Bibliography International Review of Social History vol. 41 part 1 (1996)

Search Catalogue
Search Website

See Also: IALHI Serials Service; IISH Publications; IISH Catalogue

Volume 41 part 1 (1996)

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

Cohen, Mitchell. The Wager of Lucien Goldmann. Tragedy, Dialectics, and a Hidden God. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xiii, 351 pp. $35.00; £26.50.
This is a comprehensive intellectual biography of Lucien Goldmann (1913-1970), a student of Lukács and a leading figure among the second generation of Western Marxists. Contrary to the structuralist mode that prevailed among his contemporary French colleagues, Goldmann, according to his biographer, did not believe in the scientificity of a Marxism that viewed the future of humanity as determined by an inexorable unfolding of history's laws. Professor Cohen describes Goldmann as a champion of socialist humanism, and captures his "genetic structuralist" method, his sociology of literature, and his libertarian politics.

The Elgar Companion to Radical Political Economy. Ed. by Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer. Edward Elgar, Aldershot 1994. xx, 492 pp. £85.00.
This reference book aims to provide comprehensive coverage of radical political economy, encompassing a range of different schools of economic thought, including the Post Keynesian, Kaleckian, Marxian, Institutionalist, and Sraffian approaches. In over one hundred entries, a wide range of specialists in the field discuss topics, ideas, and theories from this field, with production as the common theme, rather than the exchange focus of neoclassical and Austrian economics. The entries focus on dynamics, income distribution, growth and development, and capital accumulation. The positive elements in radical political economy receive special emphasis.

Green, Donald P. [and] Ian Shapiro. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory. A Critique of Applications in Political Science. Yale University Press, New Haven [etc.] 1994. xi, 239 pp. $25.00.
This study is intended as a critical evaluation of the use of rational choice explanations in political science. Focusing on the fields where the rational choice theory is reputed to be most successful, the authors submit that the achievements of this theory are in fact deeply suspect. According to Professors Green and Shapiro, the empirical tests of rational choice theories are marred by a series of methodological defects flowing from the characteristic rational choice impulse to defend universal theories of politics.

The Making of Political Identities. Ed. by Ernesto Laclau. [Phronesis.] Verso, London [etc.] 1994. vii, 296 pp. £39.95. (Paper: £13.95.)
This collection of ten essays brings together a number of current trends of thought relevant to the question of political identity and concrete studies of some of the political identities that have emerged in recent decades. A central theme of the book is logic implicit in the Freudian category of identification and its consequences for understanding politics. The case studies deal with the structure of apartheid in South Africa, the rise of Islam, the Palestinian diaspora, the explosion of national identities in former Yugoslavia, the Greens in Germany, and the spread of Rastafarianism in Britain.

Raphael, Lutz. Die Erben von Bloch und Febvre. Annales-Geschichtsschreibung und nouvelle histoire in Frankreich 1945-1980. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1994. 635 pp. DM 128.00.
This revised Habilitationschrift (Technische Universität Darmstadt, 1994) offers a comprehensive history of the Annales school from the start of its prime just after World War II, through its heyday, until 1980. Dr Raphael examines the theoretical and historiographical bases, as well as the institutional developments and leading proponents of the Annales school. He argues that the nouvelle histoire movement exhibits greater continuity with previous French movements in historiography than suggested by current theories about changing paradigms in the field of history.

Stirati, Antonella. The Theory of Wages in Classical Economics. A Study of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Their Contemporaries. Transl. by Joan Hall. Edward Elgar, Aldershot [etc.] 1994. xviii, 221 pp. £39.95.
This translation of Salario e mercato del lavoro nell'economia politica classica (1991) analyses the theory of wages by Ricardo and his predecessors. Using both a reinterpretation of Smith and Ricardo and the works of Turgot, Necker, Steuart, Hume, Cantillon, and other pre-classical economists as her basis, Dr Stirati aims to show that classical wage theory is analytically consistent, albeit very different from contemporary theory. Classical economists, according to the author, did not envisage an inverse relationship between employment and real wage level, and hence a spontaneous tendency to full employment of labour.

Tarrow, Sidney. Power in movement. Social movements, collective action and politics. [Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1994. x, 251 pp. £13.95; $17.95.
This study surveys the history of the modern social movement and its influence on politics and society, starting from the rise of the national social movement in the eighteenth-century West. Professor Tarrow, who focused in Democracy and Disorder. Protest and Politics in Italy 1965-1975 (1989) on Italian social movements (see IRSH, XXXV (1990), p. 179), applies the theoretical concept of collective action to the history of social movements. He contends that resources for sustained collective action became available to ordinary people from the late eighteenth century onward. Since that point, the periods of turbulence and re-alignments have recurred, which the author labels "cycles of protest".

HISTORY

Cent ans de conventions collectives. Arras, 1891-1991. Sous la dir. de O. Kourchid et R. Trempé. [Hors série. Collection Histoire. No 8, 1994.] Revue du Nord, Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille III, Villeneuve d'Asq 1994. 409 pp. F.fr. 175.00.
This collection contains the proceedings of a colloquium organized on the occasion of the centennial of the Arras conventions in 1991. The collective agreements in the Arras mining industry were the first such agreements reached in France. The twenty-two contributions deal with the development of collective agreements in the coal mining industries in France, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, South Africa, India, and the United States from the end of the nineteenth century until the present day, with the recent developments in collective bargaining and agreements in general in France and the United States, and with collective agreements in Eastern Europe during the Soviet era and afterwards.

The Church Faces the Modern World: Rerum Novarum and its Impact. Ed. by Paul Furlong and David Curtis. Earlsgate Press, n.p. [Winteringham] 1994. x, 256 pp. £35.00.
The fourteen contributions to this collection - both in English and in French - are a selection of papers presented at a conference held at Hull in April 1991 to mark the centenary of the publication of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum. The contributors analyse the development of Catholic social policy in the twentieth century and assess the influence of this encyclical. Two papers deal with the encyclical as such. The second section deals with the development of Catholic social policy in general, while the third section contains a consideration of the reception of the encyclical and the development of Catholic social organization in several European and American countries.

Clark, J.C.D. The Language of Liberty 1660-1832. Political discourse and social dynamics in the Anglo-American world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1994. xviii, 404 pp. £35.00; $59.95. (Paper: £13.95; $18.95.)
This study aims to create a new framework for interpreting the history of political and intellectual relations between the British Isles and America from 1660 to 1832, a period in which the modern states on both sides of the Atlantic were formed. In his study of British and American political discourse, Professor Clark aims to integrate evidence from law and religion to show the intimate relationship between these fields, the expression in religious terms of rival conceptions of liberty, and the basis for perceiving acts of resistance against the established order (including the American Revolution) as religious conflicts.

Die Eiserne Internationale. Periodikaverzeichnis des Bestandes Internationaler Metallgewerkschaftsbund (IMB) in der Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Bearb. von Walter Wimmer und Felicitas Kallus. Mit einem Vorwort von Peter Rütters. Hrsg. von Rüdiger Zimmermann. Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 1994. xii, 181 pp. DM
The International Metalworkers Union, founded in 1893, is the oldest and longest continuous international labour organization. In 1991, the movement donated its library and archives to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. This mimeographed catalogue of the library's periodical collection contains over 900 entries, a uniquely complete collection of topical literature from before World War II. A short historical introduction and indexes of affiliated organizations and titles are included.

L'esilio nella storia del movimento operaio e l'emigrazione economica. A cura di Maurizio Degl'Innocenti. [Biblioteca di storia contemporanea. 26.] Piero Lacaita editore, Manduria [etc.] 1992. 298 pp. L. 25.000.
The sixteen contributions to this volume (in Italian, English, French, and Spanish) deal with political and economic emigration by workers and labour militants from various countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The topics covered include labour migration and consciousness among workers in the Atlantic economies from the 1830s to the 1930s (Dirk Hoerder), political emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the United States between 1880 and 1920 (Antonio Donno), emigration from Italy to France and integration of émigrés in French society (Eric Vial), Spanish exiles in Latin America from 1939 onward (M. Fernanda Mancebo), and seasonal labour in South Africa from 1870 to the present day (Werner Rechmann).

