Volume 52 part 1 (April 2007)
Bibliography
General Issues
Continents and Countries
- Africa
Ethiopia | Guinea | Mauritius | South Africa | Sudan - America
Canada | Cuba | Mexico | United States of America - Asia
China | India | Japan | Pakistan - Australia and Oceania
Australia - Europe
Austria | Eire - Ireland | France | Germany | Great Britain | Italy | The Netherlands | Poland | Russia - USSR | Spain
Book descriptions consist of: author, title, publisher, place and year of publication, number of pages, original price; followed by a brief summary of the contents.
All listed books are available in the IISH library.
General Issues
SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCEKomter, Aafke. Social Solidarity and the Gift. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xi, 234 pp. £40.00; $65.00.
Bringing together sociological theory on solidarity and anthropological theory on gift exchange, Professor Komter explores in this study how the two theoretical traditions may explain transformations in solidarity. Based on empirical illustrations, she argues that solidarity over the past century has transformed from an "organic" type to a "segmented" type of solidarity. Autonomous social segments now connect with other segments, no longer out of necessity and mutual dependency but through individual choice. In the process, solidarity has become more noncommittal.
Looking Backward and Looking Forward. Perspectives on Social Science History. Ed. by Harvey J. Graff, Leslie Page Moch, Philip McMichael with Julia Woesthoff. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin 2005. xi, 235 pp. $65.00. (Paper: 24.95.)
In 2000, the Social Science History Association (SSHA) celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary conference in Pittsburgh in October 2000. The eleven contributions to this volume, based on this conference, explore the intellectual history of interdisciplinary social science and history as elaborated in the context of the SSHA. Included are contributions on historical demography and family history (James Z. Lee, with Richard H. Steckel), on changing conceptions of race and racial inequality (Michael K. Brown) and on perspectives on historical social sciences from the global south (Akhil Gupta, Fernando Coronil and Farshad Araghi).
The Network Society. A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Ed. by Manuel Castells. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham [etc.] 2004. xx, 464 pp. € 79.95.
Following his magnum opus, the three-volume series The Information Age, Professor Castells has brought together in this volume nineteen essays analysing what he has labelled as the network society in several different national and cultural contexts. Covering the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, China, India, Canada and Catalonia, the contributors examine the cultural and institutional diversity of the network society; its economy, including the place of labour; sociability and social structure; the Internet and public interest; networked social movements and informational politics; and the culture of the network society. In an afterword Rosalind Williams shares her views as a historian of technology on the network society.
A Radical History of Development Studies. Individuals, Institutions and Ideologies. Ed. by Uma Kothari. David Philip, Cape Town; Zed Books, London [etc.] 2005. viii, 232 pp. £55.00; $85.00. (Paper: £17.95; $27.50.)
The ten contributions to this volume aim to provide a critical analysis of the history of international development and the field of development studies from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Looking at the institutions, ideas and individuals associated with development issues and development studies, the contributors adopt a distinct radical perspective on the subject, including Marxist, feminist and postcolonial critiques of orthodoxies of development theory and practice.
Remaking Modernity. Politics, History, and Sociology. Ed. by Julia Adams, Elisabeth S. Clemens, and Ann Shola Orloff. [Politics, History, and Culture.] Duke University Press, Durham 2005. xii, 612 pp. £81.00. (Paper: £24.95.)
The seventeen essays in this collection represent a variety of theoretical orientations and understandings of what constitutes historical sociology. Taking stock of topics such as religion, war, citizenship, markets, professions, gender and welfare, colonialism, ethnicity, bureaucracy, revolutions, collective action and the modernist social sciences, the contributors aim to show the potential of what could be labelled as the third generation of historical sociology to transform perceptions of social and cultural change, and to demonstrate how current research builds on and challenges the work of previous generations. See also Marjolein 't Hart's review in this volume, pp. 143-146.
Wolin, Richard. The Seduction of Unreason. The Intellectual Romance with Fascism. From Nietzsche to Postmodernism. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2004. xxii, 375 pp. £19.95.
In this intellectual genealogy of postmodernism, Professor Wolin explores how German and French thinkers that have been important sources of inspiration for postmodern ideas - Jung, Gadamer, Bataille, Blanchot - all shared a proverbial "fascination with fascism" during the 1930s. He aims to show how the affinities between the Counter-Enlightenment between the world wars and postmodernism in the 1970s and 1980s in their mutual hostility toward reason and democracy confirm the maxim that the far left and the far right intersect on the same terrain.
HISTORY
Becquemont, Daniel et Pierre Bonte. Mythologies du travail. Le travail nommé. [Logiques Sociales.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 308 pp. € 25.80.
This study explores the significance attributed to work and the way work has been perceived from the origins of agriculture, through Antiquity, Christian ideology, the Enlightenment and the nineteenth century to the present. Professors Becquemont and Bonte trace the changes from the holistic view, in which rite and labour were experienced as one, to a more instrumentalist idea of work from Antiquity onward and towards increasing individualization of work, which found its zenith in the ideas of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. In the concluding part, the authors consider whether the "end of work" is imminent.
Demarco, Domenico. Sviluppo economico innovazione e politica sociale. Secoli XIX-XX. [Opere di Domenico Demarco.] Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli [etc.] 2004. x, 413 pp. € 33.00.
This is Part 13 of the collected works of Domenico Demarco (see IRSH, 49 (2004), p. 569). In the first of the nine essays, the author analyses the origins of economic growth and the inherent contradictions. Two of the following essays concern the social problems in the nineteenth century, and labour movements and the Depression years from 1929 to 1939. Three essays are about social aspects related to the European unification. One examines the role of technical innovation in the European metal industry (1952-1969). In the concluding essays, the author reviews how social policy has changed in industrialized nations since the eighteenth century and discusses social policy in the People's Republic of China (1949-1954).
The Disobedient Generation. Social Theorists in the Sixties. Ed. by Alan Sica and Stephen Turner, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2005. xiv, 368 pp. $62.00; £39.50. (Paper: $24.00; £15.50.)
In this volume, eighteen autobiographical essays are brought together from sociologists who came of age during the cultural revolution of the late 1960s and early 70s and all consider themselves to be "children of the '60s". Predominantly from the United States and Great Britain, they consider the impact of "the Sixties" on their development as individuals and scholars and on their political awareness. Included are essays by Andrew Abbott, Jeffrey C. Alexander, Michael Burawoy, Craig Calhoun, Patricia Hill Collins, Karen Schweers Cook, John A. Hall, Paolo Jedlowski, Hans Joas, Karin Knorr Cetina, Michael Maffesoli, William Outhwaite, Saskia Sassen, Laurent Thévenot, Bryan Turner, Steve Woolgar, Erik Olin Wright and the editors.
Famine and Fashion. Needlewomen in the Nineteenth Century. Ed. by Beth Harris. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. xiii, 274 pp. £49.95.
The fifteen contributions in this collection by authors from art history, literary and gender studies, labour history, business history and economic history adopt the figure of the needlewoman as their focal point in examining both the reality and the image in art and literature about women's work, education and living conditions among the working classes in general in the context of the rapidly changing economies of nineteenth-century Britain, North America and France.
Marchés, migrations et logiques familiales dans les espaces français, canadien et suisse, 18e-20e siècles. Éd. par Luigi Lorenzetti, Anne-Lise Head-König [et] Joseph Goy. Peter Lang, Bern [etc.] 2005. vii, 321 pp. Maps. € 49.60.
The general theme of this collection is the historical connection between family and social reproduction on the one hand and markets (for labour and land) and migration on the other hand. Featuring case studies from France, Switzerland and Canada from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, the eighteen contributions use social and economic as well as demographic sources and methods to explore how access to labour and land markets and mobility related to the living strategies of families.
Matory, J. Lorand. Black Atlantic Religion. Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. viii, 383 pp. Ill. £38.95.
In this historical and ethnographic study of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé religion, Professor Matory aims to show that transnationalism is a much older and more complex phenomenon than is often assumed. He examines how this religion, originally stemming from parts of West Africa, in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries has been shaped by and has itself driven a transnational flow of goods, people and ideas that has been bi-directional and has created a circum-Atlantic spiritual nation. He argues that, contrary to common interpretations of African religions, Candomblé has been led by well-travelled writers or merchants, whose interest in the religion was as much commercial as spiritual.
Tosstorff, Reiner. Profintern. Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale 1920-1937. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn [etc.] 2004. 791 pp. € 99.00.
This Habilitationsschrift (Mainz, 2004) aims to offer a comprehensive history of the Profintern, also known as Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale (RGI) or Red International of Trade Unions (RITU). Dr Tosstorff describes how the Profintern, founded in 1921 in Moscow, originally united various international strands of revolutionary trade unionists and acted as a counterpart to the social-democratic International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) but soon became the international communist trade union organization under strict Soviet control. From 1934 the Comintern People's Front policy allowed no further role for the Profintern, which then was quietly disbanded.
