industry on the parish of Merthyr Tydfil from the 1760s to 1815. In this period, Merthyr emerged as the world's greatest iron production site and became a prominent centre of the Industrial Revolution. Dr Evans examines the organization of labour at the ironworks and focuses on conflicts between ironmasters and independently minded workmen and between ironmasters and indigenous farmers, who resented the ecological devastation brought about by the ironworks, as well as on internal dissent among the ironmasters.
Flanagan, Richard. "Parish-Fed Bastards". A History of the Politics of the Unemployed in Britain, 1884-1939. [Contributions in Labor Studies, No. 37.] Greenwood Press, New York [etc.] 1991. xiv, 289 pp. £38.95.
This history of the unemployed in Britain between 1884 and 1939 deals with the political activities of this group. The chronological beginning of this study is the year in which organizations of the unemployed first appeared. Mr Flanagan focuses on the relationship of the unemployed with the Labour Party and the Communist Party, on the origins and development of the National Unemployed Workers' Union (1921-1939) and on the state's reaction to the political activities of the unemployed. The author concludes that, like labour, unemployment and the life of the unemployed became increasingly regulated.
Lawrence, Christopher. Medicine in the Making of Modern Britain, 1700-1920. [Historical Connections.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. xi, 106 pp. £6.99.
According to the author of this short synoptic study of the development of medicine and its role in the making of modern Britain, many of the complex ideas, assumptions and practices which constitute modern medicine had been created by the end of the 1920s. Dr Lawrence reviews the period 1700-1920 to examine changing ideas about body and disease, the increasing use of medical categories as general explanatory resources for a dynamic, commercializing society and the organization of medical work.
Marsh, Arthur, Victoria Ryan and John B. Smethurst. Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 4. Cotton, Wool and Worsted, Linen and Jute [and other textiles.] Foreword by Lord Briggs. Scolar Press, Aldershot 1994. xiv, 558 pp. £55.00.
The present volume is the fourth of the series, which was started in 1980 (see IRSH, XVII (1982), p. 263). Contrary to the original plan, this is not the last volume. A fifth volume is scheduled and will deal with the industries not addressed in the first four volumes. This volume focuses on the wide variety of unions in the textile industry and related manufacturing sectors in Great Britain. Altogether, it covers over 1,000 unions, of which half pertain to the Lancashire cotton industry. Short descriptions containing dates of establishment and general characteristics are followed by references to relevant sources.
O'Day, Rosemary and David Englander. Mr Charles Booth's Inquiry. Life and Labour of the People in London Reconsidered. The Hambledon Press, London [etc.] 1993. ix, 246 pp. £35.00.
Charles Booth's pioneering survey, Life and Labour of the People of London, published in seventeen volumes between 1889 and 1903, was a landmark in empirical social investigation that overshadowed all subsequent accounts. This study aims to give a systematic account of the compilation of the survey, based upon the huge Booth archive, to place the document in perspective, and to demonstrate the richness of the material. While Dr O'Day and Dr Englander acknowledge Booth's leading role, they also highlight the significance of the contributions of his associates, who included Beatrice Potter (Webb), Octavia Hill, Llewellyn Smith, and G.H. Duckworth.
Rodger, Richard, ass. by Jane Bellinger, Melanie Thompson and Jonathan Watchorn. Research in Urban History. A Classified Survey of Doctoral and Masters' Theses. Scolar Press, Aldershot 1994; Ashgate Publishing Company, Vermont. vii, 271 pp. £45.00.
This bibliography offers a consolidated listing of British masters' and doctoral theses in urban history that have appeared over time. The compiler, who recently edited collections on the Victorian city and on European urban development (see IRSH, 39 (1994), pp. 135 and 143), has divided this bibliography into nine chapters: general, population, physical structure, social structure, economic activity, transport and communications, politics and administration, planning and environment, and urban culture. Indexes of authors and places have been appended.
Ross, Ellen. Love and Toil. Motherhood in Outcast London 1870-1918. Oxford University Press, New York [etc.] 1993. xvii, 308 pp. Ill. £45.00. (Paper: £14.95.)
Basing her study on the argument that "motherhood" is more socially and historically constructed than biologically determined, Professor Ross deals with motherhood among the London poor in the period 1870-1918. In examining the cultures, communities, and ties with husbands and children that women created, and in describing their skills in protecting households from the worst hardships of industrial capitalism, the author strives to show how poverty, or the threat of it, moulded intimate relationships among mothers, fathers and children and left a deep imprint on personalities.
Savage, Mike and Andrew Miles. The Remaking of the British Working Class, 1840-1940. [Historical Connections.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. xi, 106 pp. £6.99.