Haushalten in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Beiträge eines internationalen disziplinübergreifenden Symposions and der Universität Münster vom 6.-8. Oktober 1993. Hrsg. von Irmintraut Richarz. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 271 pp. Ill. DM 84.00.
Ranging from ancient Greek society to the present day, the 24 contributions to this volume (based on an international, interdisciplinary symposium held in Münster in October 1993) deal with the role and development of households as the basic unit for the community and their changing role throughout history and in different parts of the modern world with respect to the economy and society as a whole.

Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development. Essays in Anthropometric History. Ed. by John Komlos. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1994. xv, 247 pp. $36.50; £29.95.
In this collection of ten essays on height and weight data from eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe, North-America, and Japan, the authors explore the relation between physical size, economic development, and standard of living among various socio-economic groups. Analysing differences in physical stature by social groups, gender, age, provenance, and date and place of birth, the essays illuminate urban and rural differences in well-being, explore the effects of market integration on previously agricultural societies, and elucidate the proximate causes of downturns and upswings in well-being. The conclusion that the environment of the New World was far more propitious than that of Europe during this period is remarkable.

Workers and Working Classes in the Middle East. Struggles, Histories, Historiographies. Ed. by Zachary Lockman. [SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East.] State University of New York Press, Albany 1994. xxxi, 341 pp. $21.95.
Covering nineteenth-century Syria, late Ottoman Anatolia, republican Turkey, Egypt from the late nineteenth-century through the Sadat period, Iran before and after the overthrow of the Shah, and Ba'thist Iraq, the twelve contributions in this collection explore different forms and interpretations of working-class identity, action, and organization and examine a variety of narratives of labour history and the place of workers in their respective national histories. The collection is intended as an introduction to the state of the field in Middle East working-class history and a demonstration of the influences exerted on this area by the paradigms within labour and social history worldwide.

COMPARATIVE HISTORY

Guillén, Mauro F. Models of Management. Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Perspective. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1994. xiii, 424 pp. $57.50.
This book is a comparative sociological study of the adoption of scientific management, human relations, and structural analysis as organizational paradigms in the United States, Germany, Spain, and Great Britain over the past century. Professor Guillén concludes that the adoption of models of organizational management in this period cannot be explained solely by referring to the scientific value of supporting theories or to purely technological or economic factors, but that institutional factors - such as the political order - play a key role. He aims to show that the dominant pattern of politics limits the repertoire of possible or necessary organizational approaches, while the characteristic mode of thought affects the choice of alternatives by managers and firms.

Hart, Vivien. Bound by Our Constitution. Women, Workers, and the Minimum Wage. [Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives.] Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xv, 255 pp. $35.00; £24.95.
Comparing the course of minimum wage policies in Britain and the United States in the twentieth century, Dr Hart examines in this study the reciprocal influence between the question of the legal basis for the minimum wage and the debate on women, work, and the role of the state. The most important difference between the two countries is that in Britain the minimum wage never became the constitutional issue it was in the United States. She argues that, contrary to general belief, the American constitutional system has had the advantage in the long run.

Lebenserwartungen in Deutschland, Norwegen und Schweden im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Hrsg. von Arthur E. Imhof, unter Mitw. von Hans-Ulrich Kamke, Eva Wedel-Schaper, Jens-Kristian Borgan [u.a.] Red.: Gesine Asmus. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1994. 725 pp. DM 154.00.
This volume contains statistical data concerning life expectancies in Germany from the mid nineteenth century until the present day. This volume is the sequel to Arthur E. Imhof, Lebenserwartungen in Deutschland vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert. Life Expectancies in Germany from the 17th to the 19th Century (1990), which was noticed in IRSH, XXXVI (1991), pp. 309f. To facilitate comparisons, the present volume contains analogous records of data from Norwegian and Swedish historical-demographic sources, considered among the best in the world in qualitative respects.

Pei, Minxin. From Reform to Revolution. The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 1994. vii, 253 pp. $39.95; £25.50.
The demise of communism in the former Soviet Union and the massive political and economic changes in China are compared in this study of the different patterns of regimes in transition from communism. Professor Pei aims to show that such configurations of change depend on preexisting social structures and political and economic institutions. Focusing on the development of the private sector and on the liberalization of the mass media, he concludes that democratization cannot independently remove the structural obstacles to economic transformation, and that high economic and political costs are unavoidable.

Rethinking Social Democracy in Western Europe. Ed. by Richard Gillespie and William E. Paterson. Frank Cass, London [etc.] 1993. v, 184 pp.
In the late 1980s, a wave of programmatic renewal swept West European social democratic parties. The eleven contributions to this collection, previously published as a special issue of West European Politics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1993), trace the origins of this programmatic activity (which can be seen as a response to electoral decline) and examine its results. Examining social democratic parties in Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Norway, and the Netherlands, the authors analyse the extent of initiative and control by party leaderships in the process of renewal, the new programmatic ideas that have emerged, and the measure of electoral benefit that resulted.

Richards, Raymond. Closing the Door to Destitution. The Shaping of the Social Security Acts of the United States and New Zealand. The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1993. xxx, 178 pp. $42.50; £38.00.
During the Great Depression, both the United States and New Zealand passed a Social Security Act. Each statute was intended to protect citizens from the poverty so visible at the time. The two acts, however, differed significantly in the measure of protection from poverty that they afforded and in their benefits for the most destitute. In this study, Dr Richards bases his explanation of the differences between the two acts on the disparate political systems of the two nations. He reveals that whereas the American Social Security Act actually exacerbated the country's inequalities, New Zealand's act redistributed income downward.

Root, Hilton L. The Foundation of Privilege. Political Foundations of Markets in Old Regime France and England. [California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy, 26.] University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1994. xv, 280 pp. $45.00.
From the combined perspectives of a political economist and a social historian, Dr Root compares the Whig ascendancy in England with the Old Regime's collapse in France to analyse why the transition from a premodern, mercantilist economy to a modern and open one ruptured France's political foundations, while leaving those of Britain intact. Comparing the political and financial institutions, the author concludes that the intricate system of privilege created by the French monarchy gave rise to irresolvable social conflicts, whereas the broader power base in England permitted wider distribution of economic favours and more flexible and efficient development of the market.

Seidman, Gay W. Manufacturing Militance. Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970-1985. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1994. x, 361 pp. $45.00. (Paper: $15.00.)
See Michael Löwy's review in this volume, pp. 104-405.

Stadtregiment und Bürgerfreiheit. Handlungsspielräume in deutschen und italienischen Städten des Späten Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit. Hrsg. von Klaus Schreiner und Ulrich Meier. [Bürgertum, Band 7.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 321 pp. DM 76.00.
The common theme in this collection of eight articles - the fruit of the research project at the University of Bielefeld on the rise of the bourgeoisie in the early modern era in a comparative international framework - is the interplay between freedom and regulation in municipalities in late medieval and early modern Europe, especially in Germany and Italy. The general question involves reconciling the urge for freedom among individual citizens with the claim to power by the ruling factions in the cities. The contributions deal with the cities of Florence, Cologne, Augsburg, and Nuremberg.

Streik im Strukturwandel. Die europäischen Gewerkschaften auf der Suche nach neuen Wegen. Hrsg. von Wieland Stützel. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1994. 215 pp. DM 39.80.
The sixteen contributions to this volume have resulted from a project designed to chart the consequences of the structural economic changes that have taken place in Western Europe since the end of the 1970s for the labour movement and the effectiveness of strikes as a weapon in labour conflicts. Both social scientists and trade unionists contribute to this comparison of developments in the field in Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Sweden. In the last two contributions, Otto Jacobi and Wolfgang Lecher assess the perspectives and changes of the trade unions with respect to European cooperation.

top

CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES

AFRICA

South Africa

Freund, Bill. Insiders and Outsiders. The Indian Working Class of Durban, 1910-1990. [Social History of Africa.] Heinemann, Portsmouth (NH); University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg; James Currey, London 1994. xv, 133 pp. Ill. £30.00; £12.95.
In this social and economic history of the Indian working class in Durban, South Africa in the period 1910-1990, the author covers a complex of gender-related, political, ethnic, and cultural issues to write a concise history "from below". Basing his work on a wide range of sources - including oral material - Professor Freund relates the history of the Indian working class in Durban to the changes in South African capitalism during the twentieth century.

