IISH

Volume 46 part 1 (2001)

Bibliography


General Issues
Continents and Countries

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

Dyer-Witheford, Nick. Cyber-Marx. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1999. x, 344 pp. $49.95. (Paper: $21.95).
In this analysis of the consequences of the new information technology for the capitalist political economy and the conflict between capital and labour, Professor Dyer-Witheford aims to show "[...] how the information age, far from transcending the historic conflict between capital and its laboring subjects, constitutes the latest battleground in their encounter". Criticizing the concepts of postmodernism and postfordism, drawing on theories of "autonomist Marxism" and building on Marx's own concept of "general intellect", he argues that information technology also offers new opportunities for realizing Marx's ideal of common sharing of wealth and creating a twenty-first-century communism.

Espaces temporalités stratifications. Exercices sur les réseaux sociaux. Sous la dir. de Maurizio Gribaudi. [Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales/Studies in History and the Social Sciences, vol. 84.] Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1998. 347 pp. F.fr. 200.00.
The nine contributions in this volume offer empirical studies of contemporary social networks and personal ties on a local, microlevel in Paris, Naples, Turin, Cagliari, Athens, Helsinki, St Petersburg, and Madrid. Based on the theoretical background of structural analysis and the work of Max Gluckman, all studies were conducted with common survey forms. The aim was for respondents to render as intricate an account as possible of the multitude of their social contacts and relations over a given period of time. The contributors explore these surveys to share new insights about how personal ties and individual social networks aggregate into the larger social and spatial network of an urban society.

Grassby, Richard. The Idea of Capitalism before the Industrial Revolution. [Critical Issues in History.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 1999. ix, 87 pp. $50.00. (Paper: $14.95.)
In this concise textbook Professor Grassby gives a general overview of the origins and development of the idea of capitalism and re-examines the historical debates about its meaning and definitions, its rise in the industrial period and the mythical meaning it has acquired over time. His argument revolves around the need to locate a general definition of capitalism in terms of the market economy and the historical growth of financial markets and consumerism within each society.

Kapital.doc. Das Kapital (Bd. 1) von Marx in Schaubildern mit Kommentaren. [Von] Elmar Altvater, Rolf Hecker, Michael Heinrich [und] Petra Schaper-Rinkel. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1999. 342 pp. [1 cd-rom encl. System requirements: Windows 95 or higher, Netscape Communicator 4.07 or other browser.] DM 48.00.
See Michael R. Krätke's review in this volume, pp. 82-84.

Marxism and Social Science. Ed. by Andrew Gamble, David Marsh and Tony Tant. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1999. ix, 381 pp. $42.50. (Paper: $19.95.)
In the light of the widely proclaimed crisis or even end of Marxism, the fourteen essays in this volume aim to assess its relevance and contribution to modern social science. The first five contributions address the engagement of Marxism with feminism (Stevi Jackson), regulation theory (Michael Kenny), postmodernism (Glyn Daly) and New Right Theory (Andrew Gamble), whereas Tony Tant analyses the extent to which Marxism can be considered scientific. Other contributions assess the utility of Marxist approaches to a broad range of substantive issues, such as the state, democracy, culture, class, globalization, ecology, nationalism, and communism.

Nelson, Anitra. Marx's Concept of Money. The god of commodities. [Routledge Studies in the History of Economics.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1999. xiii, 254 pp. £55.00.
This study of Marx's commodity theory of money places it in the broader context of his philosophical and political as well as economic thought. Giving a comprehensive chronological survey of Marx's writings on money, Dr Nelson links Marx's concept of money with some of his other key concepts, such as "alienation" and "abstract labour". She concludes by reviewing commentaries and controversies on the subject since his time.

Ranganayakamma. House Work and Outside Work. Transl. by Hyma. Sweet Home Publications, Hyderabad 1999. 95 pp. Rs. 30.00.
This booklet is the English translation of an original text in Telugu, meant for general readers, which attempts to explain the relationship between "house work" and "outside work". This relationship automatically implies, according to the author, the relationship between men and women. Basing herself on Marx's theory of labour in Capital, the author aims to explain how the "physical" or "natural" relationship between men and women is moulded by the social relationship, which in turn is moulded by the labour relations in a capitalist society.

Ranganayakamma. An Introduction to Marx's "Capital". (in 3 vols.) Vol. 1 transl. by K.V.R., S.V. Rajyalakshmi, [and] B.R. Bapuji. Vol. 2 transl. by B.R. Bapuji. Vol. 3 transl. by B.R. Bapuji. Sweet Home Publications, Hyderabad 1999. 630 pp.; 766 pp.; 572 pp. Rs. 90.00; 110.00; 80.00; $10.00; 15.00; 10.00.
This three-volume introduction to Marx's Capital is the English translation of an originally five-volume introduction in Telugu, published between 1978 and 1993. The aim of this introduction is, according to the author, to provide an easily accessible and understandable introduction to a work of which she regards the emergence as "the most wonderful event in the history of society". Adhering to the same line of argumentation and logical sequence that Marx originally followed in Capital, volume 1 features a section on commodities and money and a section on the process of capitalist production; volume 2 comprises sections on the capitalist reproduction and circulation processes; and volume 3 deals with relations of capitalist distribution and the road towards a classless society.

Roudinesco, Elisabeth. Jacques Lacan. Outline of a Life, History of a System of Thought. Transl. by Barbara Bray. [European Perspectives.] Columbia University Press, New York [etc.] 1997. xix, 574 pp. Ill. $36.95.
This is the English translation of Jacques Lacan: Esquisse d'une vie, histoire d'un système de pensée (1993), the first major biography of Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), the prominent French psychoanalyst who emphasized the importance of the study and analysis of language and structural linguistics in psychoanalytic theory, and who had a profound impact on the social sciences as a whole from the 1970s onward. The author, a member of Lacan's inner circle, aims both to elucidate his theoretical concepts and to chronicle his often tumultuous life and his relationships with some of the major social theorists of the period.

Swartz, Omar. Socialism and Communication. Reflections on language and left politics. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 1999. xiii, 101 pp. £32.50.
Combining a communication theory perspective with a libertarian socialist or anarchist social and political philosophy, the author of this essay in social philosophy aims to trace the dimensions of what he loosely defines as a communicative theory of anarchism. The essay is supplemented by two appendices "that further exemplify the union of socialism and communication as a praxis informed activity": one on reinventing socialism and the relation between language, responsibility and the philosophy of hope; and the second on the role that organized religion, and in particular liberation theology, can play in social transformation.

HISTORY

Complicating Categories: Gender, Class, Race and Ethnicity. Ed. by Eileen Boris and Angélique Janssens. [International Review of Social History, Supplement 7.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1999. iv, 169 pp. £12.95; $19.95.
The seven essays in this 1999 Supplement to the International Review of Social History combine the categories of class, gender and/or ethnicity as complicating central concepts in the understanding of economic and social history. The essays reflect two groupings. The first three (Sandra E. Green, Ileen A. DeVault and Laura Dudley Jenkins) offer three approaches to complicating categories: intersectionality, seriality and the materiality of identity. The next four, by Michele Mitchell, Raelene Frances, Laura Levine Frader and Fatima El-Tayeb, address the conjuncture of racialized gender and sexuality in relation to colonization and nation-building.

Drescher, Seymour. From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. Foreword by Stanley L. Engerman. Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 1999. 454 pp. £55.00.
See Gert Oostindie's review in this volume, pp. 84-86.

Furet, François. The Passing of an Illusion. The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century. Transl. by Deborah Furet. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1999. xiii, 596 pp. $35.00.
This is the English translation of Le passé d'une illusion: essai sur l'idée communiste au XXe siècle (1995), the late Professor Furet's much acclaimed and debated history of communism and the communist myth, as he labels it. The main argument is that in the 1930s support for communism and the Soviet Union became virtually synonymous with "antifascism", a process that perpetuated a myth of the communist promise and whitewashed the Soviet regime's excesses. This myth had, according to Furet, complex moral, intellectual and political ramifications for the West.

Gallotta, Vito. Al di là delle tradizioni storiografiche. Braccianti e immigrati. [Saggi e ricerche, 17.] Cacucci Editore, Bari 1999. 159 pp. L. 22.000; € 11.36.
In the two essays in this book, the author presents a wealth of documentation and applies instruments from social sciences to offer a new impression of the history of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in the years 1910-1920, and the relations between the agricultural unions and the Camera di Lavoro in Puglia (Italy) in the years 1904-1914. According to the author, a traditional historiographical explanatory model leads to a selection of aspects in the historical process. The organizational model of industrial unionism in the United States, for example, was deemed irrelevant for the historiographical tradition based on John R. Commons' work on the history of trade unions, while Salvemini's description of the alliance of farmers and workers in Puglia in the early twentieth century overlooked elements that conflicted with the myth of full class consciousness.

Harman, Chris. A people's history of the world. Bookmarks, London [etc.] 1999. vii, 729 pp. £15.99.
See Lucien van der Walt's review in this volume, pp. 77-79.

Haslam, Jonathan. The Vices of Integrity. E.H. Carr, 1892-1982. Verso, London [etc.] 1999. xiv, 306 pp. £25.00.
E.H. Carr (1892-1982) is renowned both as historian of Soviet Russia and as philosopher of history in his influential What is History? (1961). In this intellectual biography, Dr Haslam argues that Carr's views on history arose from his own formative experiences in his work for the British Foreign Office during World War I and in the 1920s. The author portrays Carr as a man torn between identification with the romance of revolution and the ruthless realism of his own intellectual background.

Kotek, Joël. La jeune garde. Entre KGB et CIA. La jeunesse mondiale, enjeu des relations internationales 1917-1989. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 1998. 418 pp. F.fr. 195.00.
Dr Kotek aims to show how by 1919 the Bolsheviks, through the establishment of the Communist Youth International and a strategy of large-scale infiltration and cell formation in a variety of politically-neutral international youth organizations, sought to control an important part of politically-concerned youth worldwide. He argues that only after the beginning of the Cold War from the early 1950s onward did the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begin to launch counter-operations and start infiltration practices and covert funding operations of its own.

Many Shades of Red. State Policy and Collective Agriculture. Ed. by Mieke Meurs. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 1999. vii, 251 pp. $62.00.
This volume brings together five case studies that re-examine the process of the collectivization of agriculture under socialism in Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, China and Cuba and evaluate the potential of various forms of land and resource pooling to improve agricultural performance under varying conditions. Focusing on the diversity of and dependency on local circumstances, the editor stresses the importance of such a re-examination as a contribution to the ongoing debate about the role of cooperative forms of agriculture in rural development.