Über die trockene Grenze und über das offene Meer. Binneneuropäische und transatlantische Migrationen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Hrsg. von Mathias Beer [und] Dittmar Dahlmann. [Migration in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Band 1.] Klartext, Essen 2004. 371 pp. € 29.90.
The sixteen essays in this volume, based largely on papers presented at the first annual conference of the German Society for Historical Migration research, held in Blaubeuren, Germany in March 2000, discuss from a comparative perspective wide-ranging aspects of internal European and transatlantic migration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The introductory essay by Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen is the German translation of their introduction to the volume Migration, Migration History, History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (1997) (see IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 512). In the second and third parts, the migratory patterns on the European continent and within nation states are discussed, while the final part addresses transatlantic migration, primarily from Germany.
Yasutake, Rumi. Transnational Women's Activism. The United States, Japan, and Japanese Immigrant Communities in California, 1859-1920. New York University Press, New York, [etc.] 2004. x, 185 pp. £30.50.
"This book examines the spread of nineteenth-century Protestant churchwomen's social activism in the United States, Japan and Issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) communities in northern California, in the context of America's global expansion and Japan's imperialist aspirations between 1859 and 1920." Professor Yasutake focuses on American Protestant foreign and home missionary men and women and on the activists in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to show the complex ramifications of Anglo-American cultural imperialism, as well as gender relations and women's emancipation issues, in Japan, in immigrant communities in California and within the social movements involved.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Gray, Anne. Unsocial Europe. Social Protection or Flexploitation? Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2004. ix, 240 pp. £15.99.
Comparing labour market policies and social welfare systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium over the past two decades, Dr Gray analyses the changes in policies in the context of globalization and the progress of European integration and their effects on the daily lives of people who are unemployed or work at increasingly insecure and poorly paid jobs. She argues that the overall tendency is a shift from the idea of unemployment benefits as a right to the concept of benefits as a "workfare", closer to the American welfare regime.
Living Standards in the Past. New Perspectives on Well-being in Asia and Europe. Ed by Robert C. Allen, Tommy Bengtsson, and Martin Dribe. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2005. xxii, 472 pp. £79.00.
The seventeen essays in this collection explore and compare the standard of living in Europe and Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to explain why Europe experienced industrialization and modern economic growth before China, India, or Japan, and when this gap in living standards emerged. The contributors propose three types of answers. The first focuses on income, food production, wages and prices; the second compares demographic indicators; and the third combines the economic and demographic perspectives by investigating demographic vulnerability to short-term economic stress. The general conclusions are more indicative of similarities than of great divergence between East and West.
Scott, Rebecca J. Degrees of Freedom. Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2005. 365 pp. Ill. Maps $29.95; £18.95.
In this study the author compares post-emancipation societies in Louisiana and Cuba in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and considers the different ways these societies approached citizenship and race issues. Professor Scott examines the reasons why at the beginning of the twentieth century, Louisiana had disenfranchised former slaves and mandated racial segregation, whereas Cuba had universal male suffrage and a transracial conception of the nation. See also Jorge Giovannetti's review in this volume, pp. 150-156.
Transatlantic Rebels. Agrarian Radicalism in Comparative Context. Ed. by Thomas Summerhill and James C. Scott. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, Michigan 2004. x, 300 pp. $29.95.
The common perspective of the eleven essays in this collection is that of the ways in which agrarian people in the Atlantic world interacted with each other in the period from 1500 to the present. The contributions explore in a comparative context how people transmitted and translated ideas, developed new crops or methods or formulated critiques of the existing social, economic and political order. All authors agree that such exchanges were reciprocal, and that the Atlantic world should be conceptualized as a permeable space, in which ideas, cultivars and human beings could circulate freely, rather than as a rigid barrier between nations, peoples and cultures.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
The Future of Work in Europe. Ed. by Paul Littlewood, Ignace Glorieux [and] Ingrid Jönsson. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xi, 248 pp. € 45.00.
This third volume in a series originating from a European social scientists network comprises twelve contributions that explore and analyse recent trends and changes at the workplace in present-day Europe. Themes covered include youth unemployment, the increase in insecure and precarious employment relations, the growth of the service sector, the influence of European law, and the impact of international migration. Contributors explore developments in their socio-historical context, covering trends in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Union in general.
Lawson, George. Negotiated Revolutions. The Czech Republic, South Africa and Chile. Ashgate, Aldershot 2005. xi, 272 pp. £47.50.
In this study, Dr Lawson offers a comparative analysis of three variations of revolutionary transformations from authoritarian rule to market democracy at the end of the twentieth century: the Czech Republic, South Africa and Chile. In contrast to recent ideas of a diminishing role of revolutions in world politics since the demise of Soviet communism, the author argues that radical, revolutionary social and political change remains an important element in contemporary world affairs, and that on a theoretical level the study of revolutionary political and socioeconomic change remains valid. See also Howard Wiarda's review in this volume, pp. 146-148.
The Reemergence of Self-Employment. A Comparative Study of Self-Employment Dynamics and Social Inequality. Ed. by Richard Arum and Walter Müller. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2004. xvii, 466 pp. £19.95.
The thirteen contributions to this volume explore the re-emergence during the previous decade of the practice of self-employment by looking at this practice in eleven advanced economies (Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States). Comparing differences in self-employment across time and across societies, the contributors analyse the extent to which social background, educational level, work history, family status and gender affect the likelihood that an individual will enter and continue in a particular type of self-employment.
CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES
AFRICA
Ethiopia
Mengistie, Habtamu. Lord, Zèga and Peasant. A Study of Property and Agrarian Relations in Rural Eastern Gojjam. Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa 2004. x, 213 pp. $29.95; £20.95.
The social history of Ethiopia has received far too little attention from scholars, argues the author. This study compensates for this oversight. Dr Mengistie analyses the social structures in rural eastern Gojjam from the late eighteenth century until 1900. During the period reviewed, many peasants deteriorated to zèga, a status more or less similar to European serfdom. Ethiopian feudalism was characterized by a complicated mixture of aristocratic, bureaucratic and property rights, in which, according to Mengistie, the zèganät institution has been overlooked. The study is based primarily on records at churches and monasteries.
Guinea
Schmidt, Elizabeth. Mobilizing the Masses. Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939-1958. [Social History of Africa Series.] Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH 2005. xv, 293 pp. Ill. $27.95.
Guinea became independent in 1958 thanks to the strength and radical stand of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), argues Professor Schmidt in this study. This movement relied, bottom up, on previously mobilized groups, such as veterans, workers, farmers and women. The pressure that the French exerted on the population via the chiefs during World War II was crucial for the resistance to emerge. Despite ethnic tensions, the RDA practised a progressive , "inclusive" nationalism. The movement concentrated consistently on the areas of common interest. The study, based in part on oral history (conducted in 1991), was complicated by the reluctance of many respondents to share their stories, given the current ambience of ethnic tensions and animosity toward Sékou Touré.
Mauritius
Vaughan, Megan. Creating the Creole Island Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius. Duke University Press, Durham, N.C. [etc.] 2005. xiv, 341 pp. Ill. £64.00 (Paper: £15.95.)
From 1715 to 1810 Mauritius, known as Île de France at the time, was a French colony. The island was pivotal in the system of slave trade between the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans. The colonization drive coincided with continuous slave imports, primarily from Africa but also from India. Slaves were used in virtually all activities: agriculture, manual crafts, trading and shipping. Professor Vaughan uses a broad range of sources to describe in detail the process of Creolization and explains how Mauritius became a plantation economy thanks to sugar only at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
South Africa
Waetjen, Thembisa. Workers and Warriors. Masculinity and the Struggle for Nation in South Africa. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2004. viii, 158 pp. Ill. $30.00.
This study examines the Inkatha movement as an example of a failed nationalist movement. Dr Waetjen concentrates explicitly on the aspects of masculinity, violence and nationalism, demonstrating that this case - unlike successful national liberations - conveys more clearly the importance of gender. She attributes the reactionary, gendered vernacular of nationalism to the endangered position of men and argues that Inkatha's nationalism reflects an effort to bridge the gap between the declining patriarchal dominance and the requirements of the liberal, capitalist state. The semi-civil war that Inkatha lost against the ANC around the end of apartheid claimed 15,000 lives.
Sudan
Rolandsen, Øystein H. Guerrilla Government. Political Changes in the Southern Sudan during the 1990s. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala 2005. 201 pp. £15.95; € 20.00; SEK 200.00.
Using interviews, grey literature and Internet sources, Mr Rolandsen has reconstructed the changes in the areas of South Sudan controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) after 1991. Because the SPLM/A focused on the military struggle against the regime in Khartoum, very little civil administration existed until the 1990s. A combination of factors, including the influence of NGOs (special Norwegian People's Aid), military defeats and internal tensions, led the SPLM/A to embark on a course toward a civil society. The 1994 National Convention was the decisive impetus. John Garang (1945-2005) remained dominant nonetheless.