Slavery in South Africa. Captive Labor on the Dutch Frontier. Ed. by Elizabeth A. Eldredge and Fred Morton. Westview Press, Boulder [etc.] 1994; University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg. xix, 313 pp. Ill. Maps. £37.00.
Slavery was widespread in South Africa from the period of the first Boer settlements in the seventeenth century until the late nineteenth century. The ten contributions to this volume deal with the specificity of South African slavery in this period, showing that it differs from slavery practised in other frontier zones of European settlement in that the settlers increasingly used indigenous captive labour instead of imported slaves. Contributions focus on topics including slave raids, the legalization of slavery through the inboekstelsel (indenture system), and the development of slavery in various regions.

AMERICA

Fornet-Betancourt, Raúl. Ein anderer Marxismus? Die philosophische Rezeption des Marxismus in Lateinamerika. Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1994. 356 pp. DM 58.00.
As a philosophical movement, Marxism has wielded considerable influence, both in Latin America and elsewhere in the world. Professor Fornet-Betancourt, a well-known specialist on modern Latin-American social philosophy and the liberation theology aims to give a comprehensive history of Marxism in Latin America from its earliest reception in the 1860s to the present day. Linking this exploration of the development of Marxist philosophy to the history of social movements on the continent, he focuses on authors such as José Carlos Mariátegui and Enrique Dussel, who have elaborated the Marxist perspective to reflect specific Latin-American relationships.

Morrison, William R. [and] Kenneth A. Coates. Working the North. Labor and the Northwest Defense Projects 1942-1946. University of Alaska Press, n.p. [Fairbanks] 1994. xiv, 270 pp. Ill. $ 30.00. (Paper: $420.00.)
This book explores the experience of American and Canadian workers involved in the construction of the northwest defence projects during World War II in an area that included Alaska, the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories, and the northern sections of British Columbia and Alberta. The force consisted of military and civilian, black, white and Native, male and female, and government and private sector workers. The authors cover, inter alia, the recruitment of workers, wage rates and living conditions, workers' expectations of the region and their reaction to the North with its subarctic conditions, and control and regulation of workers through the legal process.

Mexico

Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance. Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico. Ed. by William H. Beezley, Cheryl English Martin [and] William E. French. Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington 1994. xxxii, 374 pp. Ill. $55.00. (Paper: $17.95.)
This collection, based on a session of the Eighth Conference of Mexican and North American Historians at San Diego in 1990, contains fifteen essays that examine fiestas, performances, and other elements of popular culture in Mexico from the seventeenth century to the present and analyse the role of ritual in Mexican society. Based on Clifford Geertz's concept of the role of rituals as means for rulers to represent authority and facilitate rule, the authors address a broad variety of subjects, such as the relation between public celebrations, popular culture, and labour discipline (Cheryl English Martin) and the cultural customs in the early industrialization of Mexico (Tony Morgan).

United States of America

Blatz, Perry K. Democratic Miners. Work and Labor Relations in the Anthracite Coal Industry, 1875-1925. [SUNY Series in American Labor History.] State University of New York Press, Albany 1994. xv, 368 pp. Ill. $21.95.
The five-and-a-half month strike in the anthracite coal industry in 1902 was the first instance of intervention in a labour dispute by the American federal government. This study places the strike in the context of work and labour relations in this industry between 1875 and 1925. Focusing on the workplace and the everyday experiences of the workers, Professor Blatz sketches the unionization of the anthracite fields under the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the evolving democratic tradition of rank-and-file protest against corporate control.

Dew, Charles B. Bond of Iron. Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge. W.W. Norton & Company, New York [etc.] 1994. xviii, 429 pp. Ill. £21.95.
Buffalo Forge was an extensive ironmaking and farming enterprise in Virginia, run by William Weaver from 1812 onward with assistance from his relative Daniel Brady since the 1850s. Both men assiduously kept birth, illness, and death records of the slaves. Together with Brady's diaries and the Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Register, these records serve as the source for this reconstruction of slave life at Buffalo Forge during the antebellum and Civil War years. Professor Dew also traces the history of these men and their relatives to the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras. The importance of the family in day-to-day slave life is the central theme in this history.

Dublin, Thomas. Transforming Women's Work. New England Lives in the Industrial Revolution. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 1994. xix, 324 pp. Ill. $35.00; £28.95.
Although many young women found that the industrial revolution increased their independence, few working women in nineteenth-century New England shared this view, according to the author of this study. Portraying women's experiences in cottage industries, factories, domestic service, and village schools, Professor Dublin demonstrates that the autonomy of working women actually diminished as growing numbers lived with their families and contributed to the household.

Dubofsky, Melvyn. The State & Labor in Modern America. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill [etc.] 1994. xviii, 321 pp. $44.95. (Paper: 424.95.)
See Mark Leier's review in this volume, pp. 100-102.

Ethington, Philip J. The Public City. The political construction of urban life in San Francisco, 1850-1900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1994. xvi, 464 pp. Ill. £40.00; $54.95.
This history of San Francisco from 1850 to 1900 identifies the active participation of citizens in communication, persuasion, and mobilization as the "public city": the site of American political and social change. According to Professor Ethington, nineteenth-century Americans relied on Roman and Enlightenment models of the public sphere as a forum of debate and self-government. Reinterpreting the city's turbulent history, the author challenges the traditional view that treats urban politics as the expression of social-group experience and power and advances the thesis that social-group identities of race, class, ethnicity, and gender were politically constructed in the public sphere in the course of mobilization and journalistic discourse.

Fink, Leon. In Search of the Working Class. Essays in American Labor History and Political Culture. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1994. xiv, 261 pp. $49.95. (Paper: $17.95.)
In this collection Professor Fink, representative of the "second generation of New Labor Historians" and author of, inter alia, Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics (1983) (IRSH, XXX (1985), pp. 243f.), presents nine essays - all previously published - that review the main themes of his work thus far. The contributions address subjects including class division in American society and its connection to power struggles, the distinctiveness of American popular culture, the role of legal culture in defining labour strategy and action, the relationship between intellectuals (including labour historians) and workers, and the possibilities for a reconciliation between class and gender as fields of understanding in the history of workers.

Freeman, Rhoda Golden. The Free Negro in New York City in the Era Before the Civil War. [Studies in African American History and Culture.] Garland Publishing, Inc., New York [etc.] 1994. xvi, 409 pp. $77.00.
This book, for which Rhoda Golden Freeman (1927-1986) earned a doctorate in history at Columbia University in 1966, has been published posthumously. It describes various aspects in the lives of African Americans in New York City from the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Dr Freeman focuses on the ways in which the freedman's existence was circumscribed by the prevailing views on his race's place in American society and on the role of various leaders and spokesmen.

González, Gilbert G. Labor and Community. Mexican Citrus Worker Villages in a Southern California County, 1900-1950. [Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Series.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1994. xiv, 252 pp. Ill. $39.95. (Paper: $14.95.)
Between 1900 and 1930, hundreds of Mexican communities arose in Southern California, consisting of citrus workers attracted by the booming citrus production in this period. This book is a case study of fourteen workers settlements in the period 1900-1950, focusing on the formation of the villages, their culture, their social and economic relations within the dominant society, and their eventual transition to urban blue collar barrios. The author concludes that the history of labour villages is so inextricably interwoven with the citrus production that the communities evolved and declined together with the industry.

Goode, Bill. Infighting in the UAW. The 1946 Election and the Ascendancy of Walter Reuther. [Contributions in Labor Studies, Nr 44.] Greenwood Press, Westport [etc.] 1994. xii, 165 pp. $
This study deals with the factional fights within the United Automobile Workers concerning the surprising election of Walter Reuther as their president in April 1946. The author, a former educational director of the UAW, emphasizes the roles of the Reuther caucus, the Communist apparatus within the UAW, and the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. Contrary to some radical historians, who attribute Reuther's victory to "red-baiting", Professor Goode concludes that Reuther won because he was recognized by the members as an experienced and practical union leader.