Nationalism, Labour and Ethnicity 1870-1939. Ed. by Stefan Berger and Angel Smith. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 1999; distr. excl. in the USA by St. Martin's Press, New York. xii, 292 pp. £47.00.
See Kenneth Lunn's review in this volume, pp. 86-88.

New Left, New Right and Beyond. Taking the Sixties Seriously. Ed. by Geoff Andrews, Richard Cockett, Alan Hooper and Michael Williams. Macmillan Press Ltd, Basingstoke [etc.] 1999. x, 207 pp. £45.00.
Focusing mainly on the British and American context, the twelve essays in this collection examine the long-term political and cultural legacies of "the Sixties": the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the rise of the "New Left" social movements after the events in 1968. The collection includes contributions on the legacy of Gramsci in British cultural politics (Tom Steele); a history of the American New Left (Marvin Gettleman); the rise of the New Right, New Labour and the problem of social cohesion (Peter Saunders); and the emergence of antiracism from the 1960s onward (Tariq Modood).

Ross, Eric B. The Malthus Factor. Population, Poverty and Politics in Capitalist Development. Zed Books, London [etc.] 1998. viii, 264 pp. £45.00; $65.00. (Paper: £14.95; $25.00.)
See David Levine's review in this volume, pp. 79-82.

Rowbotham, Sheila. Threads through Time. Writings on History and Autobiography. Penguin Books, London [etc.] 1999. viii, 423 pp. £8.99; A$18.95; C$19.99; $13.95.
This collection comprises nineteen articles and extracts by the well-known women's historian, Dr Rowbotham. All previously published between 1973 and 1998, the articles include methodological and substantive material on women's and social history, as well as discussions of ideas in the contemporary women's movement and autobiographical accounts intended to shed light on assumptions and concepts in the author's historical writing.

Shaffer, Jack. Historical Dictionary of the Cooperative Movement. [Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements, No. 26.] The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham (Md.) [etc.] 1999. xviii, 610 pp. $110.00.
According to the editor of the series in which this handbook of the cooperative movement appears, this is the only single source for obtaining information on different cooperatives and the people involved in a large number of countries. The editor offers in his introduction a concise general history of the cooperative movement in all its diversity and has added a list of acronyms, a chronology, and an extensive bibliography.

Terms of Labor. Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor. Ed. by Stanley L. Engerman. [The Making of Modern Freedom.] Stanford University Press, Stanford 1999. ix, 350 pp. $55.00; £35.00.
The nine chapters in this volume deal with the causes and consequences of the rise of so-called free labour (as opposed to labour under the coercive control of systems of slavery and serfdom) in Europe, the United States and the Caribbean over the past five centuries. The topics covered include European beliefs that opposed enslavement of other Europeans but nevertheless permitted the slavery of Africans (Dave Eltis), British abolitionism and the impact of emancipation on the British West Indies (Seymour Drescher), and female dependent labour in the aftermath of American emancipation (Amy Dru Stanley).

Verstaatlichung der Welt? Europäische Staatsmodelle und außereuropäische Machtsprozesse. Hrsg. von Wolfgang Reinhard unter Mitarb. von Elisabeth Müller-Luckner. [Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien, Band 47.] R. Oldenbourg, München 1999. xv, 375 pp. DM 128.00.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium, organized by the Historische Kolleg in Munich in March 1998, on the global proliferation of the European model of modern state formation worldwide from the middle of the eighteenth century onward, its relative success or failure elsewhere in the world and the reasons for the failures. Sixteen of the eighteen papers are arranged geographically, dealing with America, South and East Asia, the Islamic Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions by the editor and Harald Haury offer a concluding assessment.

Woolley, Barry Lee. Adherents of Permanent Revolution. A History of the Fourth (Trotskyist) International. University Press of America, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 1999. viii, 356 pp. Ill. $49.50.
"This book is an account of the history of the Fourth International from its formation under the guidance of Trotsky to its Tenth World Congress in early 1974." Basing himself on often unique documents from the Trotskyist International Secretariat and on inside information from the American Trotskyist movement, in which he has been active, the author provides a concise introduction to the life and thought of Trotsky and a chronological overview of the origins of the Fourth International from its establishment in 1938, through the many internal controversies and splits, to the Tenth World Congress in 1974, when another major worldwide rift occurred in the Trotskyist movement.

Working Out Gender. Perspectives from labour history. Ed. by Margaret Walsh. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 1999. xi, 235 pp. £47.50.
The twelve essays in this collection, all originating from the Spring 1998 Conference of the British Society for the Study of Labour, aim to illustrate a variety of ways of making gender more central to labour history. Spanning the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, the contributions cover both Great Britain and the United States, and explore the different ways that primarily European historians have interpreted gender as a valuable lens for refocusing on issues connected with work, workers, the working classes and their politics.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Revelli, Marco. Die gesellschaftliche Linke. Jenseits der Zivilisation der Arbeit. Aus dem Italienischen von Dario Azzellini. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1999. 221 pp. DM 48.00.
This is the German translation of La sinistra sociale (1997), an analysis of the consequences for the form and strategies of leftist politics of the current globalization and the transformation of the world political economy from fordism to postfordism. According to Professor Revelli, this transformation forces the Left to redesign its strategy by re-establishing the necessary social bonds and collective group formation from the foundations upward. CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES

AMERICA

Deutsch, Sandra McGee. Las Derechas. The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1999. xviii, 492 pp. $60.00; £110.00.
See Marcus Klein's review in this volume, pp. 108-110.

Kale, Madhavi. Fragments of Empire. Capital, Slavery, and Indian Indentured Labor Migration in the British Caribbean. [Critical Histories.] University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1998. v, 236 pp. $37.50; £29.50.
See Brinsley Samaroo's review in this volume, pp. 103-105.

Canada

Baskerville, Peter and Eric W. Sager. Unwilling Idlers: The Urban Unemployed and Their Families in Late Victorian Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 1998. 294 pp. C$55.00. (Paper: C$24.95.)
See Kees Mandemakers's review in this volume, pp. 100-103.

The Woman Worker, 1926-1929. Ed. by Margaret Hobbs and Joan Sangster. Canadian Committee on Labour History, St. John's (Nfld) 1999. 284 pp. $24.95.
This volume features the inaugural issue and a selection of articles from The Women Worker, the official newspaper of the Canadian Federation of Women's Labor Leagues, during its 1926 to 1929 run. In their introduction, the editors examine the evolution of The Woman Worker and its editor, the prominent Communist Party of Canada leader Florence Custance, and place the newspaper and its editor in the socioeconomic and political context of the late 1920s.

Chile

Meller, Patricio. The Unidad Popular and the Pinochet Dictatorship. A Political Economy Analysis. Transl. by Tim Ennis. Macmillan Press Ltd, Basingstoke [etc.] 2000. xiii, 222 pp. £45.00.
This monograph by Patricio Meller, Professor of Economics at the University of Chile in Santiago, deals with Chile's economic development of during the regime of the Unidad Popular (1970-1973) and the subsequent dictatorship of Pinochet (1973-1990). The effects on the real economy of the two fiercely contrasting economic ideologies (socialism versus neoliberalism) are covered in detail. Referring to the equally successful economic purges in other Latin American countries in the 1980s, the author submits that the gross violation of human rights in Chile was unjustified.

Cuba

Casanovas, Joan. Bread, or Bullets! Urban Labor and Spanish Colonialism in Cuba, 1850-1898. [Pitt Latin American Series.] University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 1998. xiii, 320 pp. Ill. $45.00. (Paper: $19.95.)
See Consuelo Naranjo Orovio's review in this volume, pp. 105-107.

Mexico

McLynn, Frank. Villa and Zapata. A Biography of the Mexican Revolution. Jonathan Cape, London [etc.] 2000. xv, 459 pp. Ill. Maps. £20.00.
This double biography of Villa and Zapata, based largely on secondary sources, provides a good introduction to the revolutionary years (1910-1919) in Mexico. Combining political, military and social history, the author describes Díaz's fall in 1910 and the complex relationships between the leading parties and the subsequent civil war. Despite the dominance of populist reformers, such as Madero, Carranza, Obregón, and the like, in Mexico after 1910, the author asserts that revolutionary figures, such as Villa and Zapata, define the historical image to this day.

United States of America

Conley, Dalton. Being Black, Living in the Red. Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1999. viii, 209 pp. $45.00.
This sociological study analyses the relation between race, property and class position in the contemporary United States. Based on a statistical analysis of the distribution of wealth and property among whites and African Americans, Professor Conley argues that inequality in the distribution of property, together with the class position of African Americans, are the principal causes of the persistence of black-white inequality.

Jacobson, Matthew Frye. Whiteness of a Different Color. European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 1998. xi, 338 pp. £18.50.
See Christiane Harzig's review in this volume, pp. 98-100.

Klinkner, Philip A. with Rogers M. Smith. The Unsteady March. The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1999. vii, 417 pp. $32.50; £23.00.
In this comprehensive overview of the history of race relations in the United States from the Revolution until the present day, Professors Klinkner and Smith examine the circumstances in which significant progress was achieved toward greater racial justice and more equal opportunities for black and white. They argue that substantial progress was forthcoming only in the wake of a large-scale war, with a cause that American leaders justified by emphasizing the nation's inclusive, egalitarian traditions, and once domestic protest movements became strong enough to compel the leaders to live up to their rhetoric by instituting domestic reform. The authors conclude that each of these periods has been followed by periods of stagnation and retrenchment.

Newman, Louise Michele. White Women's Rights. The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States. Oxford University Press, New York [etc.] 1999. ix, 261 pp. Ill. $19.95.
In this study of feminism in the United States during the Progressive era, Professor Newman analyses how the ideology and politics of white, Anglo-American feminists was based on evolutionary and racial thought and on imperialist and assimilationist discourses. Focusing on the work and ideas of several white women activists, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Alice Fletcher, the author concludes that middle-class white women in this period claimed a racial and cultural superiority shared with Anglo-American Protestant men and a special role as women "civilizers of racially inferior people" in their pursuit of broader public roles and greater equality with white men.

The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s. Essays on Labor and Politics. Ed. by Richard Schneirov, Shelton Stromquist, and Nick Salvatore. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1999. v, 258 pp. Ill. $49.95. ($18.95.)
The Pullman strike in June-July 1894 marked the culmination of two decades of the most severe and sustained labour unrest and conflict in American history. The eight essays in this collection, originating from a conference organized in September 1994 at Indiana State University, Terre Haute, offer an analysis of contemporary perceptions of the strike and examine the continuities and changes in labour organization, the influence of gender and community, the emergence of a new politics of progressive reform, the rise of a regulatory state, and the changes in the legal environment brought about by the strike.