AMERICA
Revisiting Caribbean Labour. Essays in Honour of O. Nigel Bolland. Ed. by Constance R. Sutton. Ian Randle Publishers [etc.], Kingston [etc.] 2005. 176 pp. $14.95.
The seven contributions in this collection originate from a colloquium organized by the Caribbean Studies Association in 2003 in Belize in honour of O. Nigel Bolland, who wrote an afterword for the volume. The contributions are inspired by Bolland's The Politics of Labour in the British Caribbean (2001) (see IRSH, 47 (2002), p. 518). In addition to British territories, Puerto Rico and Cuba are reviewed here. In his brief afterword, Bolland calls attention to the special position of the Caribbean that places labour at the vanguard of global trends. He argues that neoliberalism has brought about a chronic and structural crisis in the region.
Canada
Ethnography and Development. The Work of Richard F. Salisbury. Ed. by Marilyn Silverman. With contr. by Harvey A. Feit, Henry J. Rutz, Colin H. Scott [and] Marilyn Silverman. [Fontanus Monograph Series, vol. 15.] McGill University Libraries, Montréal 2004. vi, 398 pp. £38.95.
This volume commemorates the life and work of the Canadian anthropologist Richard F. Salisbury (1926-1989), a pioneer in development anthropology and influential in the areas of economic anthropology, ethnographic practice and policy formation. Seven original essays, exploring his basic ideas in these areas and the intellectual and personal contexts of his work, are combined with eighteen articles by Salisbury, written between 1954 and 1989.
Cuba
Shaffer, Kirwin R. Anarchism and Countercultural Politics in Early Twentieth-Century Cuba. University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2005. xi, 279 pp. $59.95.
Castro's revolution in 1959 has obscured the perception of the early twentieth-century anarchist movement. The historiography moreover emphasizes the nineteenth century and the role of anarchism within the labour movement, according to Professor Shaffer. The study covers the period 1898 to 1925, when the repression of President Machado began. The author depicts anarchism as a counter-cultural social movement. In addition to their activities in politics and trade unions, anarchists were involved in various social-cultural fields, such as education, theatre, vegetarianism and experience of nature. The author has also used the literary works of the authors and activists Adrián del Valle and Antonio Penichet as historical sources.
Mexico
Castleman, Bruce A. Building the King's Highway. Labor, Society, and Family on Mexico's Caminos Reales 1757-1804. University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2005. xii, 163 pp. $39.95.
In this social history of road construction workers, who worked on one of the caminos reales in Mexico in the second half of the eighteenth century, Dr Castleman analyses the struggles between the late Bourbon colonial state, the colonial governors, the more localized interests in road policy and the labour position. Drawing on census and employment records, he reveals the transition from a free-wage labour regime to a draft-labour system. This transition changed the way that labourers identified themselves, as the Spanish casta system became increasingly fluid. See also Jeremy Baske's review in this volume, pp. 149-150.
Gabbert, Wolfgang. Becoming Maya. Ethnicity and Social Inequality in Yucatán since 1500. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2004. xvii, 252 pp. $49.95.
In this social history of the Mexican peninsula of Yucatán and relations between its different ethnic groups since the sixteenth century, Professor Gabbert argues that the common ethnic categorization of its inhabitants, which divides the population into two communities (Maya Indians and descendants of Spanish conquerors), falls short of explaining the social inequalities in this region. He concludes that a conscious Maya community has existed only in the perceptions of outsiders, and that the ethnic makeup of both Mayas and Mexicans is far more complex than hitherto assumed.
United States of America
Cuff, Timothy. The Hidden Costs of Economic Development. The Biological Standard of Living in Antebellum Pennsylvania. [Modern Economic and Social History.] Ashgate, Aldershot etc. 2005. xvii, 277 pp. £55.00.
Based on a detailed analysis of Civil War enlistment records, this study explores the relationship between economic change and changes in the biological standard of living in antebellum Pennsylvania. Dr Cuff aims to demonstrate that population growth, urbanization and market integration - phenomena associated with the rapid industrialization of mid-nineteenth-century United States - all seem to have had a deleterious effect on the biological well-being of the working-class population, as measured according to anthropometrics, despite a significant rise in the per capita net national product.
Jones, William P. The Tribe of Black Ulysses. African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2005. xv, 235 pp. Ill. $45.00. (Paper: $20.00.)
In the decades between 1870 and 1910, the lumber industry in the southern United States was booming, employing more workers than any other industry in the South. This study examines the position of African American lumber workers in the context of economic and social transformations in the early twentieth-century South. Professor Jones aims to show how lumber workers were able to form proletarian communities and to compel their employers to adapt workplace and social policies to accommodate the workers' advancing social and cultural standards. Supported by New Deal labour regulations and an expanding industrial union movement, these workers thus challenged the social and political foundations of the Jim Crow society.
Klein, Herbert S. A Population History of the United States. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xvi, 300 pp. Maps. £45.00; $65.00. (Paper: £16.99; $23.00.)
This is a historical demographic survey of the United States from the origin of human habitation in the Western Hemisphere to the present, covering basic demographic trends in population growth. Professor Klein surveys and analyses the origin and distribution of the Native Americans, post-conquest free and servile European and African colonial populations and trends in births, deaths and international and internal migrations during the nineteenth century in comparison with contemporary European developments, the impact of historic declines in disease and mortality rates on the structure of the twentieth-century population and comparative trends in post-demographic transition in advanced industrial societies.
Michels, Tony. A Fire in Their Hearts. Yiddish Socialists in New York. Harvard University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. viii, 335 pp. Ill. $27.95; £17.95; € 23.80.
This study of the origins of the Jewish labour movement in New York focuses on the Yiddish-language socialism that arose under the influence of German socialist immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century. Dr Michels argues that Russian-speaking intellectuals quickly switched to Yiddish to convey their message to the Jewish immigrant community. New York became a laboratory where a thriving socialist culture emerged that was not imported from Russia but in fact had a significant impact on the development of socialism in Russia. This Yiddish socialist movement left an important political legacy extending to the rise of neo-conservatism.
Taking Back the Academy! History of Activism, History as Activism. Ed. by Jim Downs and Jennifer Manion. Routledge, New York [etc.] 2004. xiii, 221 pp. £15.99.
Based on a conference held at Columbia University in 2002, the twelve essays in this volume explore the relationship between current and historical scholarship and political activism, especially at academic institutions in the United States. The contributors consider the historical role of student movements and activism in the 1960s; student unions and the role of students in U.S. trade unionism; and the role of academic historians in promoting social justice. The last section is about the contemporary relationship between academia and leftist political activism and examines the potential role of academics in, for example, protests against the war in Iraq.
Vacca, Carolyn Summers. A Reform Against Nature. Woman Suffrage and the Rethinking of American Citizenship, 1840-1920. [American University Studies: Series IX: History, Vol. 200.] Peter Lang, New York, NY [etc.] 2004. 189 pp. € 47.00.
This study examines the public debates of the suffrage campaign in the United States throughout the extended period that the campaign lasted (1840-1920) and presents these debates in the broader context of discussions about gendered notions of citizenship. Dr Vacca shows that by 1800, anti-suffragists and suffragists alike had shifted their arguments in the debate to the characteristics they ascribed to women. In addition to influencing the suffrage debate, she believes that this trend led to a reorientation of views: from citizenship as a right to citizenship as a privilege, thereby changing Americans' responses to questions of immigration and naturalization in the early twentieth century as well.
West, Emily. Chains of Love. Slave Couples in Antebellum South Carolina. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2004. 184 pp. $30.00.
Focusing on antebellum South Carolina, the heart of the old South, this study examines the social and cultural history of relationships between slave men and women. Looking at courtship, love and affection between spouses, the abuse of slave women by white men and the consequences of forced separations, Dr West argues that slave marriage and spousal support were an important source of resistance to the oppression that came with slavery.
ASIA
China
Gallagher, Mary Elizabeth. Contagious Capitalism. Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. xiii, 240 pp. £22.95.
Challenging the general relationship between economic liberalization and democratization, Professor Gallagher examines in this study the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) liberalization on Chinese labour politics in the post-1978 period. Although market reforms and increased integration in the global economy have led to unprecedented economic growth and social change over the past 25 years, the author argues that FDI liberalization has strengthened the Chinese state, weakened civil society and the labour movement and delayed political liberalization and democratization.
Lynch, Michael. Mao. [Routledge historical biographies.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2004. xviii, 265 pp. £10.99.
In this textbook series of historical biographies, Dr Lynch presents a comprehensive account of the life and politics of Mao Zedong (1893-1976). Locating Mao and Maoism in the context of twentieth-century Chinese history, he discusses the development of the Chinese Communist Party, the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution and the role of Mao's China in the Cold War, while adding details of Mao's private life, as well as his political and philosophical ideas.