Hansen, Karen V. A Very Social Time. Crafting Community in Antebellum New England. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1994. xvi, 262 pp. Ill. $30.00.
In this study of the everyday life of working men and women in New England in the period 1800-1860, Professor Hansen questions the traditional division between the public sphere - largely occupied by men - and the private sphere - generally considered the women's domain. She stresses the need to add a third option (the social sphere), consisting of a neighbourhood, a village, a domestic network. Based on information in a variety of personal documents, she aims to show this social sphere's function as a meeting ground for both genders, thus revealing that women and men were active in both the public and the private spheres.

Keller, Morton. Regulating a New Society. Public Policy and Social Change in America, 1900-1933. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 1994. xi, 396 pp. Ill. $49.95; £39.95.
This is the second volume of a three-volume study of early twentieth-century American politics, law, and government. It examines the major social institutions and important social issues, aiming to provide a comprehensive study of the ideas and interests that shaped early twentieth-century social policy. According to Professor Keller, the interplay between three elements - Progressivism, persistence of the traditional American past, and the growing pluralism in the society - delineated most of the social issues that have dominated American public life for the rest of the century.

Maik, Thomas A. The Masses. Magazine (1911-1917). Odyssey of an Era. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York [etc.] 1994. xvii, 254 pp. $62.00.
Despite its brief existence (1911-1917), The Masses is one of the most renowned radical American magazines from the beginning of this century. Based on sources including Leslie Fishbein, Rebels in Bohemia. The Radicals of The Masses 1911-1917 (1982), which was noticed in IRSH, XXIX (1984), p. 278, this study offers a chronology of the course of the magazine and the editorship of Max Eastman. In addition to exploring the evolution in content of The Masses, the book focuses on the people behind the periodical, especially on Max Eastman's role in shaping the magazine into a vehicle for his ideas on art and literature.

The "Other" New York Jewish Intellectuals. Ed. by Carole S. Kessner. [Reappraisals in Jewish Social and Intellectual History.] New York University Press, New York [etc.] 1994. xi, 382 pp. Ill. $20.00.
Apart from the most famous of the New York Jewish intellectuals in the late 1930s and the 1940s - discussed in Alan M. Wald, The New York Intellectuals (1987) - the New York Jewish intellectual community was, according to the editor of this collection of fifteen biographical portraits, far larger and more diverse than generally believed. These men and women shared their sense of community within the Jewish world and their commitment and allegiance to the Jewish people. The portraits are divided into three sections: opinion leaders, men of letters, and spiritual leaders.

Phelan, Craig. Divided Loyalties. The Public and Private Life of Labor Leader John Mitchell. [SUNY Series in American Labor History.] State University of New York Press, Albany 1994. xii, 438 pp. $19.95.
This is a biography of John Mitchell (1870-1919), president of the United Mineworkers of America from 1899 to 1908 and one of the most renowned American labour leaders at the turn of the century. In his chronological review of Mitchell's union career, Professor Phelan stresses the contradictory aspects of his leadership. More than any other trade union leader, Mitchell personified, according to the author, the growing power of the American labour movement based on trade agreement, although he failed to recognize the irreconcilable conflict between labour and capital and the importance of rank and file input.

Saville, Julie. The Work of Reconstruction. From Slave to Wage Laborer in South Carolina, 1860-1870. Cambridge University Press, New York [etc.] 1994. xvi, 221 pp. $49.95; £35.00.
This study examines the emergence of wage relations in the South Carolina countryside during the period 1860-1870, the decade of the emancipation of the slaves and the Reconstruction after the Civil War. Focusing on the daily lives of the freed slaves in small towns, Dr Saville shows that the emancipation entailed a dual struggle for the former slaves. She argues that they gradually instigated public and collective repudiation of the personal sovereignty that had formed the basis for the domination by their former masters and mistresses and challenged incipient claims that subjection to the control of landowners and the discipline of an abstract market constituted freedom.

Schleuning, Neala J. Women, Community, and the Hormel Strike of 1985-86. [Contributions in Women's Studies, Nr 137.] Greenwood Press, Westport [etc.] 1994. xvi, 233 pp. $55.00; £49.50.
In August 1985, a strike, instigated by severe wage cuts and reductions in medical benefits, broke out at a meat packing company in Austin, Minnesota and lasted for nearly a year. This book deals with the experiences of the women who formed the support group of the local union and sketches the development of the organization, its goals and objectives, as well as its economic and political agendas. Interviews held five years after the strike with 42 women who were active in this support group form the main source for this study.

Working Toward Freedom. Slave Society and Domestic Economy in the American South. Ed. by Larry E. Hudson Jr. University of Rochester Press, Rochester 1994. xiii, 250 pp. Ill. $19.95; £14.95.
The ten essays in this collection, based on papers presented at a conference held at Rochester in 1993, show how slaves in the American South organized their domestic economy. The authors examine the ways in which accumulations of work and property facilitated an ever-widening social and economic gap between masters and slaves. Several contributions focus on the role and importance of the family in the process of emancipation. In the eleventh and concluding contribution, Stanley Engerman suggests that these essays describe a slavery quite different from the portrayal prevalent until recently, a revision that will also affect interpretations of the postbellum period.

Wreszin, Michael. A Rebel in Defense of Tradition. The Life and Politics of Dwight Macdonald. Basic Books, A Division of Harper Collins, New York 1994. xviii, 590 pp. Ill. $30.00; C$40.00.
This is a biography of Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982), one of the key figures of the American Left in the middle of the twentieth century. He was an early editor of the Partisan Review, the publisher of his own journal Politics, and an influential cultural critic, and political activist. Professor Wreszin sketches a portrait of a man who was simultaneously paradoxal - politically a radical leftist and culturally a conservative - and very consistent in his critical dissent.

ASIA

India

Basu, Nirban. The Working Class Movement. A Study of Jute Mills of Bengal 1937-47. [Department of History, University of Calcutta, Monograph 9.] K P Bagchi, Calcutta [etc.] 1994. xi, 290 pp. Rs. 225.00.
This study, which is based on a dissertation (Calcutta, 1988), examines the labour movement in the Jute mills of Bengal from the period of the General Jute Strike of 1937 to the independence of India in 1947. Dr Basu aims to show that the militancy of the Jute workers in this period was shaped not by the nature of their economic grievances but by the political leadership available at that time. "Political factors ultimately emerged as the main determinant of the dynamics of the working class protest."

Caste and Communal Politics in South Asia. Ed. by Suranjan Das and Sekhar Bandopadhyay. [Department of History, University of Calcutta, Monograph 8.] K P Bagchi, Calcutta [etc.] 1993. viii, 223 pp. Rs. 200.00.
This collection contains seven contributions (five of which were based on papers presented at a seminar on the subject held at Calcutta University in 1989) on caste and communalism in India from the 1880s until 1947, focusing on south-east India and on Calcutta and its surroundings. Sharing the interpretation that casteism and communalism are social constructs closely related to colonialism, the contributions included deal with issues such as the communal riots in Tinnevelli in 1899 (Arun Bandopadhyay), communalism and labour in the Calcutta Jute mills (Parimal Ghosh), the emergence of caste consciousness in coastal Andhra Pradesh (V. Ramakrishna), and trends in communalist ideology in Bengal, 1905-1947 (Suranjan Das).

Japan

Weiner, Michael. Race and Migration in Imperial Japan. [The Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge Series.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. xi, 278 pp. £37.50.
See Sheldon Garon's review in this volume, pp. 96-98.

EUROPE

Gewerbliche Migration im Alpenraum. Historikertagung in Davos 25.-27.IX.1991 / La migrazione artigianale nelle Alpi. Convegno Storico di Davos 25-27.IX.1991. Red. von/a cura di Ursus Brunold. [Schriftenreihe der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alpenländer/Collana della Comunità di lavoro regioni alpine.] Verlagsanstalt Athesia/Casa Editrice Athesia, Bozen/Bolzano 1994. 679 pp. Ill. Maps. L. 38.000.
The fifteen contributions in this collection, which are based on a colloquium held at Davos in September 1991, address economic migration in the Alp countries from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Both migration between different states and regions within the Alps and migration from the Alp region to adjacent areas are covered. The variety of professions discussed includes architects, builders, artists, chimney sweeps, confectioners, miners, and pedlars. One contribution is devoted to migration by women.