Stowell, David O. Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877. [Historical Studies of Urban America.] The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1999. xii, 181 pp. Ill. $31.00. (Paper: $15.00.)
The Great Strike of 1877, one of the largest and most violent urban uprisings in American history, is generally seen solely as a massive labour strike that targeted the railroads. In this study, Professor Stowell argues that this rebellion should be examined more broadly to uncover its roots. Focusing on its origins in three cities in New York state, he concludes that the Great Strike was not just an uprising fuelled by workers' grievances over labour conditions, but that it also reflected the disruption and damage that urban residents experienced in their streets and neighbourhoods from the expanding railroads.

Vaught, David. Cultivating California. Growers, Specialty Crops, and Labor, 1875-1920. [Revisiting Rural America.] The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore [etc.] 1999. x, 280 pp. Ill. $45.50.
This study of the origins and rise of specialty crop farming and farm labour relations in California between 1875 and 1920 contends that the common characterization of specialty crop growers in monolithic terms as agricultural industrialists interested solely in cutting costs and maximizing profits does not apply to most of the growers. Examining the labour systems, recruitment methods, harvest needs, marketing strategies, farm size, and the growers' relationships with their communities, unions, and the state, Professor Vaught aims to show how the Californian "horticulturists" considered themselves guardians of a unique Californian culture of building thriving, prosperous communities and saw their horticultural ideal undermined over time by labour relations, market imperatives, and changing political conditions.

Woods, Clyde. Development Arrested. The Blues and Plantation Power in the Mississippi Delta. [The Haymarket Series.] Verso, London [etc.] 1998. x, 342 pp. Ill. £25.00.
This study offers an analysis of the political economy of the Mississippi Delta, the idiomatic region of the American plantation system, from its origins in the early nineteenth century until the present day. Dr Woods analyses the causes of social, economic, and political discrimination against the African-American majority, of their persistent poverty and of the resilience of white supremacy and the racist plantation regime until the present day, interweaving this analysis with an exploration of the origins of the Blues music in the Mississippi Delta as the discourse of a radical vision of social change.

ASIA

Afghanistan

Fayz, Muhammad. Kabul under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising. Transl., abridged, re-worked, and ann. by R.D. McChesney. [Princeton Series on the Middle East.] Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton 1998. xii, 308 pp. Ill. Maps. $49.95. (Paper: $22.95.)
In January 1929, the reigning monarch of Afghanistan was driven from his capital by an uprising, which was a reaction to the ruler's attempts to modernize the country's tribal culture. The fall of Kabul marked the end of the king's power and reforms and the beginning of the nine-month rule of the rebel Habib Allah over Kabul. This book is an abridged and annotated edition of the hitherto unpublished memoir of those nine months, kept by the contemporary well-known historian Fayz Muhammad, who depicts a society overwhelmed by ethnic, religious and gender violence, resulting in an amalgam of isolated microsocieties marked by gender, class and sectarian fault lines, a condition which has largely persisted until the present day.

China

Benton, Gregor. New Fourth Army. Communist Resistance Along the Yangtze and the Huai 1938-1941. [Chinese Worlds.] Curzon, Richmond 1999. xxiv, 949 pp. Ill. Maps. £75.00.
This voluminous study is a sequel to Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China, 1934-1938 (1992), in which Dr Benton related the lost history of the communist guerrillas left behind as a rearguard in southern China in 1934 to form the New Fourth Army from 1937 onward (see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 418). Here, the first three years of this New Fourth Army are dealt with, from June 1938 to the Wannan Incident in January 1941, in which the army's headquarters were destroyed, thereby leading to definitive realignment of its politics and an equalization with the Maoist Eighth Route Army. In these three years the army underwent distinctive changes, largely attributable to the unique political, military and social environment that the army encountered in the lower Yangtze region.

Kampen, Thomas. Die Führung der KP Chinas und der Aufstieg Mao Zedongs (1931-1945). [Universitätsreihe: Politik.] Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz GmbH, Berlin 1998. 116 pp. DM 39.00.
Mao Zedong's Long March (1934/1935) is generally regarded in Western historiography on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the beginning of his rise to the leadership of the CCP and the defeat of the Stalinist faction. Based on recent Chinese historiography and newly available source materials, this dissertation (Free University, Berlin, 1997) examines in detail the factional struggles in the CCP leadership between 1931 and 1945. Dr Kampen argues that Mao secured his position as the undisputed leader only in 1945, and that the hitherto prevailing two-faction model is too simplistic.

Lu, Hanchao. Beyond the Neon Lights. Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1999. xvii, 456 pp. Ill. $50.00.
"The purpose of this book is to portray the quotidian aspects of the lives of the people of Shanghai in the first half of the twentieth century, with particular attention to everyday life in the city's residential quarters." Professor Lu covers in this examination of everyday life in Shanghai three main underlying themes: (i) the character of urban-rural relations in modern China; (ii) what did it mean to the ordinary people of Shanghai to be a "Shanghairen", and what sense of community did they experience?; (iii) the appropriateness of Western-derived assumptions in fathoming daily life in Shanghai.

Ruf, Gregory A. Cadres and Kin. Making a Socialist Village in West China, 1921-1991. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1998. xix, 249 pp. Ill. $49.50; £30.00.
This book examines changing relationships between social organization, politics and economy in the rural village of Qiaolou, in the province of Sichuan, covering the period of the precommunist 1920s-1940s, the decades of collectivism under Mao and the present era of post-Mao reforms. Professor Ruf characterizes the local state regime as managerial corporatism. He aims to show that the close relationships among a core group of local cadres and their kin had their origins in the precommunist period, and that these ties were also critical in orchestrating village industrialization and corporate community building in the 1980s and 1990s.

Wang, Zheng. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment. Oral and Textual Histories. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 1999. xxii, 402 pp. Ill. $50.00; £40.00. (Paper: $18.95; £14.95.)
Aiming to deconstruct the myth of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the main agent of Chinese women's emancipation, this history of Chinese feminism during the May Fourth era (1915-1925) centres on the life stories of five women activists born in the early decades of the twentieth century. Thus, Dr Wang sets out to highlight the unique experience of May Fourth women and simultaneously, by using in her extensive introduction to these first-hand narratives a method of individualizing comparison, to elucidate the differences and similarities between Chinese and Euro-American women's struggle for liberation.

The Workers' State Meets the Market. Labour in China's Transition. Ed. by Sarah Cook and Margaret Maurer-Fazio. Frank Cass, London [etc.] 1999. v, 192 pp. £16.50.
The transformation of China's economy to a market-orientated one in the past decades has dramatically altered the terms of labour mobility and the emergence of a market-driven system of labour allocation, affecting the working environment and livelihoods of the Chinese people profoundly. The six essays in this volume analyse key elements of these effects, including the motivations of the rural population to migrate, the effect on rural-urban segmentation, sectoral labour allocation, and wage determination and the welfare implications.

India

The worlds of Indian industrial labour. Ed. by Jonathan P. Parry, Jan Breman [and] Karin Kapadia. [Contributions to Indian Sociology, Occasional Studies, vol. 9.] Sage Publications, New Delhi [etc.] 1999. xxxvi, 442 pp. £35.00.
Based on a conference held in Amsterdam in December 1997, the fourteen essays in this volume by anthropologists, sociologists and historians are concerned with various forms of industrial labour in twentieth-century India. The volume includes two contributions by Jan Breman that feature an overview of the study of postcolonial industrial labour in the formal and informal sectors (published in slightly different versions in IRSH, 44 (1999), pp. 249-300, and 451-484), as well as contributions by Dilip Simeon on the Jharia coalfields, by Chitra Joshi on textile workers in pre- and postcolonial Kanpur and by Samita Sen on women workers in the Bengal jute industry.

EUROPE

Anz, Christoph. Gilden im mittelalterlichen Skandinavien. [Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte, Band 139.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998. 326 pp. DM 72.00.
See Koen Goudriaan's review in this volume, pp. 94-98.

MacRaild, Donald M. Irish Migrants in Modern Britain, 1750-1922. [Social History in Perspective.] Macmillan Press Ltd, Basingstoke [etc.] 1999. x, 230 pp. £42.50.
This study aims to give a comprehensive overview of Irish immigration in Britain from 1750, when Ireland became an increasingly integral part of the United Kingdom, to 1922, when the Irish Free State was formed. Dr MacRaild focuses both on the causes of the emergence of a culture of mass emigration from the mid-nineteenth century onward and on the impact of massive Irish immigration on Britain, the relationship between the Irish and the British, and the long-lasting anti-Irish sentiment in Britain.

Martin, Andrew and George Ross with Lucio Baccaro, Anthony Daley, Lydia Fraile [a.o.] The Brave New World of European Labor. European Trade Unions at the Millennium. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 1999. xv, 416 pp. £16.50.
The last decades of the postwar "European model of society", characterized by negotiated labour-management relations, high labour standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation, have been challenged by lower economic growth, rising unemployment, accelerated European integration, and neoliberal policies. Using a common framework, the nine essays in this volume examine the responses of union movements to these challenges over the last two decades in Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, and Spain, as well as crossnationally at European Union level.

Mayer, Arno J. The Furies. Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2000. xvii, 716 pp. Maps. £22.00.
In this comparative study of violence and terror in the French and Russian Revolutions, Professor Mayer postulates that violence and terror are inextricably linked with revolution, just as civil and foreign war, collision between city and country and religious conflict are. Following the unfolding of the spiral of violence leading to terror in both revolutions, the author argues that ideologies and personalities did not control events, but that autonomous tides of violence and subsequent terror, fuelled by the resistance to revolution - both domestic and foreign - overwhelmed the actors.

Natoli, Claudio. Fascismo, democrazia, socialismo. Comunisti e socialisti tra le due guerre. [Studi e ricerche storiche.] FrancoAngeli, Milano 2000. 336 pp. L. 48.000; € 24.79.
This book comprises twelve essays, which, except for the first introductory essay, all appeared previously in, e.g., Storia contemporanea, Studi Storici and `Quaderni' della Fondazione G. Feltrinelli. They were published as part of an extended research project about the history of the workers' Internationals, the communist and socialist parties, and the antifascist movement between the two world wars. The common theme is the theoretical and political reorientation within the European and Italian labour movement during that period. The subjects covered include Dimitrov's role at the VIIth Congress of the Communist International, Jules Humbert-Droz and his relationship to the Italian communists, Gramsci and the Bolshevization of the communist movement and, finally, the influence of Austro-Marxism on the Italian socialists.