India
Joshi, Chitra. Lost Worlds. Indian Labour and its Forgotten Histories. [Anthem South Asian Studies.] Anthem, London [etc.] 2005. xiv, 359 pp. Ill. £21.99.
This study of the working class in the textile industry in Kanpur focuses on everyday life and culture at the level of the workplace and neighbourhoods from the period of industrialization at the end of the nineteenth century to that of de-industrialization at the end of the twentieth century. Exploring the role of labour migration and the formation of working-class identities, experiences of work and authority in the factory, instances of collective action and strike solidarity and the relation between nationalism and the labour movement, Dr Joshi argues that with the ongoing de-industrialization in Kanpur, this working-class world of labour is progressively disappearing.
Krishan, Shri. Political Mobilization and Identity in Western India, 1934-47. [Sage Series in Modern Indian history, Vol. 7.] Sage, New Delhi [etc.] 2005. 279 pp. £35.00. (Paper: £14.99.)
Focusing on the rural regions of the Bombay Presidency in the period 1934-1947, this study examines the multiple forms of political mobilization and resistance among various groups (women, peasants, elites, lower castes and tribals) and relates this mobilization to the process of identity formation. Dr Krishan explores social conditions in this part of India, relations between the leadership and the participants, the development of mass consciousness, methods of mobilization and the role of religious symbols and popular culture in such mobilizations.
Tan, Tai Yong. The Garrison State. The Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947. [Sage Series in Modern Indian History, Vol. 8.] Sage, New Delhi [etc.] 2005. 333 pp. £37.50.
This study examines how following the Mutiny of 1857 the Punjab became the main recruiting ground for the Indian army, and the politics and political economy of colonial Punjab were militarized. Professor Tai Yong reviews how certain districts in the Punjab were selected for military recruitment, and how certain classes among the Punjabis were motivated to join the colonial army, discusses the effects of World War I on this recruitment process and analyses the role of the civil-military regime up to the independence and in the partitioning of the Punjab province.
Japan
Barshay, Andrew E. The Social Sciences in Modern Japan. The Marxian and Modernist Traditions. [Twentieth-century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power, 15.] University of California Press, Berkeley, [etc.] 2004. xiv, 331 pp. $55.00.
In this study of the development and role of social sciences in Japan from the end of the nineteenth century to the present, Professor Barshay argues that a sense of developmental alienation (the idea that modern Japanese social development differed markedly from the process in the Anglo-Saxon world) shaped and united the ideas of scholars in the two main currents of Japanese social sciences: Marxism and Modernism. He further argues that the fundamental transformations of Japanese society from the 1960s onward, including the rapid urbanization, have left these two main streams of Japanese social sciences struggling to explain the new realities of postindustrialism.
Carlile, Lonny E. Divisions of Labor. Globality, Ideology, and War in the Shaping of the Japanese Labor Movement. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2005. x, 292 pp. $55.00.
Comparing developments in the history of the Japanese labour movement with those of France, Italy and West Germany during the first decade of the Cold War (1945-1955), Professor Carlile aims to show in this study how world views and labour movement strategies were shared across national boundaries and shaped in similar ways in the industrialized West and East. He argues that the divergences in the historical courses of the labour movements in Japan and Western Europe were as much a product of differences in geopolitical location as any inherent cultural or nationally specific ideological tendency. See also Akiro Suzuki's review in this volume, pp. 158-163.
Macnaughtan, Helen. Women, Work and the Japanese Economic Miracle. The case of the cotton textile industry, 1945-1975. [RoutledgeCurzon Studies in the Modern History of Asia.] RoutledgeCurzon, London [etc.] 2005. xiv, 231 pp. Ill. £65.00.
This study examines the place of female workers in the cotton textile industry in the postwar economic resurgence of Japan. The cotton textile industry was a crucial industry with a large workforce. Exploring data on issues such as recruitment systems, management practices and the work experiences of the women involved, Dr Macnaughtan aims to demonstrate the importance in Japan's postwar economy of harnessing female labour during these years of economic recovery and explosive growth. See also Kaye Broadbent's review in this volume, pp. 163-165.
Pakistan
Verkaaik, Oskar. Migrants and Militants. Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan. [Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics.] Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2004. xvi, 214 pp. Ill. £36.95.
Through a historical ethnographic study of the Mahajir Qaumi Movement (MQM, a very popular religious nationalist movement of the migrant population in Southern Pakistan), Dr Verkaaik examines political violence among Muslim militants in the context of state formation, nation building and the ethnicization of Islam since India's independence in 1947. Focusing on the urban youth culture of MQM activists, the author distinguishes three aspects of the political, ethnic-religious violence: violence as a ludic practice, violence as "martyrdom" and violence as "terrorism" and resistance.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Australia
Mallory, Greg. Uncharted Waters. Social Responsibility in Australian Trade Unions. Foreword by Jack Munday. Boolarong Press, Brisbane 2005. xx, 243 pp. Ill. $35.00.
Dr Mallory focuses in this study on two labour disputes in New South Wales: in 1938, when the Waterside Workers Federation refused to load metals for export to belligerent Japan, and in the early 1970s, when the New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation refused to demolish buildings and destroy parkland for the construction of high-rise buildings in parts of Sydney. Both disputes show, according to the author, the unions' willingness to accept social and political responsibility beyond their traditional activities. The study examines the political theories and movements that influenced these disputes and the stand of the unions.
The New Province for Law and Order. 100 years of Australian Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration. Ed. by Joe Isaac and Stuart Macintyre. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xxi, 431 pp. £55.00; $90.00.
The eight essays in this volume offer a thematic overview of the history and development of the Australian federal conciliation and arbitration court system established in 1904, only three years after the federation of the Commonwealth of Australia. The contributors deal with the system's political history, the actual work done by the tribunal, the legal framework, its economic and social effects, the effects on indigenous and women workers, the role of employers' associations and trade unions and management of industrial conflict.
EUROPE
Dalla corporazione al mutuo soccorso. Organizzazione e tutela del lavoro tra XVI e XX secolo. [Storia della Società, dell'Economia e delle Istituzioni.] A cura di Paola Massa [e] Angelo Moioli. FrancoAngeli, Milano 2004. CD-Rom. 764 pp. € 45.00.
This anthology comprises 37 contributions in Italian and English to an international colloquium at the University of Genoa in 2003. The three parts cover: guilds and urban economies, with contributions about guilds in various cities and regions in Italy during the Middle Ages and the modern period, as well as in England and the Low Countries, supplemented by an essay about a European comparative perspective; guilds, technical advances and international markets, with contributions about the link between guilds, technological innovation and industrial development in Europe, Spain, London and several Italian cities; the third parts is about the transition from guilds to mutual aid societies and their history in Italian towns and regions. The CD-Rom attached features a database about guilds and occupational groups in modern and contemporary Italy.
Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity. Understanding the Globalization of Domestic Work, 16th-21st Centuries. Ed. by Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux. Peter Lang, Bern [etc.] 2004. xvi, 573 pp. € 45.00.
The 25 contributions to this volume all originate from the Servant Project, a European Union-funded project to study the socio-economic role of domestic service since the Renaissance, its contribution toward forming a European identity and the contemporary long-distance migration linked to new forms of domestic and family service. The research themes covered in the volume are domestic service, life course and social renewal; domestic service and the evolution of law; servants and changes in mentality, and the relationship between the maid, the master and the family; and servant adaptability to the labour market in past and present.
Exceptionalism and Industrialisation. Britain and Its European Rivals, 1688-1815. Ed. by Leandro Prados de la Escosura. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xv, 335 pp. £55.00; $90.00.
The twelve essays in this volume, originating from a conference held in March 2001 in Madrid as a tribute to economic historian Patrick O'Brien, deal with the question of when and how Britain's superiority within Europe was acquired, and what differentiated Britain from its rivals and led to the First Industrial Revolution. The main focuses are economic growth and economic change; interconnections between agriculture, foreign trade and industrialization; technological change; Britain's institutional structure, and how it facilitated economic growth; and the causes of Britain's military and naval supremacy. In a concluding essay, Stanley L. Engerman reviews the current emphasis on cultural and institutional explanatory factors.
Kellogg, Michael. The Russian Roots of Nazism. White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917-1945. [New Studies in European History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiii, 327 pp. £45.00; $75.00.
This book examines the formative political, financial, military and ideological influence of many White émigrés - anti-Bolshevik, anti-Semitic Russian exiles - on Hitler's National Socialist movement. The author argues that National Socialism originated primarily from the cooperation between völkisch (nationalist/racist) Germans and White émigrés in the conspiratorial Aufbau association, which in league with National Socialism sought to combat international Jewry and to overthrow both the German Weimar Republic and the Soviet Union.
The Scandinavian Middle Classes. 1840-1940. Ed. by Tom Ericsson, Jørgen Fink and Jan Eivind Myhre. Unipubforlag; Oslo Academic Press, Oslo 2004. 317 pp. NOK 298.00.