The "Jewish Question" in German-Speaking Countries, 1848-1914. A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Ed. by Rena R. Auerbach. [Garland reference library of the humanities, vol. 1571.] Garland Publishing Inc., New York [etc.] 1994. xxv, 385 pp. $62.00.
This bibliography is presented as a continuation of Volkmar Eichstädt's Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Judenfrage, which was originally published in 1938 and was reprinted in England in 1969. It lists works on Jewish life, thought, and development from the period of emancipation until World War I and on relations between Jews and non-Jews. This work provides 3,734 entries of both contemporary and historical literature. The subjects covered in Eichstädt's work are supplemented by the following topics: army, demography and statistics, economics and finance, ideologies, law and justice, racism, and the "solution of the Jewish Question". Most entries are in German. An author and subject index and an appended list of periodicals are included.

Leiner, Stefan. Migration und Urbanisierung. Binnenwanderungsbewegungen; räumlicher und sozialer Wandel in den Industriestädten des Saar-Lor-Lux-Raumes 1856-1910. [Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte und Volksforschung, Band 23.] SDV Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag Gmbh, Saarbrücken 1994. x, 443 pp. Maps. DM 48.00.
This dissertation (Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, 1993) provides a detailed analysis of the migration movements within the Saar-Lor-Lux region during the heyday of its industrial development (i.e. 1856-1910). This region, consisting of areas of the Saarland, Lorraine, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, evolved as a geographic and economic entity by virtue of industrialization. Focusing on the urban centres of Saarbrücken, Thionville (Diedenhofen) and Esch-sur-Alsette, the author examines the course, intensity, composition, and social consequences of the waves of migration during this period.

The Origins and Development of Food Policies in Europe. Ed. by John Burnett and Derek J. Oddy. Leicester University Press, London [etc.]; distr. in the United States and Canada by St. Martin's Press, New York. v, 265 pp. £45.00. (Paper: £18.95.)
The fifteen contributions in this collection are based on papers presented at a conference on European food policies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, held in London in September, 1991. The central theme of the emergence of new food policies better adapted to the demographic and economic changes of the modern industrializing world is subdivided into five issues: i) dietary policy in wartime; ii) state policy and groups at risk; iii) the development of quality control; iv) dietary trends; and v) diet in an institutional context. The last contribution (by Alan Swinbank) addresses the effect of the EC on European food.

Poor Women and Children in the European Past. Ed. by John Henderson and Richard Wall. Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. xiii, 347 pp. £45.00.
Extending from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century and covering Denmark, England, France, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, and Spain, the fifteen contributions to this volume offer a comparative survey of the impact of poverty on the lives of women and children. In their introduction, the editors consider the distinctive nature of women's poverty over the life cycle, as well as the relation between family and demographic systems and the level of poverty. The contributors test the applicability of the concept of the poverty life cycle in the various periods and countries.

Sewering-Wollanek, Marlis. Brot oder Nationalität? Nordwestböhmische Arbeiterbewegung im Brennpunkt der Nationalitätenkonflikte (1889-1911). [Historische und landeskundliche Ostmitteleuropa-Studien.] Herder-Institut, Marburg 1994. xi, 262 pp. DM 55.00.
This dissertation (Marburg, 1994) examines the development of the labour movement in three political districts of the Austrian-Habsburg Empire (Brüx, Dux and Komotau) in the lignite mining region of Northwest Bohemia in the period 1889-1911. The rise of the labour movement in these three distinct regions was intrinsic to the developments of the general Austrian labour movement. According to Dr Sewering, however, the general orientation of the Austrian labour movement toward its German counterpart aggravated rather than helped resolve the nationality issue, which was the basic problem afflicting the region.

Austria

Marschik, Matthias. "Wir spielen nicht zum Vergnügen". Arbeiterfußball in der Ersten Republik. [Studien zur Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte 3.] Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, Wien 1994. Ill. S 298.00; DM 43.00; S.fr. 44.30.
In the 1920s in Austria, an autonomous soccer culture for workers arose, which - unlike its bourgeois counterpart that went professional in 1924 - emphasized physical exercise, public spirit, and the link with Austrian social democracy. This study examines the rise and fall of this working-class sports culture, a movement that eventually disappeared as a result of the progressive professionalization and growing popularity of bourgeois soccer, which became prominent in modern mass culture.

Peissl, Walter. Das "bessere" Proletariat. Angestellte im 20. Jahrhundert. [Studien zur Gesellschafts- und Kulturgeschichte 4.] Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, Wien 1994. 315 pp. S 348.00; DM 49.00; S.fr. 50.40.
A study on the actual emergence of the socio-economic position of the civil service in Austria in the last hundred years forms the basis for this analysis of the rise of civil servants as a separate and clearly distinct element of working-class in Germany and Austria in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the process, the author elaborates on the work of Emil Lederer, whose Die Privatangestellten in der modernen Wirtschaftsentwicklung (1912) was a pioneer work in the field of sociological analysis of civil servants in modern capitalist society.

Eire - Ireland

Anderson, W.K. James Connolly and the Irish Left. Irish Academic Press, Dublin, in assoc. with National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University, Melbourne 1994. 200 pp. £25.00.
This study examines the political legacy - in terms of both political theory and personal example - of James Connolly (1868-1916), the Irish revolutionary labour leader, socialist, and founding father of the Irish Republic, who was executed in the Eastern Uprising of 1916. In the first part, Dr Anderson interprets Connolly's political writings, dealing with seven major topics in his work: the women's movement, religion, syndicalism, socialism and nationalism, the Revolutionary Party, political violence and insurrection, and revolution. In the second part, the author assesses the impact of Connolly's work on these topics on the Irish Left.

Moran, Seán Farrell. Patrick Pearse and the Politics of Redemption. The Mind of the Easter Rising, 1916. The Catholic University of America Press, Washington 1994. x, 233 pp. $42.95; £38.95.
Patrick Pearse (1879-1916) is commonly seen as one of the most important figures of the 1916 Eastern Rising. In his biographical study of this writer, poet, journalist, and educator, Professor Moran examines Pearse's psycho-social development, as well as his speeches, poetry, and political writing within the context of contemporary Irish politics and culture to explain his emergence as the spokesman of the violent forces within the nationalist movement. According to the author, Pearse's personal search for psychological resolution coincided with the Irish failure to win national independence, leading many Irish nationalists to embrace violence as the sole means for personal and national redemption.

France

Charle, Christophe. Social History of France in the Nineteenth Century. Transl. by Miriam Kochan. Berg, Oxford [etc.] 1994. x, 314 pp. Maps. £39.95. (Paper: £14.95.)
This is the English translation of Histoire sociale de la France au XIXe siècle (1991), which was noticed in IRSH, 39 (1994), p. 306.

Dinges, Martin. Der Maurermeister und der Finanzrichter. Ehre, Geld und soziale Kontrolle im Paris des 18. Jahrhunderts. [Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, Band 105.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 471 pp. DM 98.00.
In this study of mechanisms of social control and disciplinary practice in eighteenth-century Paris, the author examines the role of honour and its interpretation in everyday life in the French capital during this period. Basing his examination on the numerous judicial records of cases of honour, Dr Dinges analyses the function of the concept of honour in daily life as a behavioural code for individual and class relationships. He emphasizes the role of theatrical, which enhanced their ritual aspect of these cases.

The French Idea of Freedom. The Old Regime and the Declaration of Rights of 1789. Ed. by Dale Van Kley. [The Making of Modern Freedom.] Stanford University Press, Stanford 1994. xi, 436 pp. $49.50; £35.00.
The eight contributions to this collection address the origins of the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789" in political thought and practice over the preceding three centuries of the Old Regime. The contributions include "Old Regime Origins of Democratic Liberty" (David D. Bien), "Betwixt Cattle and Men: Jews, Blacks, and Women, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man" (Shanti Marie Singham), and "Safeguarding the Rights of the Accused: Lawyers and Political Trials in France, 1716-1789" (David A. Bell).

Planhol, Xavier de, with the collab. of Paul Claval. An historical geography of France. Transl. by Janet Lloyd. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.]; Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris 1994. xxiii, 563 pp. Maps. £55.00; $79.95.
This is the English translation of Géographie historique de la France (1988), which is presented as the first systematic and synthetic study of the organization of France in the context of space and time, rather than as a simple inventory of a sequence of territorial divisions throughout the evolution of the territory of France as we know it today. Spanning the period from the prehistoric era to the twentieth century, the author dates the birth of modern France around 1000 A.D. He offers a chronological overview of the development of France as a more complex geographic area, brought about by the industrial revolution, the rise of transportation, and increasing centralization. The chapter on the period from the late nineteenth century is by Paul Claval.