Pons, Silvio. L'impossibile egemonia. L'URSS, il PCI e le origini della guerra fredda (1943-1948). [Biblioteca di testi e studi, 101.] Carocci editore, Roma 1999. 240 pp. L. 39.000.
This book aims to reconstruct the relations between the USSR and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in the context of the Soviet foreign policy at the beginning of the Cold War (1943-1948). Based on his research in the Moscow archives since 1992, the author concludes that these relations were very complex, and that many materials necessary to understand the Soviet leadership's decision-making process remain unavailable. The archive of the PCI is also far from complete. Parts of the book contain edited versions of previously published articles and chapters from Dagli Archivi di Mosca (1998), noted in IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 336.

Le scissioni sindacali: Italia e Europa. A cura di Maurizio Antonioli, Myriam Bergamaschi [e] Federico Romero. [Biblioteca di cultura storica, 15.] Biblioteca Franco Serantini, Pisa 1999. xx, 289 pp. L. 35.000; € 18.08.
This collection encompasses fourteen contributions to a colloquium organized in 1998 by the Giuseppe di Vittorio research centre on the rifts in Italian and European trade unions during the Cold War. The contents are divided into three sections: the international dimension (France, Britain, Germany, Scandinavia), politics and economic policy in Italy, and ideology and culture in Italy. These rifts are generally attributed to external influences. People rarely understand that the trade unions have hardly ever been united. According to the editors, the rifts therefore arise from deeper contradictions than the ones that resulted from Cold-War conflicts.

Thurlow, Richard. Fascism. [Cambridge Perspectives in History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2000. vi, 114 pp. Ill. £6.95; $11.95.
This small textbook offers a very general introduction to the history of European fascism. Professor Thurlow covers theories of fascism and the lack of an agreed definition, traces the origins of fascism, and deals with Italian fascism under Mussolini and Hitler's Nazi Germany. He also considers fascist movements in other European countries, antifascism, and manifestations of fascism in different forms since the end of World War II.

Vree, Wilbert van. Meetings, Manners and Civilization. The Development of Modern Meeting Behaviour. Transl. by Kathleen Bell. Leicester University Press, London [etc.] 1999. xiv, 370 pp. Ill. £55.00.
Using the perspective of Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing processes and the research tradition of the Amsterdam School of historical sociology, this book examines the development of meeting behaviour in Western Europe, and especially in the Netherlands, from the Middle Ages onward. Defining the procedure in the broadest sense, the author argues that patterns of meeting behaviour arise from long-term processes of state formation. According to Dr van Vree, the Calvinists in the Dutch Republic devised a specific meeting behaviour and thus a "meeting class" with its own code of "meeting class manners".

Austria

Die Anfänge der demokratischen Bewegung in Österreich von der Spätaufklärung bis zur Revolution 1848/49. Eine kommentierte Quellenauswahl. Hrsg. von Helmut Reinalter [und] Anton Pelinka. [Demokratische Bewegungen in Mitteleuropa 1770-1850, Band 19.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt/M. 1999. 588 pp. S.fr. 111.00.
This source edition is the second of two volumes of edited source selections on the democratic movement in Austria and Germany between 1789 and 1848/1849, published in honour of both the 200th anniversary of the Austrian trials of Jacobins and the 150th anniversary of the 1848 Revolution. (For the volume on Germany, see below.) The first forty-eight texts, introduced by Helmut Reinalter, deal with the Jacobin movement in Austria and encompass drafts of constitutions, police reports, and songs. The second part, introduced by Ronald Bacher, addresses Austria between the post-1815 restoration and the 1848/1849 Revolution.

Eire - Ireland

Stradling, Robert. The Irish and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. Crusades in conflict. Mandolin, Manchester [etc.] 1999. xvi, 288 pp. Ill. Maps. £45.00. (Paper: £11.00.)
Unlike the English and the other inhabitants of the British Isles, Irish citizens were mainly pro-Franco at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Organized bodies of men departed for Spain from Ireland to fight on opposing sides in the Civil War: International Brigades volunteers, led by IRA warrior Frank Ryan, and members of semifascist "Blueshirts", commanded by General Eoin O'Duffy. This book examines the personal and ideological motives of the two groups of volunteers (relating them to the political and cultural background of Ireland in the 1930s), follows their marches across the Spanish battlefields, and assesses the meaning and significance of their sacrifices.

France

Andress, David. French society in revolution, 1789-1799. [New frontiers in history.] Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 1999. xxxii, 220 pp. £40.00. (Paper: £12.99.)
This textbook offers a chronological overview of the French Revolution with an emphasis on societal rather than political aspects and a focus on the run-up to 1789 and the processes of change that marked the early years of the Revolution up to the Terror. The author concludes that for French society as a whole the Revolution's developments brought about positive social changes for the vast majority of the French population. A small selection of translated documents and a bibliographic essay are appended.

Arnold, Georges. Dans la ville, des témoins. Histoire de l'ACO en Ile-de-France. Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières, Paris 1998. 160 pp. F.fr. 90.00.
Published in honour of its fiftieth anniversary in 2000, this is a short history of the Action Catholique Ouvrière (ACO), a Catholic trade union in the region of Ile-de-France. Based on interviews with many current and former activists, Mr Arnold sketches the rise of this Christian trade union according to some of the main labour events in Paris in this period, such as: the La Défense construction project, workers' struggles in the automobile industry and activism in the health care sector, and May 1968.

Coftier, Pierre. L'éveil d'un monde ouvrier, 1789-1919, Calvados. J'entends l'alouette qui chante... Editions Cahiers du Temps, Cabourg 1998. 168 pp. Ill. F.fr. 140.00.
This richly illustrated book for general readers sketches the emergence of an industrial working class and a labour movement in the Norman region of Calvados, from the end of the eighteenth to the early decades of the twentieth century. The author deals with changes in the various industrial sectors in the region (longshoremen, mining, textile, construction), the emergence of labour activism and organizations in these sectors, and the diverse social problems.

La Commune de Paris aujourd'hui. Sous la coord. de Jacques Zwirn. Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Editions Ouvrières, Paris 1999. 174 pp. F.fr. 98.00; € 14.94.
What is the historical significance of the Paris Commune of 1871 for those who refer to its ideals? In this booklet twenty-three individuals provide brief answers to this question on behalf of the organizations they represent. The respondents represent all movements of the French Left, from the Socialist Party to various Trotskyist organizations, from the assorted major French trade union confederations to the Protestant working-class youth, and from the Femmes Solidaires to the Grand Orient de France. The book also includes five poems written for this occasion, reprints of a few documents, and brief supplementary information about different topics concerning the Commune.

Crapez, Marc. Naissance de la gauche. Suivi de Précis d'une droite dominée. Préface de Guy Hermet. Éditions Michalon, Paris 1998. vi, 317 pp. F.fr. 110.00.
In this extended essay, Dr Crapez traces the origins of the distinction between Left and Right in French politics and ideological debates back to the Dreyfus Affair. According to the author, the Left/Right distinction does not originate from the French Revolution, as is commonly claimed, but entered the ideological and cultural debate only in the beginning of the twentieth century, when the formation of an ideological dominant Left was accomplished by abandoning nationalism and annexing socialism. The essay is complemented by a concise "handbook" of the dominated Right, in which the author analyses how the Left "traps" the Right in ideological respects.

Un demi-siècle de syndicalisme en France et dans l'Est. Sous la dir. de Dominique Andolfatto et Dominique Labbé. Presses Universitaires de Nancy, Nancy 1998. 189 pp. F.fr. 140.00.
On account of factors including the wave of labour unrest and protest in France in the autumn of 1995, the fifteen contributions in this collection deal with the present state of trade unionism, and the social, economic, and political role of the trade unions in present-day France. Three main themes are covered: the development of the support base and establishment of trade unions (both regionally and nationally), the organizations and activists, and trade-union actions and ideology in the 1990s.

Deux siècles de Droit du Travail. L'histoire par les lois. Sous la dir. de Jean-Pierre Le Crom. [Points d'appui.] Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières, Paris 1998. 287 pp. F.fr. 130.00.
This volume brings together the texts of eighteen of the principal labour laws in France, starting with le décret d'Allarde and la loi Le Chapelier from 1791, up to the rapport Auroux on workers' rights from 1981. The law texts are analysed by fifteen specialists, who aim to place the development and ultimate composition of each law in its political, economic, social, and juridical context, and to assess the law's influence on French society.

Dorigny, Marcel [et] Bernard Gainot. La Société des Amis des Noirs 1788-1799. Contribution à l'histoire de l'abolition de l'esclavage. [La Route de l'esclave.] Éditions UNESCO, Paris 1998. 429 pp. F.fr. 190.00.
This source edition brings together the proceedings of the discussions within the Société des Amis des Noirs (February 1788-June 1790), the first French abolitionist organization, and the minutes of the meetings of its successor, the Société des Amis des Noirs et colonies (November 1797-March 1799). The editors provide introductions to the origins and development of the two antislavery associations, emphasizing the international relations between abolitionist groups in the United States, England, and France.

Gemie, Sharif. French Revolutions, 1815-1914. An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1999. viii, 257 pp. £16.95.
This textbook aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to nineteenth-century France and the major and minor revolutions that shaped the development of French society in this era. In chronological sequence, Dr Gemie covers the Liberal Revolution of 1830, the working-class protest in Lyon in 1831, the monarchist rebellion in La Vendée in 1832, 1848, the Counter-revolution of 1851, the Commune, and the Dreyfus Affair. Selections of primary source material are provided at the end of each chapter, together with guides for additional reading.

Gourdot, Paul. Les Sources maçonniques du socialisme français 1848-1871. [Franc-Maçonnerie; Humanisme et tradition]. Editions du Rocher, Paris 1998. 313 pp. F.fr. 150.00.
See Jaap Kloosterman's review in this volume, pp. 93-94.

Les hommes du pneu. Les ouvriers Michelin à Clermont-Ferrand de 1940 à 1980. [Par] Lionel Dumond, Pierre Mazataud, Christian Lamy [et] Pascale Quincy-Lefebvre. Sous la dir. d'André Gueslin. [Collection mouvement social.] Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières, Paris 1999. Ill. Maps. 338 pp. F.fr. 140.00; € 21.34.
This volume is a sequel to the collection on the history of the world's oldest tyre company, which was published in 1993 (see IRSH, 40 (1995), p. 334). In this volume on the period 1940-1980, the same authors as in the first volume deal with the gradual disappearance of the paternalistic system of social security and labour relations in the factory that resulted from the rise of the French welfare system, and the paradoxical persistence of the related workers' culture.