The historical significance and validity of the concept of class, and therefore also the historical study of the working-class, have been subjects of extensive discussions over the past decade. This short textbook is designed to introduce these debates. The authors argue that ample grounds exist for a sophisticated, adapted approach to class analysis. They substantiate their argument by reviewing the complex (but nonetheless distinctive) process of "working-class formation" that took place in British society between 1840 and 1940.
Sociability and Society in Eighteenth-Century Scotland. Ed. by John Dwyer and Richard B. Sher. The Mercat Press, Edinburgh 1993. xi, 252 pp. Ill. £10.95.
The sociable nature of human beings was a principal theme of the Scottish Enlightenment. The twelve contributions in this collection, based on a conference held in Virginia in 1988, reflect various approaches to the topic. They discuss philosophical ideas about sociability, the role of rhetoric and language, sentimental literature, books and magazines addressing social relations, social views of evangelical Presbyterians, social and intellectual connections with America, and the songs and poems of Robert Burns. The collection appeared in 1991 as a double issue of the journal Eighteenth-Century Life.
Sturt, George ("George Bourne"). The Wheelwright's Shop. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1993. xxi, 236 pp. Ill. £6.95; $10.95.
This is the eleventh edition of a classic account of a wheelwright in England at the end of the nineteenth century and an autobiography of George Sturt (1863-1927), which was first published in 1923. The author, who was originally trained as a schoolteacher, wrote several books under the pseudonym George Bourne. He gives a detailed account of the wheelwright shop he inherited in 1884, and tells the story of his life and career as a wheelwright. In his foreword E.P. Thompson places the work in its historical and literary context, praising the book's lucid and moving style.
Tom Mann: A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Comp. by John Bennett, with an archival note by Alistair Tough and a foreword by Richard Hyman. Ed. by Richard Storey. [Occasional Publications No. 22.] University of Warwick Library, Coventry 1993. 31 pp. £3.00.
This brochure provides a bibliography of the works of and about Tom Mann (1856-1941), whose life was the subject of two recently published biographies, noticed in IRSH, 38 (1993), pp. 125 and 126. A chronological analysis of the primary sources and a list of archival sources on Mann's life and activities are included.
Vellacott, Jo. From Liberal to Labour with Women's Suffrage. The Story of Catherine Marshall. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal [etc.] 1993. xxvi, 518 pp. Ill. £46.75.
This is the first part of a political biography of Catherine Marshall (1880-1962), a leading figure in the women's suffrage movement in Britain. The book deals with her life and career up to August 1914. In the restructuring of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and in linking the Labour Party to the issue of full adult suffrage Catherine Marshall, herself of Liberal background, played a major role in the women's suffrage movement in the five years preceding the First World War. The author argues that historians have hitherto paid insufficient attention to her significance.
Italy
Pernicone, Nunzio. Italian Anarchism, 1864-1892. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1993. xiv, 326 pp. Ill. $39.50; £32.50.
Beginning with the arrival of Michael Bakunin in Italy in 1864 and ending with the exclusion of the anarchists from the Italian Socialist Party in 1892, this study recounts the history of Italian anarchism when it was a major component of the Italian left. Professor Pernicone argues that the anarchist ideology, as opposed to marxism, dominated and set the general tone for the Italian socialist movement during its first fifteen years. From the 1880s onward, however, the anarchist movement became increasingly atomized, ideologically extreme, and, as a consequence, isolated from the masses.
Stella, Alessandro. La révolte des Ciompi. Les hommes, les lieux, le travail. Préface de Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. [Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales, 57.] Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1993. 368 pp. F.fr. 250.00.
In this study of the uprising of the summer of 1378 among the Ciompi, the poor linen workers of Florence, the author examines the historiography as well as the events and background of the revolt. Dr Stella uses judicial, business, administrative, and fiscal documents to reconstruct a comprehensive statistical model of Florentine society during the uprising.
The Netherlands
Perry, Jos. De voorman. Een biografie van Willem Hubert Vliegen 1862-1947. [Open domein nr. 29.] Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1994. 483 pp. Ill. D.fl. 59.90.
Willem Vliegen (1862-1947) was a prominent figure in the Dutch Social-Democratic Labour Party (SDAP) for longer than any other individual. As one of the Party's founding members, its chairman from 1906 to 1926 and a member of parliament from 1922 to 1937, he was one of the few leaders of the SDAP with a working-class background. In this biography, Dr Perry focuses on Vliegen's guiding function in the development of the Dutch social democracy.
Die Rezeption der Marxschen Theorie in den Niederlanden. Hrsg. von Marcel van der Linden. Beiträge von Bert Altena, Hans Manfred Bock, Henny Buiting [u.a.] [Schriften aus dem Karl-Marx-Haus, Nr. 45.] Karl-Marx-Haus, Trier 1992. 504 pp. Ill. DM 65.00.