The ten essays in this volume aim to give a comprehensive history of the rise and transformation of middle classes in Denmark, Norway and Sweden from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The editors start with a general overview per country and then address several specific themes related to the rise of the middle classes: political consciousness, political representation, female professionals, identity, suburbs, the position of teachers between middle class and professionals and retailers.
Vorindustrielles Gewerbe. Handwerkliche Produktion und Arbeitsbeziehungen in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Hrsg. Mark Häberlein [und] Christof Jeggle. [Irseer Schriften: N.F., Band 2.] UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Konstanz 2004. 259 pp. Ill. € 29.00.
The ten essays in this volume, based on a colloquium organized in Irsee, Germany, in 2001, deal with the history of artisanal production during the Middle Ages and the early modern period in German-speaking areas. Two contributions explore conceptual and methodological issues; three essays examine local and regional examples of early modern textile production; two essays focus on craftsmanship in the city of Augsburg; and the last three deal with the political aspects of urban crafts and trade.
Austria
Dohle, Oskar [und] Nicole Slupetzky, unter Mitarb. von Gerda Dohle. Arbeiter für den Endsieg. Zwangsarbeit im Reichsgau Salzburg 1939-1945. Unter Mitarb. von Gerda Dohle. [Schriftenreihe des Forschungsinstitutes für politisch-historische Studien der Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek, Band 21.] Böhlau Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2004. 254 pp. Ill. € 29.90.
As a result of the research commission about the history of slave and forced labour in Austria during World War II and the establishment of the Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation in November 2000, a great number of new archival materials on the subject has come available. This study explores slave and forced labour in the area of Salzburg during World War II. Apart from the deployment of civilian forced labour and concentration camps internees, the authors examine the situation of prisoners of war and their deployment as agricultural labour.
Maderthaner, Wolfgang. Kultur Macht Geschichte. Studien zur Wiener Struktur im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. [Politica et Ars. Interdisziplinäre Studien zur politischen Ideen- und Kulturgeschichte, Band 8.] Lit, Wien 2005. 263 pp. € 24.90.
In this study Dr Maderthaner has brought together eight essays (most of which hitherto unpublished and one written together with Lutz Musner) on the urban culture of Vienna from the end of the nineteenth century to the postwar period. In both the more theoretical contributions and the empirical case studies, the author aims to connect the socio-economic with the cultural dimension and the material aspects with symbolic ones, focusing on the social and cultural margins of the city.
Die Revolutionierung des Alltags. Zur intellektuellen Kultur von Frauen im Wien der Zwischenkriegszeit. Hrsg. von Doris Ingrisch, Ilse Korotin [und] Charlotte Zwiauer. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2004. 254 pp. € 37.20.
The eleven biographical essays in this collection sketch the lives and work of intellectual, leftist-oriented women in Vienna in the interwar period. Many of these women came from emancipated Jewish families. The social-democratic movement and culture offered most of them new ways for social and political engagement and intellectual and personal realization in an environment where anti-Semitism no longer figured prominently. Experiences of exile and persecution by Nazism have driven this female intellectual tradition almost into oblivion.
Zwangsarbeiter und Zwangsarbeiterinnen auf dem Gebiet der Republik Österreich 1939-1945. Mit Beiträgen von Florian Freund, Bertrand Perz [und] Mark Spoerer. [Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommision Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich. Zwangsarbeit auf dem Gebiet der Republik Österreich, Band 26/1]. Oldenbourg Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2004. 413 pp. € 58.80.
Zwangsarbeit in der Land- und Forstwirtschaft auf dem Gebiet Österreichs 1939 bis 1945. Hrsg. von Stefan Karner [und] Peter Ruggenthaler unter Mitarb. von Harald Knoll, Peter Pirnath, Arno Wonisch [etc.] [Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommision Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich. Zwangsarbeit auf dem Gebiet der Republik Österreich. Band 26/2]. Oldenbourg Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2004. 615 pp. Ill. € 82.80.
Zwangsarbeit in der Landwirtschaft in Niederösterreich und dem nördlichen Burgerland. Hrsg. von Ela Hornung, Ernst Langthaler [und] Sabine Schweitzer. [Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommision Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich. Zwangsarbeit auf dem Gebiet der Republik Österreich, Band 26/3]. Oldenbourg Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2004. 468 pp. Ill. € 64.80.
These three volumes form a series on the history of forced labour in Austria during the Nazi occupation, resulting from the study commissioned in 2000 to investigate the history of slave and forced labour in Austria during World War II. The first volume features a detailed overview of the numbers of foreign forced labourers that were put to work within the territory of the Austrian Republic in the period 1940-1945. The contributors identify four categories of foreign forced labourers: civilians, prisoners of war, Hungarian Jews and concentration camp inmates. The second volume looks specifically at forced labour in agriculture and forestry, while the third volume focuses on the deployment of forced labour on farms in lower Austria and northern Burgenland. The second and third volumes also deal with the everyday experiences of forced labourers, exploring working and living conditions, based in part on oral history.
Eire - Ireland
Gibbons, Stephen Randolph. Captain Rock, Night Errant. The Threatening Letters of Pre-Famine Ireland, 1801-1845. Four Courts Press, Dublin 2004. 282 pp. € 75.00.
In this study the actual texts of over 500 anonymous or threatening letters from pre-famine Ireland (1801-1845) are brought together. Dr Gibbons describes in his introduction the origins and background of the phenomenon of these letters, which raised tremendous concern in the newspapers and the English government, leading to various parliamentary enquiries. The author aims to show that the letters originated predominantly from impoverished rural labourers and small farmers, who were in part organized in secret societies. Common threats related to issues such as land expropriations and tithes.
France
Cross, Máire Fedelma. The Letter in Flora Tristan's Politics, 1835-1844. PalgraveMacmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2004. viii, 201 pp. £50.00.
Analysing the correspondence of the radical feminist, utopist and writer Flora Tristan (1803-1844) with militant republicans, socialists and democrats active in the July Monarchy, Professor Cross examines the role of the letter in fostering links at a time of a significant growth of literacy and pursuit of citizenship under an undemocratic regime. The author aims to show how textual analysis of the correspondence illustrates the gendered nature of socialist movements, the vitality of political tensions in Tristan's communications and the sophistication of political networks on the eve of 1848.
Denis, Marcelle. Un couple d'enseignants communistes 1936-1952. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 156 pp. € 14.80.
These are the memoirs of the French educationalist Marcelle Denis. Raised in a leftist milieu, she became involved in the resistance movement in Burgundy during World War II, together with her husband, geographer André Blanc. In 1948, in the context of her husband's research activities, they moved to Zagreb, Yugoslavia, where they became unwillingly involved in the international rift in the communist movement between the Soviet Union and Tito. Back in Paris, Marcelle was forced to divorce her husband because of his alleged support for Tito. The memoirs cover the period from the late 1930s to her forced divorce in 1952.
Enlightenment and Revolution. Essays in Honour of Norman Hampson. Ed. by Norman Hampson, Malcolm Crook, William Doyle and Alan Forrest. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. ix, 223 pp. $79.50; £45.00.
The eleven essays in this Festschrift for Professor Norman Hampson, British historian of the Enlightenment and Revolutionary France and co-founder of the Society of French History, cover a broad range of eighteenth-century French history, including science and army reform; French interest in China, Atlantic slavery and the Haitian Revolution; links between Voltaire and Hume; ideas of the future in the French Revolution; and elite perceptions of popular action.
Ernest Coeurderoy (1825-1862). Révolution, désespoir et prophétisme. Sous la dir. de Alain Brossat. Forum IRTS de Lorraine. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 104 pp. € 16.00.
This volume brings together eight essays on the life and thought of Ernest Coeurderoy (1825-1862), a revolutionary activist in 1848, libertarian and anarchist radical in exile until his untimely death and author of Journal d'exil and the visionary and provocative essay "Hurray!!! Ou la revolution par les cosaques". The contributors deal, among others, with Coeurderoy's romantic libertarianism, his role in the Republican exile community, and the rediscovery of his work and thought as an early anarchist by Max Nettlau. Excerpts from his Journal d'exil are appended.
Erouville, Daniel. Qui sont les trotskystes? (d'hier à aujourd'hui). [Questions contemporaines.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 314 pp. € 27.00.
In recent elections in France, the three different parties of Trotskyist origins, the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR), the Lutte Ouvrière (LO) and the Courant Communiste Internationaliste (CCI), received a combined total of around ten per cent of the popular vote. This study explores and compares the origins and historical background of these three Trotskyist groups, their policies and mutual differences, their adherence to Trotskyist principles and their roles in recent working-class activism, such as the strikes of 1995 and 2003. The author concludes by assessing the chances that these parties will join forces in a new French section of the Fourth International.
Forth, Christopher E. The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood. [The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 121st Ser., 2.] The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore [etc.] 2004. xii, 300 pp. Ill. $46.95.