Ouvriers en banlieue, XIXe-XXe siècle. Sous la dir. de Jacques Girault. Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières, Paris 1998. 448 pp. Maps. F.fr. 150.00.
The twenty-five contributions to this collection, based on three consecutive seminars in the years 1994-1997, deal with the development and characteristics of working-class life in the Parisian banlieues, from the middle of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries. The themes addressed include the transformation of the industrial suburbs into typical working-class, radical, and predominantly communist neighbourhoods; the economic conditions, living conditions and changes in the residential surroundings; gender relations in the banlieues; working-class struggle; and cultural and representational aspects.

Rebérioux, Madeleine. Parcours engagés dans la France contemporaine. [Socio-Histoires.] Belin, Paris 1999. 543 pp. F.fr. 190.00.
This is an anthology of the work of the well-known French labour historian Professor Rebérioux. Spanning her entire career, the collection brings together twenty-eight texts, previously published between 1961 and 1998. Encompassing both polemic and synthesizing essays, contributions to colloquia, and edited documents, the texts are grouped around four main themes in her work: socialism in its multiple forms and manifestations, men and women active in trade unionism and politics, Jean Jaurès, and the Dreyfus Affair.

Sacker, Richard. A Radiant Future. The French Communist Party and Eastern Europe 1944-1956. Ed. and with a pref. by Michael Kelly. Peter Lang, Bern [etc.] 1999. 344 pp. S.fr. 70.00.
The French Communist Party (PCF) was one of the strongest in the world communist movement after World War II, and as such internationally influential in East-West politics. This study examines the positions of the PCF on political and social developments in Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1956, focusing on the emergence of the popular democracies in Eastern Europe in 1944-1948, and the uprisings in Czechoslovakia and East Germany in 1953 and in Poland and Hungary in 1956. The late Dr Sacker concludes that the approach of the PCF was shaped, not only by Cold-War antagonism and slavish adherence to the Moscow line, but also by the domestic context of the French labour movement.

Shapiro, Gilbert and John Markoff, with contrib. by Timothy Tackett and Philip Dawson. Revolutionary Demands. A Content Analysis of the Cahiers de Doléances of 1789. Foreword by Charles Tilly. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1998. xxxi, 684 pp. $75.00; £45.00.
See Fred E. Schrader's review in this volume, pp. 91-93.

Les socialistes en Résistance (1940-1944). Combats et débats. Sous la dir. de Pierre Guidoni et Robert Verdier. Préface de Laurent Fabius. [Histoire, cultures et sociétés.] Seli Arslan, Paris 1999. 188 pp. F.fr. 125.00.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium organized in Paris in May 1998 that dealt with the role of French socialists in the resistance to the Nazi occupation during World War II. Four contributors consider the role of the party organization and party officials; four essays focus on the role of socialists in La France Libre; six contributions deal with socialists in the various resistance networks and in the maquis. Two personal testimonies from socialist members of the resistance, Robert Verdier and Charles Pot, conclude this collection.

Soubiran-Paillet, Francine. L'invention du syndicat (1791-1884). Itinéraire d'une catégorie juridique. [Droit et Société, Recherches et Travaux, 6.] Réseau Européen Droit et Société á la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris 1999. 189 pp. F.fr. 120.00; € 18.29.
This study examines the development of labour and trade union legislation in France from the décret d'Allarde and the loi Le Chapelier of 1791 to the law on trade union organization of 1884. From the perspective of the historical sociology of law, Dr Soubiran-Paillet sketches the chronological development of the regulation of labour activism and labour organization, and of labour legislation during this period, placing these movements in their social and political contexts. In the last two chapters, she focuses on the competing roles of sociologists and legal scholars in both the contemporary regulation of labour relations and organizations and the related historiography.

Taithe, Bertrand. Defeated flesh. Welfare, warfare and the making of modern France. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1999. xii, 292 pp. Ill. £49.00.
"The overall ambition of this book is to read the 1870 conflict through the lenses of medicine, humanity and social debates in order to reverse the common assumption that it is war that shapes all." In this study of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/1871 and the Commune of Paris, Dr Taithe focuses on the development of care and medicine, the role of medical professions and institutions (e.g. the Red Cross) and their pivotal importance in the formation of the modern French state in this watershed period of warfare and revolution.

Tartakowsky, Danielle. Nous irons chanter sur vos tombes. Le Père-Lachaise, XIXe-XXe siècle. [Collection historique.] Aubier, Paris 1999. 275 pp. F.fr. 140.00.
In this history of the famous Parisian cemetery, Le Père-Lachaise, from its foundation in 1804 throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Professor Tartakowsky examines the secular, Enlightenment ideals from which the graveyard originated and its evolution into a political symbol of commemoration, especially of the oppressed and the Left, most notably exemplified by the dead of the Commune.

Germany

Albrecht, Thomas. Für eine wehrhafte Demokratie. Albert Grzesinski und die preußische Politik in der Weimarer Republik. [Politik- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Band 51.] Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachfolger, Bonn 1999. 383 pp. Ill. DM 58.00; S.fr. 55.00; S 423.00.
This is a political biography of Albert Grzesinski (1879-1947), social-democratic member of the Prussian parliament, Secretary of the Interior and head of the Berlin police during the extended period (1919-1932) of social-democratic political administration in Prussia. Dr Albrecht examines Grzesinski's political career to illustrate how in the Weimar Republic, a classic case of an unstable national democracy, a stable democratic system existed at the level of the largest of the German Länder. He attributes the stability in Prussia largely to the personalities of the leading social democrats, such as Grzesinski, who adopted realistic politics of power based on solid republican-democratic principles.

Die DDR-Geschichtswissenschaft als Forschungsproblem. Hrsg. von Georg G. Iggers, Konrad H. Jarausch, Matthias Middell und Martin Sabrow. [Historische Zeitschrift: Beihefte (Neue Folge), Band 27.] R. Oldenbourg Verlag, München 1998. viii, 450 pp. DM 138.00.
The twenty contributions in this volume, originating from a colloquium organized by the editor of the Historische Zeitschrift in May 1996 in Göttingen, aim to evaluate and reflect upon the historiography in the former GDR. GDR historiography and its scholarly and political merits have elicited heated debates since the reunification of the two Germanies, as it is an integral part of East-German heritage. The contributors address the chronological development of the GDR historiography, their personal experiences with GDR historiography, and its often inherent contrariety.

Die demokratische Bewegung in Deutschland von der Spätaufklärung bis zur Revolution 1848/49. Eine kommentierte Quellenauswahl. Hrsg. von Helmut Reinalter [und] Anton Pelinka. [Demokratische Bewegungen in Mitteleuropa 1770-1850, Band 25.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt/M. [etc.] 1998. 403 pp. Ill. Maps. S.fr. 79.00.
This source edition is the first of two volumes of edited source selections on the democratic movement in Austria and Germany between 1789 and 1848/1849, published in honour of both the 200th anniversary of the Austrian trials of Jacobins and the 150th anniversary of the 1848 Revolution. (For the volume on Austria, see above.) This volume features 129 texts on the Jacobins in Germany in the period 1789-1815, with an introduction by Hannsjürgen Geisinger and thirty-one texts on democratic trends in the German Vormärz, introduced by Wilfried Schatz. Pamphlets, proclamations, and statutes are included, as well as the correspondence of literary writers, such as Georg Büchner.

Doppelte Zeitgeschichte. Deutsch-deutsche Beziehungen 1945-1990. Hrsg. von Arnd Bauerkämper, Martin Sabrow [und] Bernd Stöver. Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachfolger, Bonn 1998. 455 pp. DM 58.00; S.fr. 55.00; S 423.00.
In this collection thirty-two contributors deal with the "double history" of German-German relations in the divided Germany between 1945 and 1990. The authors include well-known scholars, such as Werner Abelshauser, Norbert Frei, Ute Frevert, Helga Grebing, Ulrich Herbert, Konrad H. Jarausch, Jürgen Kocka, and Hans-Ulrich Wehler. The five main themes are the significance of the German division for the histories of the two Germanies; the patterns of perception and interpretation of the East-West conflict; a comparison of the milieus and identities of the Germanies; spaces for and legitimation of political resistance; and theoretical demands for the history of German-German relations.

Groh, Dieter. Emanzipation und Integration. Beiträge zur Sozial- und Politikgeschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung und des 2. Reiches. UVK Universitätsverlag Konstanz, Konstanz 1999. 576 pp. DM 68.00.
In this book the well-known historian of the German labour movement and German socialism, Dieter Groh, presents seven essays, previously published but revised and printed for the first time in German here, as well as a hitherto unpublished study that focuses predominantly on the political emergence of German social democracy from the mid 1890s until 1909. The contributions include his essays on the relation between intensification of labour and the rise of industrial conflict (1978), on the German Sonderweg (1983), on theory reception within German social democracy (1985), and on leadership and organizational problems in the German labour movement (1986).

Hüchtker, Dietlind. "Elende Mütter" und "liederliche Weibspersonen". Geschlechterverhältnisse und Armenpolitik in Berlin (1770-1850). [Theorie und Geschichte der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, Band 16.] Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1999. 310 pp. DM 68.00.
This dissertation (Technical University, Berlin, 1996) relates the changes in policy towards paupers and poverty in Berlin in the period 1770-1850 to evolving gender relations and progressive institutionalization and disciplinary control. Dr Hüchtker explores the everyday experience of beggars and paupers, considers changes in the concepts of poverty, pauperism, unemployment, and the spatial and social rearrangements with respect to pauperism and prostitution that occurred during in this period, and focuses on the emergence of concepts of immorality and debauchery in relation to poor women.

Jessen, Ralph. Akademische Elite und kommunistische Diktatur. Die ostdeutsche Hochschullehrerschaft in der Ulbricht-Ära. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 135.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999. 552 pp. DM 98.00.
This Habilitationsschrift (Free University, Berlin, 1997) examines the transformation of the professorial staff in the GDR in the period from 1945/1946 to 1968/1969 from a bildungsbürgerliche, fundamentally bourgeois academic elite, opposed to the communist regime, into a loyal, socialist intelligentsia. Dealing with the current changes in the academic professions, the polytechnics, universities, and academic institutions as arenas of social and political power, and the professorial staff as social elite, Dr Jessen concludes that the transformation was more conflict-ridden and protracted than the academic elite's loyalty to the regime in subsequent years suggests.

Krumpholz, Ralf. Wahrnehmung und Politik. Die Bedeutung des Ordnungsdenkens für das politische Handeln am Beispiel der deutschen Revolution von 1918-1920. [Studien zur Politikwissenschaft, Abteilung B, Band 90.] Lit, Münster 1998. viii, 509 pp. DM 69.90.
This dissertation (Münster, 1997) aims to analyse the causes of the actions by the German Majority Social Democrats of the MSPD, who in the period 1918-1920, allowed and used the reactionary Freikorps to exact a bloody repression of the revolutionary labour movements. Using a theoretical framework explaining the relationship between perception, the ideology of law and order, and political action, Dr Krumpholz argues that the MSPD leadership's perception and assessment of the political situation reflected its firm convictions that maintaining the political order was essential, and that the revolutionary movement would lead to chaos.