Germany

Conrad, Christoph. Vom Greis zum Rentner. Der Strukturwandel des Alters in Deutschland zwischen 1830 und 1930. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 104.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 541 pp. DM 78.00.
This edited and abridged version of a dissertation (Freie Universität Berlin, 1992) offers a structural history of the changing social perspective on old age in Germany in the period between 1830 and 1930. Dr Conrad describes the transition of old age from a culturally defined category during the Enlightenment (when it was considered a stage of life for elderly greybeards) to a social category (a time of retirement). The author identifies three major trends in this evolution of the modern-day concept of old age: (i) the stage of life came to be viewed increasingly as a social problem; (ii) it became a universal time of retirement during this period; and (iii) demographically, the number of people reaching this stage is continually increasing.

Fleck, Hans-Georg. Sozialliberalismus und Gewerkschaftsbewegung. Die Hirsch-Dunckerschen Gewerkvereine 1868-1914. [Schriftenreihe der Otto Brenner Stiftung, Band 56.] Bund-Verlag, Köln 1994. 934 pp. DM 138.00.
This dissertation (Cologne, 1994) offers a comprehensive account of the development of the progressive-liberal trade union movement in Germany from its origins in 1868 until 1914. Focusing on the Hirsch-Dunckerschen Gewerkvereine, the social-liberal federations of workers, named after their founders, the journalist Max Hirsch and the politician Franz Duncker, the author attempts to redress the lack of interest among historians in the role of the social-liberal workers movement - which the author considers of great significance - in the realization of a powerful trade union movement in Germany during this period.

Götz von Olenhusen, Irmtraud. Klerus und abweichendes Verhalten. Zur Sozialgeschichte katholischer Priester im 19. Jahrhundert: Die Erzdiözese Freiburg. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 106.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994. 503 pp. DM 78.00.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the clergy of the archbishopric of Freiburg were considered the most degenerate of all German bishoprics by the central ecclesiastical authorities. Using the personal records kept by all priests in the bishopric from 1853, this dissertation (Freiburg, 1992) examines the effects of the disciplinary policy pursued under the influence of ultramontanism in the German Catholic Church from 1848/1849.

Golla, Guido. Nationalsozialistische Arbeitsbeschaffung in Theorie und Praxis 1933 bis 1936. [Reihe: Wirtschafts- und Rechtsgeschichte, Band 24.] Botermann & Botermann Verlag, Köln 1994. 366 pp. DM 64.00.
According to this dissertation (Cologne, 1993) on the national-socialist employment effort between 1933 and 1936, this policy's success in reducing unemployment was due not only to the application of a Keynesian economic policy, but also to a successful propaganda campaign that served as massive psychological boost to the economic situation. Dr Golla relativizes the prevalent view that the German population benefitted greatly from this policy by noting that this effect was merely an incidental consequence of a strategy actually intended to enable rearmament.

Kulczycki, John J. The Foreign Worker and the German Labor Movement. Xenophobia and Solidarity in the Coal Fields of the Ruhr, 1871-1914. Berg, Oxford [etc.] 1994. xvi, 297 pp. Ill. £44.95.
Through this extensive examination of the major strikes and developments within the labour movement in the Ruhr between 1871 and 1914, Dr Kulczycki questions the generally accepted view that regards the Polish migrant workers in this region - because of their rural origins and traditional Catholic beliefs - as obstacles to the labour movement and resistant to working-class consciousness. Focusing on the mass strikes of 1899, 1905, and 1912, and on the "Polish Revolt" of 1899, he counters that Polish militancy generally surpassed that of native miners.

Landauer, Gustav. Briefwechsel 1890-1919. Gustav Landauer - Fritz Mauthner. Bearb. von Hanna Delf. Verlag C.H. Beck, München 1994. xxxiii, 562 pp. Ill. DM 128.00; S.fr. 128.00; S 999.00.
This collection contains the correspondence (583 letters) of Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923) and Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) from 1890 until 1919, when Landauer was killed during the repression of the soviet-style republic in Munich. Mauthner - a theatre critic, philosopher of language, and historian on atheism - and Landauer - an author and playwright, translator, leading anarchist, and socialist - both prominent German-Jewish personalities, had a major influence on the surrounding cultural life and on the contemporary literary world. The lasting friendship between these two men is surprising, according to the editors, considering their differences in political views and measure of self-knowledge. A major share of the documents are stored at the International Institute of Social History.

Lexikon sozialistischer Literatur. Ihre Geschichte in Deutschland bis 1945. Hrsg. von Simone Barck, Silvia Schlenstedt, Tanja Bürgel, Volker Giel und Dieter Schiller, unter Mitarb. von Reinhard Hillich. Verlag J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart [etc.] 1994. xii, 580 pp. Ill. DM 78.00.
This lexicon presents the history of socialist literature in Germany from the early nineteenth century until 1945 according to the following categories of key words: periodicals, discussions and literary debates, anthologies and literary series, unions of writers, reading associations, theoreticians, and authors. More than 400 entries introduce both famous and forgotten writers and literary movements from a wide variety of political and social backgrounds.

Lipp, Karlheinz. Religiöser Sozialismus und Pazifismus. Der Friedenskampf des Bundes der Religiösen Sozialisten Deutschlands in der Weimarer Republik. [Reihe Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 35.] Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, Pfaffenweiler 1995. vii, 222 pp. DM 58.00.
This dissertation (Frankfurt am Main, 1992) sketches the emergence of the drive for peace and the anti-militaristic, pacifist opposition of the Bund der Religiösen Sozialisten Deutschlands (union of religious socialists of Germany) during the Weimar Republic. Dr Lipp deals with the main protagonists within this largely Protestant political movement (August Bleier, Emil Felden, Albrecht Gubalke), as well as with the developments in various regions. He devotes special attention to the early resistance to the rise of anti-Semitism.

Die Petitionen an den Deutschen Handwerker- und Gewerbe-Kongreß in Frankfurt 1848. Hrsg. von Werner Conze † und Wolfgang Zorn. Bearb. von Rüdiger Moldenhauer †. [Forschungen zur deutschen Sozialgeschichte, Band 7.] Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard/Rhein 1994. ix, 232 pp. DM 98.00; S.fr. 98.00; S 686.00.
The congress of artisans and craftsmen in 1848 in Frankfurt am Main may be regarded as the first parliament of artisans in Germany. The gathering served to promote the realization of the bill for the labour law being drafted by the economic committee of the Nationalversammlung. The petitions to this congress presented here depict an artisanal class that combined its class-conscious nature with a certain willingness to change. The issues addressed in these petitions included new ideas on labour and educational arrangements and housing facilities, as well as general questions on economic regulation. The labour bill that was eventually submitted at the congress is appended.

Sozialer Protestantismus und Gewerkschaftsbewegung. Kaiserreich - Weimarer Republik - Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Hrsg. von Frank von Auer [und] Franz Segbers. Bund-Verlag, Köln 1994. 298 pp. DM 68.00.
This collection aims to redress the lack of attention that prevails, according to the editors, among historians with respect to the role of socially committed Protestants in the rise of the German labour movement. The fifteen contributions cover the period from the Kaiserreich, through the Weimar Republic, to the beginnings of the Federal Republic and focus, among others, on social theorists espousing a Protestant perspective, the development of Christian trade unions, their relation to the socialist labour movement, and their role in the struggle for co-determination during the Weimar era and under the Federal Republic.

Stargardt, Nicholas. The German idea of militarism. Radical and socialist critics, 1866-1914. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1994. xiv, 232 pp. Ill. £35.00; $59.95. (Paper: £16.95; $24.95.)
Focusing on the role of the German Social Democracy in the opposition against the Wilhelmine militaristic policy, Dr Stargardt explores the development of the modern concept of militarism (as opposed to the older enlightenment critique of the absolutist state) from its inception in Germany in the 1860s to the outbreak of World War I. The author highlights the coincidence between the emergence of the modern idea of militarism and the rise of civil society in Germany in his analysis of the changing role of Kautskyian Marxist theory with respect to the lasting role of older radical tradition.