On 12 and 13 April 1991 a colloquium was held on the reception of Marx's theory in the Netherlands. This collection brings together the eight contributions to this colloquium, which was organized by the Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier and the IISH. The contributors are Marcel van der Linden, Bert Altena, Homme Wedman, Gottfried Mergner, Henny Buiting, Frank Kalshoven and Ger Harmsen. The collection also includes a contribution by Jan Lucassen and Piet Lourens on Marx as historian of the Dutch Republic, the publication of ten letters from the Philips family to Marx, who was a relative, and a bibliography of Dutch edition of the works of Marx and Engels, both by Jan Gielkens. An index of names is appended.
Rovers, Frits. Voor Recht en Vrijheid. De Partij van de Arbeid en de Koude Oorlog 1946-1958. Stichting beheer IISG, Amsterdam 1994. 365 pp. Ill. D.fl. 48.00.
This dissertation (Utrecht, 1994) uses three case studies (Czechoslovakia 1948, the Korean War 1950-1953 and the Hungarian uprising in 1956) to examine the development of the position of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) in the period 1946-1958 on the Western Alliance, the Soviet Union, communism and the Dutch Communist Party. Based on a study of related literature, Dr Rovers also draws an international comparison with developments within social-democratic parties in neighbouring countries. The author concludes that the prevailing view of the PvdA in this period as a narrow, conformist government party deserves to be modified, as its position was strongly influenced by the recent traumatic experiences of the Great Depression and the Nazi occupation.
Poland
Zuckerman, Yitzhak ("Antek"). A Surplus of Memory. Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Transl. and Ed. by Barbara Harshav. [A Centennial Book.] University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1993. xviii, 702 pp. Ill. $35.00.
Yitzhak Zuckerman (1915-1981, pseudonym "Antek") was one of the leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization, which led the uprising of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. At the end of his life he dictated his memoirs, which were published in Israel in Hebrew as Sheva' ha-shanim ha-hen (Tel Aviv, 1990). This book is the English translation of these memoirs and contains a short introduction by the editor. The account relates the resistance and the life in the ghetto to the preceding social and political context and describes the years that followed the destruction of the ghetto.
Portugal
Feijó, Rui. Liberal Revolution, Social Change, and Economic Development. The Region of Viana [NW Portugal] in the First Three Quarters of the Nineteenth Century. [Modern European History.] Garland Publishing, Inc., New York [etc.] 1993. xxv, 236 pp. Maps. $12.00.
This dissertation (Cambridge, 1983) adopts the perspective of the Viana region in northwest Portugal to ascertain whether the Liberal Revolution and subsequent administration in the period 1800-1875 resulted in social and economic development in this region that met the expectations ensuing from the institutional reforms. The author concludes that the Liberal administration failed to achieve the desired social and economic developments, mainly because it pursued a general national policy and consequently disregarded both regional differences and those between urban and rural areas.
Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Beyrau, Dietrich. Intelligenz und Dissens. Die russischen Bildungsschichten in der Sowjetunion 1917-1985. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993. 344 pp. DM 48.00.
The phenomenon of dissidents in the Soviet Union lies at the root of this study into the relationship between the intelligentsia and the Soviet state from its beginnings in 1917 until perestroika (1985). The author examines the role of intellectuals, professionals and artists in the Revolution and the changes and developments in their social status in the developing Soviet state. He describes the growing conflicts between the intelligentsia and the state as a conflict between power and mind. It was in this conflict, Beyrau claims, that the Soviet regime lost its legitimacy.
La Démographie de l'Union Soviétique. Coordonné par Alain Blum. (Annales de Démographie Historique 1992.) Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1992. 408 pp. Maps. F.fr. 190.00.
The main section of this issue of the Annales de démographie historique is devoted to the demography of the Soviet Union. The five contributions deal with the rediscovery of Soviet demography between 1920 and 1950 (Alain Blum, Maité Ely and Serge Zakharov), lies and truth surrounding the 1937 census (Alexandre Volkov), the population history of the USSR 1920-59 (Eugenii Andreev, Leonid Darskij and Tatiana Kharkova), the concept of family planning and its influence on the practical response of the Soviet state (Alexandre Avdeev), and the population question among Russian political movements at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries (Serge Adamets).
Geifman, Anna. Thou Shalt Kill. Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1993. xii, 376 pp. Ill. $39.50; £32.50.
Between 1894 and 1918, over 17,000 people in Russia were injured or killed by revolutionary extremists. Focusing on the turbulent years of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907, Professor Geifman analyses the origins, extent and significance of the sudden escalation of political violence in this study. She examines use of terror among various political groups, ranging from Social Revolutionaries and Social Democrats to Anarchists and some obscure extremist groups. The author concludes that terrorist activity was far more common and less closely linked to any theoretical basis than usually assumed and that it often involved collaboration throughout the entire spectrum of radical groups.