"Nach der Kristallnacht". Jüdisches Leben und antijüdische Politik in Frankfurt am Main 1938-1945. Hrsg. von Monica Kingreen. [Schriftenreihe des Fritz Bauer Instituts, Band 17.] Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 1999. 476 pp. Ill. DM 48.00; S.fr. 46.00; S 350.00.
This collection comprises sixteen contributions, thirteen of which are revised versions of presentations at a symposium, organized in the autumn of 1996, on the last years of the Jewish community in the city of Frankfurt from the Kristallnacht to 1945. The articles include two memoirs of women survivors, a list of all men deported to Dachau concentration camp in November 1938, as well as contributions on rescue operations to save Jewish children, Jewish self-help after that point, the relationship between the municipal authorities and national organizations in conducting the Jewish persecution, and forced labour performed by Jews in Frankfurt between 1938 and 1942.

Price, Morgan Philips. Dispatches from the Weimar Republic. Versailles and German Fascism. Ed. by Tania Rose. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 1999. xxiv, 220 pp. Ill. Maps. £20.00.
Two years after the publication of Dispatches from the Revolution: Russia 1916-18 (1997), noted in IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 146, this volume features Morgan Philips Price's dispatches and contemporary diary entries from 1919-1923, when he worked as a special correspondent for the Daily Herald in Weimar Germany. Price witnessed and reported on the aftermath of the November Revolution, the establishment of the Weimar Republic and the signing of the Versailles Treaty, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party and the street riots, and had interviews and meetings with leading protagonists, such as Rosa Luxemburg, Gustav Stresemann, and many others. Price's daughter provides, as in the earlier volume, the general introduction and linking passages.

Reif, Heinz. Adel im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. [Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte, Band 55.] R. Oldenbourg Verlag, München 1999. viii, 152 pp. DM 68.00. (Paper: DM 29.80.)
This concise textbook overview of the history of the nobility in Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is volume 55 in the ambitious series Encyclopaedia of German History. The author sketches the basic characteristics of the members of the German nobility, their economic position, and their political role. He then examines the main research topics and tendencies, and the perspectives of scholarly historical research on the nobility.

Die Revolution 1848/49 und die Tradition der sozialen Demokratie in Deutschland. Hrsg. von Bernd Faulenbach [und] Heinrich Potthoff. Klartext, Essen 1999. Ill. 132 pp. DM 24.80.
In March 1998 the Historical Commission in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) organized a conference in Berlin in honour of the 150th anniversary of the Revolution of 1848. The main themes included a reflection on historical context of 1848, trends in democracy in Germany since 1848, and the relevance of 1848 for contemporary politics and society. The nine contributions to this volume are edited versions of the papers presented at this conference by Johannes Rau, Reinhard Rürup, Klaus Tenfelde, Jürgen Kocka, Heinrich August Winkler, Markus Meckel, Gesine Schwan, and Gerhard Schröder, and contributions to the discussion by Klaus Schönhoven and Helga Grebing.

Die Revolution hat Konjunktur. Soziale Bewegung, Alltag und Politik in der Revolution von 1848/49. Hrsg.: Geschichtswerkstatt. Zusammengest. und bearb. von Margarete Lorinser und Roland Ludwig. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1999. 272 pp. DM 39.80.
The fifteen contributions in this collection, most of which originate from a colloquium organized in Karlsruhe in October 1997, deal with social movements in the Revolution of 1848/1849 in the region of Baden, and with the history of related political ideas and representations in this period. They include essays on the role of artisans and workers (Alfred Georg Frei), and of women (Diana Finkele) in the Revolution of 1848/1849, organizations of individuals in exile and refugees of 1848/1849 in Switzerland (Martin Leuenberger), and the influence of the English Revolution (1640-1660) on 1848 (Roland Ludwig).

Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Bearb. von Klaus Weinhauer. Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck. Überlieferung aus der Staatsverwaltung bis 1937. Bearb. von Otto Wiehmann. Indices Staatsarchiv Hamburg Teil 1 und 2, Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck sowie Staatsarchiv Bremen. Bearb. von Christian Schädlich. [Inventar zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung in den staatlichen Archiven der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Reihe C, Überlieferungen der Stadtstaaten, Band 2, Teil 2.] K.G. Saur, München 1999. xvii, 196 pp. DM 218.00; S.fr. 194.00; S 1591.00.
The first part of this inventory is the second part of a two-volume inventory of archival material on the history of the German labour movement, located in the state archives of the city of Hamburg (for the first part, see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 433). A revised introduction to both volumes is included. The second part of this inventory encompasses materials on the history of the German labour movement, located in the state archives of the city of Lübeck until 1937. This edition also features the indices to the two volumes on Hamburg and to the section on Lübeck, as well as to the volume on Bremen (see IRSH, 37 (1992), p. 437).

Szejnmann, Claus-Christian W. Nazism in Central Germany: The Brownshirts in "Red" Saxony. [Monographs in German History, vol. 4.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 1999. xxiv, 312 pp. $18.50; £12.95.
As Germany's most industrialized and urbanized region with the highest population, and as the cradle of the German labour movement, Saxony was, in the 1920s and 1930s, crucial to the rise of the Nazi party in national politics. There has, however, been very little research on Nazism in Saxony hitherto. This study aims to compensate for this shortcoming. Focusing on the complex relationship between Saxon society and Nazism, Dr Szejnmann identifies two basic milieus in Saxony: the socialist and the nationalist. He then examines how the Nazis recruited mass political support in both settings. A sociological profile of the Nazi leadership and membership and of NSDAP voters in Saxony appears in contributions by Detlef Mühlberger and Dirk Hänisch.

Wetzel, Walter. Industriearbeit, Arbeiterleben und betriebliche Sozialpolitik im 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Untersuchung der Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen von Industriearbeitern am Beispiel der chemischen Industrie in der Region Untermain. [Europäische Hochschulschriften: Reihe V, Volks- und Betriebswirtschaft, Band 2313.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt/M. [etc.] 1998. 353 pp. S.fr. 75.00.
This dissertation (Mainz, 1998) examines the spectacular rise of the chemical industry in the region of the lower Main, Germany, from the 1860s onward. Dr Wetzel, who worked from the mid 1950s until his retirement in 1985 at one of the large remaining chemical firms in the region, covers the changes in working and living conditions among the workers and the rest of the population in relation to the environmental risks of the new industry, and the emerging labour movement in relation to the extensive social policy measures of the newly developing companies.

Great Britain

Ashton, Owen and Stephen Roberts. The Victorian Working-Class Writer. Cassell, London [etc.] 1999. viii, 164 pp. Ill. £45.00.
This study features biographical portraits of eight working-class literary writers in the Victorian era: Joseph Robson, Thomas Miller, William Thom, John Leatherland, Robert Maybee, Noah Cooke, John Bedford Leno, and Ben Brierley. Dr Ashton and Dr Roberts address the role of patrons and publishers, the self-help networks which enabled writing careers to continue in the face of class prejudices, the amount of money artisan writers made, and the extent to which earning an income altered their social identities. In the appendix, extracts from poems and prose by these writers are reproduced.

Chadwick, Andrew. Augmenting Democracy. Political movements and constitutional reform during the rise of Labour, 1900-1924. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 1999. xi, 285 pp. £42.50.
Inspired by the recent revisionism of British social and political history, this study analyses the relations between radical liberalism, labourism, socialism and feminism in the period 1900-1924 by examining how these groups discussed three distinct constitutional issues: the House of Lords, suffrage, and proportional representation. Dr Chadwick argues that the importance of constitutional reform has been largely underestimated thus far, and that radical liberalism, labourism, socialism, and feminism were intertwined in a discourse that he labels as "radical constitutionalism", a discourse of reform that was crucial in shaping the Left's identity right through the 1920s.

Goldberg, Alf. World's End for Sir Oswald. Portraits of Working-Class Life in Pre-War London. The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes (Sussex) 1999. 106 pp. Ill. £10.95.
In these memoirs the British trade union and Labour Party activist, Alf Goldberg, focuses on his working-class youth in poverty in the London district of Chelsea during the 1930s. This area, nicknamed the "World's End", was also the location of the headquarters of the largest British fascist movement, led by Sir Oswald Mosley. The author recounts the strong ghetto-like community bonds among the working class in the neighbourhood and his own involvement in the struggle against Mosley's "Blackshirts".

Gorsky, Martin. Patterns of Philanthropy. Charity and Society in Nineteenth-Century Bristol. [The Royal Historical Society studies in history. New series.] The Boydell Press, Woodbridge [etc.] 1999. xiv, 274 pp. Ill. £40.00; $75.00.
This study of voluntarism and voluntary provision in the city of Bristol between 1800 and 1870 focuses on the long-established endowed charities, on the newer benevolent associations, and on the decline of the former and related rise of the latter. This transition reflects, according to the author, a loss of faith in the closed corporate structures of the early modern city. Dr Gorsky further examines the city's many voluntary organizations and societies, tracing their roots in the eighteenth century, sketching their development up to 1870, and analysing the social impact of their activity.

The Impact of New Labour. Ed. by Gerald R. Taylor. Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.]; St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York 1999. xiv, 251 pp. £45.00.
The fifteen essays in this volume aim to present an up-to-date critical assessment of the phenomenon of "New Labour" in Britain. The contributions analyse the impact of the "modernizers" within the British Labour Party in three crucial areas: changes within the Labour Party itself, the reformation of the British state, and the influence on public policy in the areas of the economy, gender relations, European union relations, relations with the trade unions, and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Pooley, Colin G. and Jean Turnbull. Migration and mobility in Britain since the eighteenth century. UCL Press, London [etc.] 1998. xix, 419 pp. £18.95.
See Jan Kok's review in this volume, pp. 88-91.

A Thing of the Past? Child Labour in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Ed. by Michael Lavalette. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1999. x, 278 pp. £30.00. (Paper: £14.95.)
Work remains important in the lives of millions of British children nowadays. The ten contributions to this volume address three chief themes: the theoretical context of child labour research; continuities and changes associated with child labour in Britain over the past two hundred years, examinations of the types of jobs performed by children and labour conditions in different periods of history and lines of work; and contemporary issues, such as the present state of knowledge about the extent and form of child labour in modern Britain compared with the United States.