This study analyses the Dreyfus Affair from the perspective of the gender issues at stake. According to Dr Forth, the rhetoric and images invoked during the affair reflect the anxieties about masculinity and modernity and the state of French manhood in the period 1894-1914. Looking at the changing ideals of the male body in this period, the author argues that the Dreyfus Affair played a major role in the emergence of a "culture of force", in which the youthful athlete replaced the bookish and sedentary intellectual as the manly ideal.
La France et le Temps de Travail. 1814-2004. Sous la dir. de Patrick Fridenson et Bénédicte Reynaud. Odile Jacob, Paris 2004. 237 pp. € 24.00.
The contributors to this volume explore in six chronologically ordered chapters the history of the reduction of working hours in France from the nineteenth century to the present, including the eight-hour day, paid holidays, sick leave etc. They argue that historically, the reduction of working hours has been more of a public health issue than a social or economic one, and that it figured more prominently in the national and international debates of institutional politics than among trade union concern. The final chapter explores the relation between reduced working hours and unemployment policies.
Georges Friedmann un sociologue dans le siècle 1902-1977. Sous la dir. de Pierre Grémion et Françoise Piotet. CNRS Editions, Paris 2004. 184 pp. € 19.00.
On the occasion of his centennial birthday, this volume brings together fourteen contributions on the life and work of the French sociologist Georges Friedmann (1902-1977). The first part retraces his trajectory as a Marxist sociologist before World War II, his activities during the war in the resistance and his pivotal role in restoring French sociology in the postwar period. The five contributions in the second part review Friedmann's work as a sociologist and philosopher, while in the last part, well-known French sociologists who studied with Friedmann, such as Edgar Morin and Alain Touraine, pay tribute to his influence on their development.
"Plutôt l'insurrection que la guerre!" L'antimilitarisme dans l'Yonne avant 1914. Actes du colloque historique organisé le 16 octobre 2004 au Musée Saint-Germain à Auxerre par l'Association Adiamos-89. Textes receuillis et mis en ordre sous la resp. de Michel Cordillot. [Recherches et Documents sur les Pays de l'Yonne. Collection Thématique, no. 8.] Adiamos-89, Auxerre 2005. 241 pp. Ill. € 22.50.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium organized in October 2004 in Auxerre on the militant anti-militaristic tradition in the decades before 1914 in the Yonne, one of the four departments in Burgundy, France. The eleven contributions cover questions such as the origins of anti-militarism in the region and its relation to socialism and the work of Gustave Hervé; the relative weight of this tradition; the social and political milieus where it was strongest; who the active militants were; and how anti-militarism disappeared at the onset of World War I.
Sur les pas de Jaurès. La France de 1900. Sous la dir. de Alain Boscus et Rémy Cazals. Éditions Privat, Toulouse 2004. 265 pp. Ill. € 26.00.
Taking picture postcards as a source and point of departure, the sixteen contributions to this volume follow the footsteps of Jean Jaurès along his travels to various parts of France in the period around 1900. Aiming to establish what French society in the region looked like, the contributors describe Jaurès's visits to various provincial cities and regions, focusing in part on issues of urbanization in relation to the development of republicanism, working women in the northern textile industries and historical events such as strikes, national holidays and regional conventions at which Jaurès spoke.
Van der Motte, Franz. Louise Michel. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2004. 119 pp. € 12.00.
In this concise biographical study of Louise Michel (1830-1905), Mr Van der Motte offers a straightforward chronological sketch of her turbulent life, describing her origins, career as teacher, her rise as the "spirit" of the Paris Commune, her exile in New Caledonia and the strong feelings of resentment and admiration she inspired throughout her life.
Voyenne, Bernard. Proudhon et Dieu. Le combat d'un anarchiste. Suivi de Pascal - Proudhon - Péguy. Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris 2004. 168 pp. € 19.00.
This study is an exploration and analysis of the ambiguous attitude and ideas about religion and the existence of a supreme being of the French anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865). Professor Voyenne, who passed away shortly before this study was published, describes how Proudhon lost his Catholic faith at an early age but pursued a lifelong quest for answers to lingering questions about the existence of God and His role in human history. In a concluding essay, the author draws comparisons between the ideas about religion of the seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal, Proudhon and the poet Charles Péguy.
Germany
Deutschland - ein Land ohne revolutionäre Traditionen? Revolutionen im Deutschland des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts im Lichte neuerer geistes- und kulturgeschichtlicher Erkenntnisse. Hrsg. von Riccardo Bavaj [und] Florentine Fritzen. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2005. 195 pp. € 27.90.
The ten contributions to this volume, based on papers presented at a colloquium organized in Frankfurt am Main in November 2003, consider revolutionaries and revolutionary events in Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from a cultural and intellectual-historical perspective. The contributors, predominantly younger scholars, deal with the Revolution of 1848/1849, Gustav Landauer and Carl Vogls, the Bavarian revolutionary events of 1918/1919, revolutionary concepts and self image of the Nazi elites, the events of 17 June 1953, the 1968 revolutionary movement, the 1989 revolution and the revolutionary character of European unification.
Doch seht wir leben. Vom innern Widerstand - Zwangsarbeit 1939-1945. Hrsg. von Heide Rieck, unter Mitarb. von Waltraud Jachnow [und] Wolfhart Matthäus, Geest-Verlag, Vechta-Langförden 2005. 432 pp. € 15.00.
This collection brings together 66 poems, songs, diary entries, letters and drawings (or excerpts) that attest to various forms of inner resistance among forced labourers in Germany and occupied territories during World War II. The texts in eight different languages appear in the original language and in German translation. In a short historical introduction Waltraud Jachnow gives a concise overview of foreign forced labour between 1939 and 1945 in Germany and the revived interest in recent decades in the experiences of forced labourers.
Swett, Pamela E. Neighbors and Enemies. The Culture of Radicalism in Berlin, 1929-1933. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xvi, 337 pp. Ill. £55.00; $75.00.
This study of the Weimar Republic and the causes of its demise addresses the everyday experiences of individual workers in Berlin and their strategies in confronting the manifold crises that they encountered during their daily lives in the period 1918-1933. Professor Swett argues that the transformation of society and persistent unemployment led to rising tensions between the sexes and generations, among neighbours, within families and between citizens and their political parties and eventually to the emergence of a radical and at times violent neighbourhood culture and a subsequent loss of faith in political institutions.
Tresp, Uwe. Söldner aus Böhmen. Im Dienst deutscher Fürsten: Kriegsgeschäft und Heeresorganisation im 15. Jahrhundert. [Krieg in der Geschichte, Band 19.] Schöningh, Paderborn [etc.] 2004. 524 pp. € 72.00.
Bohemian soldiers were much sought after by various German princes in a number of their mutual wars in Germany from the mid-fifteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. This dissertation (Universität Potsdam, 2002) explores the role of these Bohemian soldiers, the market for mercenary soldiers in eastern Central Europe, recruitment practices and internal organizations of bands, their social and regional origins and their everyday experiences.
Uhl, Michael. Mytos Spanien. Das Erbe der Internationalen Brigaden in der DDR. Dietz, Bonn 2004. 556 pp. € 29,80.
In this revised edition of a dissertation (Universtität Tübingen, 2002), the author examines the experiences of German volunteers in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, their fate after World War II and their frequently prominent role in the GDR thereafter, as well as the myths that arose around them. Dr Uhl aims to show how the German International Brigadiers were crucial in legitimizing the East-German state and demarcating it from West Germany, and how the experiences of some of the dissidents among the Brigadiers have exposed the fragility of the myth.
Unger, Thorsten. Diskontinuitäten im Erwerbsleben. Vergleichende Untersuchungen zu Arbeit und Erwerbslosigkeit in der Literatur der Weimarer Republik. [Studien und Texte zur Sozialgeschichte der Literatur.] Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2004. xii, 587 pp. € 124.00.
Based on literary sources, as well as on motion pictures, radio plays, photographs and contemporary social and cultural historical essays, this Habilitationsschrift (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2002) examines the discourse on work and unemployment during the Weimar Republic. Dr Unger argues that the prevailing ideal of continuous employment and chances for upward social mobility became increasingly unattainable in the economic reality of the Weimar Republic, leading unemployment to be regarded as a deep personal failure and crisis.
Van Hook, James C. Rebuilding Germany. The Creation of the Social Market Economy, 1945-1957. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xiv, 312 pp. £45.00; $70.00.
This study examines the origins and rise of the social market economy (soziale Marktwirtschaft) in West Germany in the period after 1945 to 1957. Professor Van Hook aims to situate the phenomenon of the social market economy within the broader context of German history and the history of the mid-twentieth century development of capitalism to examine the role of Americanization and to assess in what measure the social market economy represents a genuine reform within the context of German industrial and economic history.