Partei, Staat und Sovetgesellschaft. Sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte politischer Macht. Dokumente 1917-1941. Ausgew., eingel. und komm. von Eberhard Müller und Hans-Henning Schröder. [Tübinger Gesellschaft, Wissenschaftliche Reihe, Band III.] Verlag der Tübinger Gesellschaft, Tübingen 1993. l, 451 pp. DM 98.00.
This source edition aims to document the origins and development of political power in post-revolutionary Russian society in the context of general societal development. The selection of documents, translated into German, focuses on the periods of the civil war and War Communism, the New Economic Policy, and Stalinism before the Second World War. Exemplary sections of documents have been selected to ensure maximum depth and diversity in the portrayal of the major problem areas.
Schmidt, Christoph. Ständerecht und Standeswechsel in Rußland 1851-1897. [Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa-Institutes München, Reihe: Geschichte, Band 62.] Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1994. 244 pp. DM 96.00; S.fr. 96.00; S 749.00.
This history of Russian classes and class society in the period 1851-1897 focuses on three main themes: the extent of the Russian class system's individual and distinctive nature, the structure of Russian class society and the developments that resulted from the reforms of Czar Alexander II. The author also investigates differences between agrarian and urban class distinctions and social mobility as well as regional variations for these last two subjects.
Sowjetmacht und Bauern. Dokumente zur Agrarpolitik und zur Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft während des "Kriegskommunismus" und der Neuen Ökonomischen Politik. Hrsg. von Stephan Merl. In Komm. bei Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1993. 511 pp. DM 48.00.
In this collection, Dr Merl (whose two recent monographs on the kolkhoz system were reviewed by Leo van Rossum in IRSH, 39 (1993), pp. 280-284) offers a selection of translated documents relating to agrarian policy and agricultural development in the Soviet Union during War Communism (1917-24) and the New Economic Policy (1924-28). Materials from professional journals and periodicals, the central party press, judicial records, and the Smolensk party archives are included. The editor claims these documents show the extent of the gulf between the observations and interpretations made by party officials and the reality of life in the Russian countryside.
Weinberg, Robert. The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa. Blood on the Steps. [Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies.] Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 1993. xvi, 302 pp. Ill. $29.95.
Focusing on what the author claims is an intricate relationship between labour unrest, politics and anti-Semitism, this study, based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Berkeley, 1985), examines the tumultuous events of the 1905 Revolution in Odessa, and the role played by workers. Dr Weinberg concludes that the large Jewish presence, a feature specific to the Odessa workforce, ensured that events in Odessa took a different course from those in St Petersburg and Moscow, and that anti-Semitic outbursts, which culminated in a pogrom in October 1905, coincided with the popular protest that found its root in workers' grievances.
What About the Workers? Workers and the Transition to Capitalism in Russia. [By] Simon Clarke, Peter Fairbrother, Michael Burawoy [and] Pavel Krotov. Verso, London [etc.] 1993. vii, 248 pp. £12.95.
This book aims to analyse the development of class relations in Russia after the demise of the Soviet Union. It focuses on the class struggle in the sphere of production. Simon Clarke analyses the character of Soviet state socialism and its final crisis, Michael Burawoy and Pavel Krotov examine labour relations in the wood industry, and Simon Clarke and Peter Fairbrother deal with the origins of the independent workers' movement, basing their account on developments in the mining industry. In the final chapter Simon Clark argues that the struggle over the transformation of class relations in the former Soviet Union is only just beginning.
Spain
Castillo, Santiago (Dirección). Solidaridad desde Abajo: Trabajadores y Socorros Mutuos en la España Contemporánea. Centro de Estudios Históricos de la UGT, Madrid 1994. viii, 567 pp. Ptas 2100.
See Justin Byrne's review in this volume, pp. 135-138.
Switzerland
Huber, Peter. Stalins Schatten in die Schweiz. Schweizer Komunisten in Moskau: Verteidiger und Gefangene der Komintern. Chronos, Zürich 1994. 629 pp. Ill. S.fr. 78.00; DM 87.00; S 620.00.
Dozens of Swiss communists moved to Moscow during the Interbellum to take an active part in the activities of the Comintern. This study uses recently opened Russian archives to investigate the experiences of these Swiss communists, many of whom fell victim to the Stalinist purges in the 1930s. Dr Huber, a specialist on Swiss communism (see IRSH, XXXIII (1988), pp. 100f.), argues that the traditional view of the NKVD as the perpetrator and the Comintern associates as helpless victims is too simplistic. He claims that blind faith in the Party facilitated rapid transformation of perpetrators into victims.