Walton, John K. Chartism. [Lancaster Pamphlets.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1999. x, 86 pp. £6.99.
This small textbook aims to introduce the Chartist movement and examine the controversial historiographical debates about the topic. Professor Walton deals with the Chartists' economic, legislative and political goals, the patterns and variations of regional and local Chartist support, and the languages of Chartism, and assesses the success of Chartism in light of its goals and its influence on the Poor Law, Corn Laws, trade unions, and factory reform.

Welfare Policy in Britain. The Road from 1945. Ed. by Helen Fawcett and Rodney Lowe. [Contemporary History in Context.] Macmillan, in assoc. with Institute of Contemporary British History, Basingstoke [etc.]; St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York 1999. xi, 226 pp. £45.00.
The ten essays collected in this volume address two general sets of questions: how is the welfare state in Britain best analysed, and should the traditional analyses be broadened to cover industrial relations, race, and the philosophical debate over the definition of equality? Second, should current welfare state policy be informed by a greater sense of history? Included are both broad surveys on issues such as inequality, redistribution and living standards since 1945, and detailed case studies of, for example, the "rediscovery" of poverty in the 1960s and the construction of an "underclass".

Wightman, Clare. More than Munitions. Women, Work and the Engineering Industries, 1900-1950. [Women and Men in History.] Longman, London [etc.] 1999. viii, 207 pp. £14.99.
Taking women's employment in the engineering industries in Britain between 1900 and 1950 as her focus, Dr Wightman analyses in this study the complexity of women's working lives and the role of gender in explaining the experiences of women and men at work. Women, according to the author, figured prominently as workers, not only in munitions and weapons production during the World Wars, but also in the newly-emerging manufacturing industries that played a key role in producing mass consumer goods. Looking at women's relations with employers and trade unions, she examines the changes in the concepts of "women's work" and "women's pay".

Wingerden, Sophia A. van. The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928. Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.]; St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York 1999. xxvi, 227 pp. £42.50.
This textbook gives a chronological overview of the major events, themes and problems of the British suffrage movement from its beginnings in 1866 to its conclusion in 1928. It focuses on the aspects of the movement's history that have, according to the author, received insufficient attention in historiography thus far, such as the relationship between the suffragettes and the courts and the effect of World War I on the suffrage movement.

Wood, Andy. The Politics of Social Conflict. The Peak Country, 1520-1770. [Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1999. xvi, 354 pp. Maps. £45.00; $74.95.
This study is a detailed reconstruction of economic and social change, as well as change in cultural meanings of diverse phenomena, such as custom, gender, locality, skill, literacy, orality, and magic, in the region of the Peak Country in Derbyshire from around 1520 to 1770. According to Dr Wood, this local history of social conflict offers important insights into early modern social and gender identities, Civil-War allegiances, the appeal of radical ideas, and the making of the English working class. The author challenges the idea that early modern England was a hierarchical, "preclass" society.

Italy

Peregalli, Arturo [e] Mirella Mingardo. Togliatti guardasigilli 1945-1946. In appendice: circolari e documenti. Colibrì, Paderno Dugnano (Mi) 1998. 127 pp. L. 16.000.
The first few Italian governments following World War II included members of the Communist Party as a result of the old popular front policy and the desire to play a constructive and innovative role in Italian politics with other democratic forces. Togliatti referred to a "progressive democracy" in this respect. From 1944 until 1945 he was a minister without portfolio, and from 1945 to 1946 he served as the Minister of Justice. This book covers his crucial term as Minister of Justice during the period of legal restoration in Italy. Several circulars from the Ministry of Justice and other documents conclude the book.

Peregalli, Arturo [e] Sandro Saggioro. Amadeo Bordiga. La sconfitta e gli anni oscuri (1926-1945). Colibrí, Paderno Dugnano (Mi) 1998. 264 pp. L. 28.000.
This is the political biography of Amadeo Bordiga (1889-1970), one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. After an introduction that conveys Bordiga's disapproval of the Russian Communist Party's politics, the biography deals with Gramsci's victory over the left wing of the PCI, which was represented by Bordiga, at the clandestine Party Congress in Lyon in 1926. This marked the start of the party's Bolshevization, which led to Bordiga's exclusion. His activities on the Executive Committee of the Communist International, his imprisonment, and the war years are described in detail as well.

Studi sul lavoro. Scritti in onore di Gino Giugni. Tomo 1. Tomo 2. Cacucci Editore, Bari 1999. 1769 pp. (in 2 vols). L. 200.000 per vol.
This voluminous liber amicorum for Gino Giugni features seventy-nine contributions, of which most are in Italian and a few in English, French, German or Spanish. Giugni (1927) read law at the University of Genoa and subsequently attended the University of Wisconsin. He studied under Selig Perlman, whose works he translated into Italian. After specializing in labour law, he was a professor at various universities in Italy and abroad. Giugni was also an advisor to various ministers and was elected to represent the Socialist Party in the Senate in 1983. The contributions in this book cover a broad range encompassing labour law, labour relationships, and social insurance law.

The Netherlands

Gans, Evelien. De kleine verschillen die het leven uitmaken. Een historische studie naar joodse sociaal-democraten en socialistisch-zionisten in Nederland. Vassallucci, Amsterdam 1999. 1027 pp. Ill. D.fl. 69.00.
This dissertation (University of Amsterdam, 1999) examines Dutch social-democratic Jews and their shifting identification with the socialist movement on the one hand and, under the influence of major political shifts and calamities, their personal passions and preoccupations with Judaism and Zionism on the other. Focusing on the period between the Machtsübernahme in Germany and 1949, Dr Gans examines these shifts in the identity of Jewish socialists and socialist Zionists by sketching biographical portraits of ten Dutch Jews who figured prominently in the social-democratic or Zionist movements and by portraying both the social-democratic and the Zionist or Jewish circles and organizations in which they were involved.

Meilof, Jan. Een wereld licht en vrij. Het culturele werk van de AJC 1918-1959. Stichting beheer IISG, Amsterdam 1999. 648 pp. Ill. D.fl. 49.50.
This richly illustrated book aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the youth culture and the many facets of cultural activities within the Dutch social-democratic youth organization, the Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC), from its origins in 1918 to its dissolution in 1959. The author, who was active in the AJC following World War II, situates the youth culture of the AJC within the broader context of an emerging socialist counterculture, as it positioned itself toward the dominant bourgeois and mass culture.

Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Ashwin, Sarah. Russian workers. The anatomy of patience. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 1999; distr. excl. in the USA by St. Martin's Press, New York. xii, 202 pp. £40.00.
Based on an ethnographic case study of workers in a South Kuzbass coal mine in the 1990s, this book analyses the causes of the Russian workers' apparent apathy and patience in the face of the catastrophic decline in living standards, loss of security, wage delays of six months or more, and failing democratization after the fall of the Soviet regime in 1991. In her analysis, Dr Ashwin focuses on the forms of social integration fostered within the Soviet and post-Soviet enterprise, and on the barriers that have prevented trade unions from representing workers' interests effectively during the transition.

Fondy Russkogo Zagranicnogo istoriceskogo archiva v Prage. Mezarchivnyj putevoditel'. Otv. red. T.F. Pavlova. [Federalnaja archivnaja sluzba Rossii/Gosudarstvennyj Archiv Rossijskoj Federacii.] ROSSPEN, Moskva 1999. 671 pp. Ill.
From 1924 until the start of World War II, at the RZIA (Russian Foreign Historical Archive) in Prague, a vast and illustrious collection of archives, books, and periodicals was gathered from and about Russian emigration before and after the Revolution. After the war, at the instigation of the NKVD and following an official donation from the Czech government, the archives (which filled nine train wagons) were brought to the Soviet Union and placed in the archive of the October Revolution. Over the years the collections were distributed among twenty-six archival institutions and largely remained closed until 1988. GARF (The State Archive of the Russian Federation) has traced most of these archives and described them in this guide.

Getty, J. Arch and Oleg V. Naumov. The Road to Terror. Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. Transl. by Benjamin Sher. [Annals of communism.] Yale University Press, New Haven [etc.] 1999. xxvii, 635 pp. Ill. £22.50.
This documentary study assembles 199 partial and complete documents from the period between 1932 and 1939 obtained from formerly closed Soviet archives and related to the Stalinist purges: dossiers on the liquidated Soviet elite, police reports on peasant unrest, private letters from victims and purgers, and secret transcripts of the Central Committee. The editors deal with the unfolding terror chronologically, introducing each of the distinctive periods. In his general introduction, Professor Getty recants his earlier opinion that Stalin is to be seen as the bureaucratic moderator of a carefully planned process of annihilating opposition. The editors conclude from these documents that the astronomically high estimates of many millions of victims are unfounded: instead, they estimate that the purges led to 1.5 to 2 million excess deaths.

Hartley, Janet M. A Social History of the Russian Empire 1650-1825. [A Social History of Europe.] Longman, London [etc.] 1999. xi, 312 pp. £42.00. (Paper: £14.99.)
In this survey of the social history of the early-modern Russian Empire, the first volume in a new series of textbooks on the social history of Europe, Dr Hartley deals with two major themes: the relationship between society and the state, and the degree of stratification and diversity between and within social groups. "This book assesses the degree to which change took place as a result of government policies and the extent to which these changes affected distinctions between social groups."

Petrov, Nikita Vasil'evic i Konstantin Vladislavovic Skorkin. Kto rukovodil NKVD, 1934-1941. Spravocnik. Pod red. N.G.Ochotina i A.B.Roginskogo. [Obscestvo "Memorial", RGASPI, GARF.] Zven'ja, Moskva 1999. 504 pp.
This reference book describes the structure and composition of the central apparatus of the NKVD, a forerunner of the KGB, and its local organs in the period 1934-1941. It includes photographs, short biographies, and curricula vitae of over 500 leading figures. Several tables offer a breakdown by social origins, political orientation prior to the Revolution, education, and nationality. The book reflects over two decades of work, first involving publications in the local and national press and, after 1990, based on opened archives, especially those of the KGB and the CPSU.

Rogovin, Vadim Z. 1937. Stalin's Year of Terror. Transl. by Frederick S. Choate. Mehring Books, Inc., Oak Park (Mich.) [etc.] 1998. xxx, 550 pp. Ill. $29.95.
In this first study of the Stalinist terror by a Russian Marxist historian to be translated into English, Dr Rogovin aims to give a detailed analysis of the causes, impact, and consequences of Stalin's purges from the first show trial in August 1936 to the June Plenum of the Central Committee in 1937. The author argues that the principal aim of the terror was the physical annihilation of the substantial socialist opposition to Stalin's bureaucratic regime, and that the influence of Leon Trotsky on this socialist opposition was far more crucial than most contemporary historians acknowledge.