Wilke, Manfred. Die Streikbrecherzentrale. Der Freie Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB) und der 17. Juni 1953. Unter Mitarb. von Andreas Graudin. [Diktatur und Widerstand, Band 8.] Lit, Münster 2004. xv, 306 pp. € 29.90.
This source edition features a selection of 61 documents, including seventeen telegrams from the Soviet High Commissioner in Berlin to the Soviet government, concerning the massive strikes and uprising on 17 June 1953 in East Berlin. Dr Wilke focuses in this study on the role of the official trade union, the Freie Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB) in suppressing the strikes among its own rank and file.
Zachmann, Karin. Mobilisierung der Frauen. Technik, Geschlecht und Kalter Krieg in der DDR. [Reihe "Geschichte und Geschlechter", Band 44.] Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2004. 420 pp. € 45.00.
The high rate of women engineers in the GDR compared to West Germany was an important achievement in the "socialist remodelling" of society. This study explores how the socialist regime implemented this shift in gender composition of technical professions by making structural changes both in education and training and in the professional structures. Professor Zachmann aims to show how this policy met with fierce resistance from the traditional male culture within the technical professions and sketches the everyday experiences of women involved.
Great Britain
Davies, Russell. Hope and Heartbreak. A Social History of Wales and the Welsh, 1776-1871. University of Wales Press, Cardiff 2005. xii, 559 pp. £30.00. (Paper: £15.99.)
In this social history of Wales in the period from the end of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth centuries, written for a general readership, Mr Davies aims to offer an alternative to the standard historiography by focusing on idiosyncrasies and contradictions in the fields of everyday culture and mentality. Topics covered include diet and housing, health, work ethics, festivals, sexuality and humour.
Lemire, Beverly. The Business of Everyday Life. Gender, Practice and Social Politics in England, c.1600-1900. [Gender in History.] Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2005. xi, 257 pp. Ill. £55.00.
In this study of the daily budgeting and household management among ordinary people in England from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, Professor Lemire aims to show how ideas about spending and acquiring changed and the development of numeracy and monetarized relations influenced practices both within the family and within society at large. The increasing share of the budget spent on items associated with comfort and style reflects the advent of the consumer society. The author highlights the role of women in achieving some level of comfort and avoiding penury.
Porter, Theodore M. Karl Pearson. The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2004. viii, 342 pp. Ill. £35.95.
This biography of Karl Pearson (1857-1936), one of the founding fathers of modern statistics and a proponent of eugenics, portrays his remarkable intellectual Werdegang from his early studies in philosophy (in particular German idealism), ether physics and geometry, through his embrace of socialism and feminism, his religious crisis, sexual tensions and metaphysical anxieties, to his ultimate turn to statistics in the 1890s. Professor Porter identifies as Pearson's deeper motive his desire to reconcile reason with enthusiasm and his Grammar of Science (1892) as the decisive milestone in his intellectual career.
Women, Work and Wages in England, 1600-1850. Ed. by Penelope Lane, Neil Raven and K. D. M. Snell, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2004. xi, 239 pp. $50.00; £90.00.
Aiming to bring together the latest research in the field, the eight essays in this volume deal with the subject of women's work and gendered remuneration in Britain between 1600 and 1850. Covering a broad chronological, thematic and regional scope, topics dealt with include children under the apprenticeship system, women's work for poor law authorities and its perception by welfare systems, the changing nature of gendered work, remuneration and technology in British agriculture, questions of customary norms governing gendered pay, female employment in hitherto neglected urban industries and women and the East India Company.
Italy
Barberini, Carlo Antonio, Eros Barone, Gerd Callesen [etc.]. Antonio Labriola e la nascita del marxismo in Italia. Edizione Unicopli, Milano 2005. 267 pp. € 15.00.
This anthology contains ten edited contributions to a colloquium held in Milan on the centenary of the death of Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) at the initiative of the Centro Filippo Buonarroti. The theme was the historical role of Labriola as the founder of theoretical Marxism in Italy. The first part of the book features contributions about the pre-Marxist socialist context within which Labriola emerged, the second deals with the history of German socialism, his correspondence with Engels and the publication of Labriola's correspondence, and in the third part Labriola's theoretical positions are reviewed. The appendix contains the entry about Labriola in Il movimento operaio italiano. Dizionario biografico, 1853-1943.
Cardella, Antonio [e] Ludovico Fenech. Anni senza tregua. Per una storia della Federazione Anarchica Italiana dal 1970 al 1980. Zero in Condotta, Milano 2005. 352 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
This book deals with the history of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana (FAI) from the 1969 bombing of the Piazza Fontana in Milan, which was blamed on the anarchists and marked the start of a succession of attacks used as a pretext for persecuting the anarchists. After 1968 the Italian anarchist movement grew exponentially and overlapped in part with the youth and student movement formed that year. The book features a chronological overview of the course of the FAI: congresses, relations with other movements, persecution and internal debates. In the appendix are communiqués, circulars, congress reports copied from Umanità Nova, and internal bulletins.
Caretti, Stefano. Il delitto Matteotti. Storia e memoria. [Immagini e Parole, 3.] Piero Lacaita Editore, Manduria [etc.] 2004. 246 pp. Ill. € 43.00.
In nine chapters this richly illustrated book covers the history and recollections of the murder by the fascist regime of the socialist Member of Parliament Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924). After reviewing the life course and death of Matteotti, the author describes the rage of the Italian population in response to the murder, the funeral, the trial of the assassins, the subsequent circumstances of his family, the reverberations that the murder had abroad, public recollections of Matteotti (who became a hero of the anti-fascist resistance in pre and postwar Italy) and university historiography about and de-mythologization of his person.
Conti, Fulvio. Storia della massoneria italiana. Dal Risorgimento al fascismo. Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna 2003. 457 pp. Maps. € 24.00.
This book traces the history of Italian freemasons from the Risorgimento until the lodges were prohibited in 1925. A substantial share of the liberal elite consisted of freemasons. In this study the author explores who the members were, what their social background was, and which political and social programme the freemasons had, clearly distinguishing between membership of the lodge and the political actions of individuals. Mr Conti reconstructs the role of the Great East of Italy and other lodges in forming the national identity and in subsequent stages of Italian political history.
Degl'Innocenti, Maurizio. Il mito di Stalin. Comunisti e socialisti nell'Italia del dopoguerra. [Società e cultura, 43.] Piero Lacaita Editore, Manduria [etc.] 2005. 187 pp. € 15.00.
The Italian Communist Party (PCI) was the largest communist party in the West. In the postwar period sections of the socialist party and independent socialist parties radicalized. The context of this political constellation was the marked contrast between state and society and major socioeconomic changes. The Italian Left was heavily oriented toward the Soviet Union. Professor Degl'Innocenti therefore equates studying the relationship between Stalinism and communism and the extreme left with writing the biography of contemporary Italy and approaches this task as a study about the myth surrounding Stalin and the USSR within the different political formations.
Dizionario biografico degli anarchici italiani. Volumo secondo I-Z. Dir. da Maurizio Antonioli, Giampietro Berti, Santi Fedele [etc.] Comitato di red. Franco Bertolucci (coord.), Giuseppe Aragno, Ilaria Del Biondi [etc.] BFS edizioni, Pisa 2004. 802 pp. € 80.00.
This is the second volume of the biographical dictionary of Italian anarchists (see IRSH, 50 (2005), pp. 145f.), featuring entries about figures such as Errico Malatesta, Francesco Saverio Merlino, Leda Rafanelli, Emidio Recchioni, Maria Rygier, Paolo Schicchi, Michele Schirrù, Carlo Tresca, Pio Turroni and many others. Each entry is signed by the author and in addition to the sources lists any bibliography available for that individual.
Fascism, Anti-fascism, and the Resistance in Italy. 1919 to the Present. Ed. by Stanislao G. Pugliese. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 2004. xviii, 330 pp. Ill. £22.95
In this volume Professor Pugliese has brought together 59 English translations of original Italian texts and excerpts from texts relating to the history of Italian fascism and anti-fascism. Included are a wide range of texts, such as speeches, letters, songs, reports, memoirs and political analyses, both contemporary and historiographic. Themes covered include the roots of Italian fascism; the birth of fascism as a political movement and its consolidation, as well as the opposition; the fascist state and dissidence; fascist and anti-fascist culture; its relation to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; the international dimensions; its demise; and the historiography and memory of fascism in postwar Italy.
Franzinelli, Mimmo. Squadristi. Protagonisti e tecniche della violenza fascista, 1919-1922. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano 2003. 464 pp. Ill. € 19.00.
This is a study about the actions of the "squadre d'azione", the armed division of the fascist movement that used violence to clear the path for Mussolini's seizure of power. This study also features an extensive biographical dictionary listing 100 squadristi, with data derived in part from fascist archives and autobiographies. The book concludes with a detailed chronology of the violence between January 1919 and 31 October 1922, when Mussolini obtained control. The author has based this chronology on his review of state archives and the press.