Wegert, Karl. Popular Culture, Crime, and Social Control in 18th-Century Württemberg. [Studien zur Geschichte des Alltags, Band 5.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1994. 240 pp. DM 68.00; S.fr. 68.00; S 531.00.
Based on an examination of some 300 criminal cases, focusing on two forms of crime (homicide and infanticide) and one form of deviance (bestiality), this study investigates the relationship between crime, punishment, popular culture, and social control in the Duchy of Württemberg during the eighteenth century. Recent critique of the revisionist, Foucaultian trend in the early modern history of punishment has noted that insufficient attention is devoted to the social component. The author supports this criticism, attributing the increase in social control and the severity of punishments both to the state-sponsored disciplinary process and - in equal measure - the change in endogenous views of crime and deviance among the ordinary people.

Great Britain

Achinstein, Sharon. Milton and the Revolutionary Reader. [Literature in History.] Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xv, 272 pp. Ill. $35.00.
Between 1640 and 1661, over 22,000 pamphlets appeared in England during the English Revolution. This study explores the meaning of this sudden abundance of early modern propaganda for politics. Focusing on the work of John Milton and his participation in this revolution of the press, Professor Achinstein submits that the influence of the pamphleteers and their output may have had a greater impact on political practice than any work of political theory.

Edwards, Michael S. Purge This Realm. A Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens. Epworth Press, London 1994. xvii, 219 pp. Ill. £12.50.
This biography of Joseph Rayner Stephens (1805-1879), a minister who broke away from Wesleyan Methodism because of his involvement with a wide range of nineteenth-century social and political issues, sketches a portrait of a man who has made a far more substantial contribution to the success of the factory movement in England than hitherto acknowledged by historians. Although commonly regarded as a Chartist and imprisoned for inciting violence, Stephens consistently refused to be counted as a member of the movement.

Ellison, Nicholas. Egalitarian Thought and Labour Politics. Retreating visions. Routledge, London [etc.] 1994. xiv, 310 pp. £40.00.
The concept of equality is, according to the author of this study, the cornerstone of British socialist tradition. Dr Ellison examines alternative interpretations of this concept within the British Labour Party from the 1930s onward and traces the origin of the current shift away from concern for social and economic equality to the increasing emphasis on liberty and equal opportunities. He identifies three competing approaches to equality: a centre-left technocratic, a Keynesian-socialist, and a qualitative socialist tradition and analyses the struggle between these three divergent ideologies in the party's attempt to define its socialist ideals.

Hinton, James. Shop Floor Citizens. Engineering Democracy in 1940s Britain. Edward Elgar, Aldershot [etc.] 1994. viii, 222 pp. £39.95.
The institution of Joint Production Committees in British engineering factories during World War II represented, according to the author of this study, the most substantial experiment in worker participation ever undertaken in British industry. Dr Hinton describes the efforts of communist militants, trade union activists, maverick industrialists, and innovative civil servants to lay the foundation for a "developmental state": a practice of state intervention and worker participation capable of tackling the deep-rooted inefficiencies in the pre-war British industrial economy, which were exposed by the war. He also examines the reasons underlying the failure of these efforts, even under the Labour government of Attlee.

Lummis, Trevor. The Labour Aristocracy 1851-1914. Scolar Press, Aldershot 1994; Ashgate Publishing Company, Vermont. xii, 190 pp. £35.00.
See John Foster's review in this volume, pp. 93-96.

Tabili, Laura. "We Ask for British Justice": Workers and Radical Difference in Late Imperial Britain. [The Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture.] Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 1994. ix, 255 pp. $38.50.
Focusing on the labour market in merchant shipping in Britain during the Interbellum, this study aims to trace the sources of racial conflict to the structure of this market. Reconstructing the social meaning of race in late imperial Britain, Professor Tabili shows the combined struggle by unions, workers, and British and colonial governments to define who was Black and what this designation meant in relation to the prerogatives of British identity. She concludes that racial confrontation resulted more from the decision of influential institutional actors than from the racist impulses of ordinary people.

Woollacott, Angela. On Her Their Lives Depend. Munitions Workers in the Great War. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1994. xiv, 241 pp. Ill. $38.00. (Paper: $15.00.)
Approximately one million women in Britain were engaged in munitions production during World War I. Based on an analysis of oral histories, writings by workers, newspaper articles, official reports, and factory song lyrics, Dr Woollacott examines the experiences of these women, who mostly belonged to the working class. She concludes that the increased employment opportunities, higher wages, and opportunities to learn new skills, as well as the sense of direct participation in the War, resulted in a gender-related increase in self-esteem and assertiveness for at least some of the working class women.

The Work of Work: Servitude, Slavery, and Labor in Medieval England. Ed. by Allen J. Frantzen and Douglas Moffat. Cruithne Press, Glasgow 1994. vii, 232 pp. Ill. £24.00.
Contrary to the traditional medievalist research, which focuses on high culture, the eleven essays in this collection (written by British and American scholars) address the mundane world of labour, slavery, and servitude in medieval England. The essays discuss the role of labour in the tripartite model of medieval society. Contributions included deal with, inter alia, early Christian attitudes toward manual labour (George Ovitt, Jr.), the end of early medieval slavery (Ross Samson), justice and wage-labour in the period after the Black Death (David Aers), and legal and extra-legal terms of employment in fifteenth-century England (Madonna J. Hettinger).

Italy

Alle origini della propaganda socialista. Gli opuscoli de "La Plebe" 1879-1881. A cura di Mario Spagnoletti. [Biblioteca di storia contemporanea. Testi e Documenti, 1.] Piero Lacaita editore, Manduria [etc.] 1992. 330 pp. L. 20.000.
This collection offers the first complete edition of the thirty texts, published as a series of brochures by the Milan socialist newspaper La Plebe in the period 1879-1881, which can be regarded, according to the editor, as the start of the socialist propaganda in Italy. The socialist group, gathered around the newspaper and led by Enrico Bignami and Osvaldo Gnocchi-Viani, issued this series in an effort to popularize the main themes of the rising socialist movement that emerged from the political struggle with the declining anarchist movement in Italy.

"L'Avvenire dei Lavoratori" (Zurigo-Lugano, 1944-1945). Direttori: Ignazio Silone e Guglielmo Usellini. Reprint a cura di Giulio Polotti. Introd. e doc. a cura di Stefano Merli. [Le fonti del Socialismo.] Istituto Europeo Studi Sociali, Milano 1992. Ill.
This large book, published on the occasion of the centennial of the Partito socialista italiano (PSI), contains a facsimile reprint of L'avvenire dei Lavoratori. This bimonthly periodical of the PSI, which was reestablished in Switzerland in 1943, appeared in Zurich and Lugano from February 1944 until September 1945. In addition to the facsimile-reprint, the publication includes several documents from the administration in Italy and the administration of the PSI in exile, as well as articles and correspondence by leading figures of the party and periodical, such as Eugenio Colorni, Guglielmo Usellini, and Ignazio Silone.

Briguglio, Letterio. Turati 1892. Origini e caratteri del Psi. FrancoAngeli, Milano 1992. 116 pp. L. 22.000.
This book offers a concise description of the origins of the Partito socialista italiano (PSI), which was founded at the national congress of Genoa in 1892. Dr Briguglio traces the origins of the PSI back to the Partido garibaldano, the anarchist collectivism, the Partito operaio italiano, and the Partito socialista rivoluzionario di Romagna, founded by Andrea Costa in 1881. He focuses on the influence of the German social-democrats on Italian socialism, on Filippo Turati (the movement's most prominent leader from 1890 onward), and on the relation with the anarchist and labour movements during the 1890s.

Gramsci, Antonio. Letters from Prison. Ed. by Frank Rosengarten. Transl. by Raymond Rosenthal. Vol. I. Vol. II. Columbia University Press, New York 1994. xxi, 374 pp.; v, 431 pp. Ill. $40.00; £27.50 (each in cloth).
This is a two-volume English edition of Gramsci's Lettere dal carcere, the letters written by Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), founding leader of the Italian Communist Party and leading Western Marxist theorist, during his incarceration as a political prisoner of the fascist regime from 1926 to 1937. This edition, which is based upon the Italian editions of 1965 and 1988, adds thirty letters never before published in book form. The first volume contains an introduction in which the editor sketches Gramsci's personal and political fortunes before his imprisonment, the circumstances surrounding his arrest and trial, and the pivotal role in his life as a prisoner of his sister-in-law, Tania Schucht.