Sandle, Mark. A short history of Soviet socialism. UCL Press, London [etc.] 1999. xii, 461 pp. £13.95.
This textbook aims to give a comprehensive survey of the changing character of Soviet socialism from the 1917 Revolution to the collapse of communism in 1991, focusing on the complex relationship between ideas and political practice in the USSR. After an overview of the historiographical debates, Dr Sandle sketches the emergence, establishment and demise of orthodox models of socialism from Lenin to Brezhnev, and their replacement under Gorbachev by the concept of humane democratic socialism. Gorbachev's radical departure from his predecessors and the enormous changes to the Soviet model are examined in detail.

Smith, Douglas. Working the Rough Stone. Freemasonry and Society in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 1999. x, 257 pp. Ill. £29.95.
Freemasonry was one of the first widespread social movements in Russia and profoundly influenced Russian society, according to the author of this study of eighteenth-century Russian freemasonry. Examining the origins and rise of freemasonry, the private world of the masonic lodges and the significance of the brothers' rituals and practices, Dr Smith uses the history of freemasonry as a prism through which the birth of a modern civil society can be viewed.

Stanziani, Alessandro. L'économie en révolution. Le cas russe 1870-1930. [L'Évolution de l'Humanité.] Albin Michel, Paris 1998. 519 pp. F.fr. 185.00.
This study explores the changing political, theoretical and social role of economists in the beginning of the twentieth century by analysing the theories of Russian economists and their intellectual influence and political role between the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the forced collectivization under Stalin in 1929. Focusing on the political economy of A.V. Tchajanov and his generation, Professor Stanziani shows how their Utopian theories of family economy suffered the worst abuse from the needs of the government officials for statistical economic techniques to serve their political objectives, resulting in a purely instrumental political application of economic theory.

Workers and Intelligentsia in Late Imperial Russia: Realities, Representations, Reflections. Ed. by Reginald E. Zelnik. [Research Series, Nr 101.] University of California, Berkeley 1999. xi, 349 pp. $24.50.
The fourteen contributions to this volume are based on a selection of the papers presented at a colloquium on workers and intelligentsia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, held in St Petersburg in June 1995. The themes dealt with are: ideals, self-identification and mentality of Russian workers in this period; workers in the social movement, and the relationship between workers and the intelligentsia and the images they held of each other. Three of the essays were previously published: S.A. Smith's contribution on workers, intelligentsia, and social democracy in St Petersburg appeared as part of a larger study of St Petersburg and Shanghai in IRSH, 41 (1996), pp. 1-56.

Spain

Alexander, Robert J. The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Janus Publishing Company, London 1999. xxix, 1468 pp. (in 2 vols.) £16.95 per vol.
In this two-volume work, Professor Alexander aims to address all aspects of the anarchists' participation in the Spanish Civil War. The subjects covered include a presentation of the ideological background of Spanish anarchism and of the various organizations which constituted the Spanish anarchist or libertarian movement, an exploration of the anarchists' role in the republican armed forces, the anarchists' organization of much of the rural economy in republican Spain, the emergence of anarchist collectives in the industrial sectors, the political role of the anarchists at the national and regional levels, and the ultimate defeat of anarchism as a factor in the republican politics of the Stalinists. In the appendices, the author focuses on the anarchists' use of violence - particularly against the Catholic Church - and on the Spanish anarchists' relations with international anarchist organizations, and offers a list of leading contemporary anarchist figures.

Bullón de Mendoza, Alfonso [y] Álvaro de Diego. Historias orales de la guerra civil. [Ariel Historia.] Editorial Ariel, S.A., Barcelona 2000. 285 pp. Ptas. 2.200.
Between 1991 and 1998 the author of this book asked his students at the San Pablo-CEU school of journalism to interview their family members about their experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Altogether, 943 individuals were surveyed. Although the San Pablo-CEU is an elite Catholic university, many parents and grandparents of the students belong to the working class and include a considerable share of republicans. The author inserted their answers to questions covering myriad aspects of daily life into his thematically structured argument. The final chapter renders the songs from both sides.

Marimon Riutort, Antoni. Entre la realitat i la utopia. Història del PSM. Pròleg de Miquel Duran Pastor. [Menjavents 28.] Edicions Documenta Balear, Palma 1998. 269 pp. Ill. Ptas. 2.000.
This book reviews the history of the Partit Socialista de Mallorca based on its ideological evolution and electoral support. This regional party is to the left of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), which is much larger on Mallorca. Its effort to merge with the PSOE was unsuccessful. In 1976, upon its establishment, the party recruited its members from former communists, leftist socialists, independents and Mallorcan nationalists. Though initially highly focused on regional autonomy, the party became more open after the 1980s and pursued a balance of nationalism, progressiveness, and ecologism. The book, written in Balearic Catalan, concludes with a documentary and illustrated appendix about the party press and other subjects.

Maza, Elena. Pobreza y benificencia en la España contemporánea (1808-1936). [Ariel Practicum.] Editorial Ariel, S.A., Barcelona 1999. 251 pp. Ill. Ptas. 1.500.
Most of this book consists of documents that offer a chronologically-presented impression of legislation and social ideas about poverty and poverty relief from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the end of the Civil War. It also includes testimonies, petitions, and articles of association of charitable organizations. The editor, who specializes in the history of poverty, charity, and social security in Spain, a field of history that began to thrive only after the fall of the Franco dictatorship, has contributed an introductory essay on poverty, social work, and charity.

Nash, Mary. Rojas. Las mujeres republicanas en la Guerra Civil. Trad. de Irene Cifuentes. [Pensamiento.] Taurus, Madrid [etc.] 1999. 258 pp. Ill. Maps. Ptas.
This is the Spanish translation of Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War (1995) (see IRSH, 42 (1997), p. 519). The Spanish version, which has been adapted for Spanish readers, contains substantial revisions with respect to the original English edition.

Payne, Stanley G. Fascism in Spain, 1923-1977. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison [etc] 1999. xii, 601 pp. Ill. £51.95. (Paper: £15.95.)
This study aims to offer a comprehensive history of Spanish fascism, treating all the major doctrines, personalities, and defining features of the Spanish fascist movement from its origins in 1923 until the death of Franco in 1977. Professor Payne, who published a Spanish version of this history in 1997 (see IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 148) describes the rise of the Falangist party, both prior to and during the Spanish Civil War, and analyses its transformation into the state party of the Franco regime, as well as its ultimate conversion into the pseudofascist Movimiento Nacional.

Solano, Wilebaldo. El POUM en la historia. Andreu Nin y la revolución española. Los Libros de Catarata, Madrid 1999. 287 pp. Ill.
This collection comprises thirteen previously published articles about the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (1935) and Andreu Nin, who was assassinated during the Stalinist campaign against the POUM in 1937. The work also features eleven brief portraits of individuals who figured prominently within or with respect to the POUM. Members of the Fundación Andreu Nin helped the author select and revise the articles. Wilebaldo Solano (1916) joined the party's youth movement, Juventud Comunista Ibérica, when he was very young and served on the Executive Committee of the POUM as the secretary general. Many of the articles reflect his personal experiences. A report from Luigi Longo and letters from Trotsky and from POUM members imprisoned during the Civil War are included in an appendix.

MULTIMEDIA

Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français. Le Maitron. Cédérom sous la dir. de Claude Pennetier. Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières, Paris 1997. [1 cd-rom and user's manual.] F.fr. 3.000 for individuals, for network use from F.fr. 8.500 up. [System requirements: Multimedia Pentium PC, with double speed cd-rom drive, Windows 3.1 or higher, 16 Mb RAM and 4 Mb free space on hard disk; or Macintosh, 68020 processor or higher, 16 Mb RAM and 5 Mb free space on hard disk.]
In 1997 volume 44 of the Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français was published as the provisional conclusion to the impressive series of biographical dictionaries of the French labour movement between 1789 and 1939 (see IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 523). Simply named Le Maitron, after its initiator and editor Jean Maitron (1910-1987), the project was launched in 1955 and the first volume published in 1964 (see IRSH, 9 (1964), p. 335). Together with the final volume, Les Éditions de l'Atelier/Les Éditions Ouvrières issued this CD-Rom in 1997, which contains a database featuring all the biographical entries of the series, together with the ones on militants of the period 1940-1968, which were included in the separate volume published in 1996 on the trade-union movement of the gaziers and électriciens (see IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 132).
The interface of the CD-Rom is arranged according to the same four chronological sections as the book edition: 1789-1864, from the French Revolution to the foundation of the First International; 1864-1871, the First International and the Commune; 1871-1914, from the Commune to World War I; and 1914-1940, from World War I to World War II. Its additional features comprise a general multimedia introduction to Le Maitron and its origins and a multimedia presentation of the history of the trade-union movement of the gaziers and électriciens. Many of the existing entries were revised, in part to reflect materials from the recently opened Moscow archives, and some 7,000 new, complementary entries were added to the CD-Rom. The largest increase in the number of entries (ca. twenty-four per cent) was for the first period (1789-1864).
The interface on the CD-Rom's opening screen allows users to select the general, multimedia introduction, the presentation on the history of the gaziers and électriciens, or the general search interface for the actual database, which starts the search programme. In the presentation section of the search programme, users may consult the various documents that introduce the series: Introduction comprises Jean Maitron's general introduction and methodological foundation of the dictionary, and the introductions to the four periods (including additional information by the editors of the CD-Rom); Genèse provides access to the foreword to the CD-Rom version of the dictionary and an article on the background, history, and future of Le Maitron, by the general editor of the CD-Rom, Claude Pennetier, "Le dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français entre passé et avenir", previously published in Michel Dreyfus, Claude Pennetier and Nathalie Viet-Depaule (eds), La Part des Militants. Biographie et mouvement ouvrier: Autour du Maitron, Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français (Paris, 1996), pp. 331-352; Clés contains the user instructions, as published in the book edition, subdivided according to the four periods, including lists of references and lists of abbreviations; there is also a complete listing of the 450 contributors and credits for the editors and of the CD-Rom, as well as a separate entrance to the part on the gaziers and électriciens, with the introduction and the chronology from the book version.
The search interface's menu contains several options under the search item, which enable users to search for people by name, place, profession, ideological orientation and other criteria. The index option allows for searches with truncated search strings. In addition to the obvious search options, the Corpus option lets users select from among five predefined categories of activists: volunteers in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War; women; elected city council members of Paris and the banlieues between 1919 and 1940; people who died during World War II because of their activism; and the gaziers and électriciens. All these search options can then be combined in advanced searches using the Boolean operators "AND", "OR" and "NOT". Hyperlinks are used in the biographical entries to refer to other persons described. Finally, a general chronology of the development of the French labour movement from 1789 to 1940 is included, from which users can hyperlink to the database. A clear introductory manual is included.
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