Gramsci, Antonio. Pre-Prison Writings. Ed. by Richard Bellamy. Transl. by Virginia Cox. [Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1994. lii, 350 pp. £40.00; $59.95. (Paper: £10.95; $15.95.)
This is a collection of writings by Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), founding leader of the Italian Communist Party and leading Western Marxist theorist, from the period before his imprisonment by the fascist regime in 1926. These recent translations of 63 articles cover the whole range of his journalistic activity from 1914 onward and include a number of pieces previously unavailable in English. In his introduction to this collection, the editor stresses the specifically Italian political, cultural, and social origins and the relevance of much of Gramsci's innovatory reworking of a number of central concepts of Marxist thought.

Weinberg, Leonard. The Transformation of Italian Communism. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick [etc.] 1994. xv, 147 pp. $29.95.
In this study of the transformation of the Italian Communist Party from a Leninist to a democratic party - marked by the establishment of the Party of the Democratic Left in January 1991 - Professor Weinberg examines the reaction of the largest communist party in Western Europe to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. His analysis underscores the role of international developments in domestic party politics in Italy.

The Netherlands

Rooijakkers, Gerard. Rituele repertoires. Volkscultuur in oostelijk Noord-Brabant 1559-1853. [Memoria.] SUN, Nijmegen 1994. 702 pp. Ill. Maps. D.fl. 69.50.
This dissertation (Nijmegen, 1994) highlights the attitude of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities in the period 1559-1853 toward the popular culture in the area that is currently the eastern part of the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. Dr Rooijakkers defines popular culture as a system of group cultures (cultural circuits) with specific repertoires of behaviour and established ritual codes. Focusing on the religious culture, he addresses the following themes: holiness, perceptions of space and time, young adult culture, ritual hallmarks of daily life, and the culture of language and images to determine the characteristic traits of this popular culture.

Poland

Bernhard, Michael H. The Origins of Democratization in Poland. Workers, Intellectuals, and Oppositional Politics, 1976-1980. Columbia University Press, New York 1993. xv, 298 pp. $49.50. (Paper: $17.50.)
See Klaus Ziemer's review in this volume, pp. 102-103.

Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Friedgut, Theodore H. Iuzovka and Revolution. Vol II. Politics and Revolution in Russia's Donbass, 1869-1924. [Studies of the Harriman Institute.] Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xxi, 514 pp. Ill. $59.50; £47.50.
This is the second volume of a two-volume study of the Donbass region in the Ukraine in the period 1869-1924. The first volume, Iuzovka and Revolution. Life and work in Russia's Donbass, 1869-1924 (1989), addressed the social and economic development of the region. This volume focuses on the political forces and outlooks in the region and analyses the relationships between the social and political groups. According to Professor Friedgut, the absence of a significant stratum of "worker-intelligentsia" inhibited the development of an indigenous workers movement, and World War I cut short the slow but steady modernization of Russian society and politics, thus giving rise to the social crisis that led to the collapse of the tsarist regime.

Häfner, Lutz. Die Partei der linken Sozialrevolutionäre in der russischen Revolution 1917/18. [Beiträge zur Geschichte Osteuropas. Band 18.] Böhlau Verlag, Köln [etc.] 1994. x, 816 pp. DM 168.00.
This dissertation (Hamburg, 1994) is a history of the Left Social Revolutionaries (the radical wing within the PSR) who formed an independent political party called the Party of the Left Social Revolutionaries (PLSR) in late November 1917. Contrary to their interest in the PSR, historians have hitherto paid little attention to the PLSR. The author submits that the coalition of the PLSR with the Bolsheviks that lasted until July 1918 (when the party was prohibited by the Bolsheviks) led to their unjustified reputation in historiography for political naiveté and voluntary abuse by the Bolsheviks.

Hardeman, Hilde. Coming to Terms with the Soviet Regime. The "Changing Signposts" Movement among Russian Émigrés in the Early 1920s. Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 1994. xi, 319 pp. $35.00.
In the early 1920s, a movement known as the smenovekhovstvo (changing signposts) arose among the Russian émigrés. Members of this operation called for émigrés to come to terms with the Soviet regime, pleading that the Russian nation and state could be saved only if opposition to Soviet power came to an end. In this study, Dr Hardeman traces the course of this movement and concludes that despite their prevailing desire to prevent further destruction and human suffering, the émigrés increasingly came to regard the October revolution as an expression of the Russian people's will, which was not to be disavowed.

Kaiser, Robert J. The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994. xix, 471 pp. Maps. $65.00; £50.00.
Professor Kaiser examines in this study the social processes underlying the formation of nations and homelands in Russia and the Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He argues that the concept of the homeland, once created in the imaginations of the indigenous masses, structured national processes, and that the resulting "indigenization" from below became an active competitor for the policy of Russification, which was promoted from above. The existence of the official ethnic homelands reinforced ethnic identity, instead of facilitating its erosion (as Soviet theorists had hoped). The revolutionary changes in Russia since 1989 should, according to the author, be perceived in the context of an extended process of indigenization.

Ortmann, Frank. Revolutionäre im Exil. Der "Auslandsbund russischer Sozialdemokraten" zwischen autoritärem Führungsanspruch und politischer Ohnmacht (1888-1903). [Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des östlichen Europa, Band 39.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1994. 254 pp. DM 68.00; S.fr. 68.00; S 531.00.
The tumultuous history of the "League of Russian Social Democrats Abroad" from its foundation in 1888 and its demise in 1903 is the setting for this historical examination of the potential of émigrés to influence the political fate of their homeland. Although this Leaugue is presented - both in Soviet historiography and in a major portion of Western historiography - as the losing side, the author submits that it played an important role in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. In addition to its prolific publication of social-democratic literature (brochures and pamphlets) the League represented a democratic model of organization within the labour movement.

Prousis, Theophilus C. Russian Society and the Greek Revolution. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb 1994. xiii, 259 pp. $30.00.
In the 1820s, the Greek War of Independence inspired philhellenism throughout Europe, but, according to the author of this study, this sentiment was strongest in Russia. The common Orthodox faith and shared ties to Byzantium supplied a powerful impetus for Russian philhellenism. This study offers a comprehensive examination of the Russian response to the Greek Revolution. Professor Prousis sketches the shared vision of an independent Greece among defenders of autocracy and liberals, radicals, orthodox priests, romanticists like Pushkin, and scholars of antiquity. He concludes that this "Grecophilia" left indelible traces in Russian culture.

Wirtschafter, Elise Kimerling. Structures of Society. Imperial Russia's "People of Various Ranks". Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 1994. xvii, 215 pp. Maps. $30.00.
In this study of the raznochintsy ("people of various ranks" or "people of diverse origin"), Professor Wirtschafter examines this important but elusive category in Russian society from the late seventeenth to the late nineteenth century as a legal, social, and cultural category. Exploring the social and political language used in legal, administrative, and publicist sources, the author concludes that the social boundaries in Russian society were more porous and social definitions more indeterminate than conveyed by the image of a rigidly hierarchical social structure in traditional historiography.

Spain

Di Natale, Silvia. Die andalusischen Landarbeiter. Geschichte, Lebenswelt, Handlungsstrategien. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1994. 407 pp. Ill. DM 68.00; S.fr. 68.00; S 531.00.
See Walther L. Bernecker's review in this volume, pp. 99-100.

Jackson, Michael. Fallen Sparrows: The International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia 1994. xiv, 157 pp. Ill. $25.00.
In this study of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, Professor Jackson aims "to peel off some of the layers of myth that have obscured the International Brigades". Dealing with factual questions about their number, nation, class, age, and political affiliation, as well as with the importance of their commitment, he argues that the significance of the International Brigades "lies less in the ideological convictions that recruited (some of) them than in the labor of their endurance once there".

Volume 41 part 1 (1996)

Bibliography

General Issues

Continents and Countries

General Issues