Galzerano, Giuseppe. Angelo Sbardellotto. Vita, processo e morte dell'emigrante anarchico fucilato per l'"intenzione" di uccidere Mussolini. [Atti e memorie del popolo.] Galzerano, Casalvelino Scalo 2003. 502 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
This is a study about the life, trial and death of Angelo Sbardellotto (1907-1932). Sbardellotto was an anarchist miner who emigrated to Belgium but returned to Italy in 1932 intending to assassinate Mussolini. Before he managed to commit this act, he was arrested and executed after a brief trial. The author has based his research on hitherto unpublished source material from Italian government archives and on publications in the Italian and émigré press. He exposes the network of informants for the fascist intelligence service and reviews the polemics between anti-fascists abroad.
Grieco, Bruno. Un partito non stalinisa. PCI 1936. "Appello ai fratelli in camicia nera". [Gli Specchi della Memoria.] Marsilio, Venezia 2004. 343 pp. € 17.00.
This is a political biography of Ruggero Grieco (1893-1955), written by his son Bruno with a view toward rehabilitating him. Grieco, who co-founded the PCI in 1921, served as secretary to the clandestine party from mid-1934 until the spring of 1938. This role became known only in 1966. The author presents excerpts from documents, articles and resolutions from the Central Committee and reproduces documents from the Comintern archive to convey an impression of his father's political activities. The annex contains correspondence (part of which was previously published) between Gramsci, Grieco and Togliatti (in Moscow) from the years 1926-1928.
Mazzocchi, Ermisio. Lotte politiche e sociali nel Lazio meridionale. Storia della Federazione del PCI di Frosinone (1921-1963). Carocci editore, Roma 2003. 455 pp. Ill. € 32.80.
This is the history of the provincial PCI federation in the Lazio region. Based on primary documents from the party archive and other private and public archives, press and other publications, iconography, poetry, songs and oral testimonies, the author - a former party official - provides a chronological account of the history of the party in this region, highlighting the post-war period. The subjects discussed include the farmers' and workers' struggles following World Wars I and II, anti-fascism, and the rehabilitation of the party in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Netherlands
Grever, Maria and Berteke Waaldijk. Transforming the Public Sphere. The Dutch National Exhibition of Women's Labor in 1898. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2004. xii, 305 pp. Ill. £65.00. (Paper: £18.50.)
This translation is an updated and revised version of a study, originally published in Dutch in 1998 (see IRSH, 45 (2000), p. 360), that describes the planning, construction and impact of the Exhibition of Women's Labour organized in 1898 in The Hague, the Netherlands, in honour of Queen Wilhelmina's coronation. In the introduction to this English edition, Antoinette Burton argues that relatively little attention has hitherto been paid to the role of women in the booming exhibition culture of the later nineteenth century.
Kranen over de wal. De grote Rotterdamse metaal- en havenstaking van 1970. Red. Sjaak van der Velden. Aksant, Amsterdam 2005. 119 pp. € 19.90.
In 1970 a large, national wave of strikes swept the Netherlands, originating in the port of Rotterdam. This collection brings together three essays by historians on the 1970 Rotterdam harbour strike. The editor places this strike in the broader context of labour unrest and strikes in postwar Netherlands; Ferry de Goey sketches the economic development of the port of Rotterdam; and Lex Heerma van Voss relates the course of events to global trends of labour unrest among dockworkers. A chronology of events and memoirs of a number of labour activists who were directly involved in the organization of the strike complete the volume.
Poland
Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland. Ed. by Robert Blobaum. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. x, 348 pp. $57.50; £29.95. (Paper: $24.95; £12.95.)
After organizing the roundtable "The politics of antisemitism in early twentieth-century Poland" at the World Congress of Central and East European Studies in 2000 in Tampere, Finland, the editor of this book brought together a research team of Polish and American scholars in the field and has published their findings in this volume. In this collection of fourteen essays they explore anti-Semitism in modern Poland from the late nineteenth century to the present. Central themes include the deterioration of Polish-Jewish relations in this period, various forms of violence against the Jews, intellectual movements in opposition to anti-Semitism and the role of the Catholic church in promoting anti-Semitism. Stephen D. Corrsin has contributed a selective bibliography of works on Polish-Jewish relations published since 1990.
Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Dubnow, Simon. Buch des Lebens. Erinnerungen und Gedanken. Materialien zur Geschichte meiner Zeit. Band 1: 1850-1903. Hrsg. im Auftrag des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur von Verena Dohrn. Aus dem Russischen von Very Bischitzky. Mit einem Vorwort von Dan Diner. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004. Ill. 547 pp. € 49.90.
Dubnow, Simon. Buch des Lebens. Erinnerungen und Gedanken. Materialien zur Geschichte meiner Zeit. Band 2: 1903-1922. Hrsg. im Auftrag des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur von Verena Dohrn. Aus dem Russischen von Barbara Conrad. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. Ill. 478 pp. € 49.90.
Dubnov, Simon. Buch des Lebens. Erinnerungen und Gedanken. Materialien zur Geschichte meiner Zeit. Band 3: 1922-1933. Hrsg. im Auftrag des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur von Verena Dohrn. Aus dem Russischen von Vera Bischitzky. Mit einem Vorwort von Dan Diner. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. 352 pp. Ill. € 39.90.
These three volumes comprise the memoirs of Simon Dubnow (1860-1941), a Russian-Jewish historian who became famous as the chronicler of Eastern European Jewry and the author of the ten-volume History of the Jewish people, first published in German in 1925-1929. His autobiographical writings, brought together in these volumes for the first time in German translation, originate from the years 1920-1933, after his emigration to Berlin. In the first volume a general biographical introduction is offered by the editor, while in the third volume the editor and Anke Hilbrenner give an overview of Dubnow's Berlin years.
Parrish, Michael. Sacrifice of the Generals. Soviet Senior Officer Losses, 1939-1953. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland [etc.] 2004. xxviii, 477 pp. $70.00.
In this biographical dictionary nearly 1,000 entries are brought together on senior Soviet officers, who in the period 1939-1953 were either captured by the enemy, were repressed by Soviet leadership, were killed in combat or died of illness. In the preface the author places the biographical information in the context of personnel organization, general losses of the Soviet army and Stalinist purges.
Rossman, Jeffrey J. Worker Resistance under Stalin. Class and Revolution on the Shop Floor. [Russian Research Center Studies, vol. 96.] Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2005. Ill. 314 pp. $49.95; £31.95; € 42.50.
Focusing on the Ivanova Industrial Region, the centre of the Soviet textile industry, this study explores resistance efforts among industrial workers during the First Five Year Plan. In April 1932 a wave of strikes across the region was quashed by Stalin and led to a series of important reforms. Professor Rossman looks into the causes of the discontent among the various segments of the textile workforce, focusing in part on the gender profile and the moral economy of the workers, and argues that the events in this region culminated, through the large-scale deployment of terror, in the completion of Stalin's "revolution from above". See also Elina Osokina's review in this volume, pp. 156-158.
Stites, Richard. Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia. The Pleasure and the Power. Yale University Press, New Haven [etc.] 2005. xiii, 586 pp. Ill. $60.00; £35.00.
This study explores the history of visual and performing arts from the late eighteenth century until the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and examines the role of arts and artists, both from the elite and serfs and other humble classes in the changes in contemporary societal values. Two chapters deal with music (at home and in public places), three with theatre (in the capital and in provincial settings) and two with art. The final chapter takes up the convergence of social and cultural developments on the eve of the Great Reforms.
Weill, Claudie. Les cosmopolites. Socialisme et judéité en Russie (1897-1917). Syllepse, Paris 2004. 189 pp. Ill. € 18.50.
In this study, Professor Weill explores the various ways in which Russian and Russian-speaking socialist Jews at the turn of the nineteenth century have negotiated their Jewishness in relation to the rise of nationalism. After sketching the changing position of Russian Jewry in the course of the nineteenth century, the author first examines the perception of Jewishness and Jewish religion among Bolshevists, Menshevists and social revolutionaries. In the second part, she focuses on the Bund and its views on nationalism, Zionism and Jewish culture and explores its status among Russian émigrés.
Zelnik, Reginald E . Perils of Pankratova. Some Stories from the Annals of Soviet Historiography. [Donald W. Treadgold Studies on Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia.] University of Washington Press, Seattle [etc.] 2005. xiv, 137 pp. $12.95.
In this small biography of leading Russian labor historian and academic administrator Anna Pankratova (1897-1957), the author reviews her life in the context of a series of "affairs" in Soviet politics and academia, in which Pankratova was involved. The text is based on the Donald W. Treadgold Memorial Lecture that Reginald Zelnik gave one month before his sudden death in 2004. It is followed by A. Pankratova's speech at the XXth Party Congress in 1956. The book also contains texts about Zelnik and his work by fellow historians Laura Engelstein, Benjamin Nathans and David A. Hollinger.
Spain
El cinturón rojinegro. Radicalismo cenetista y obrerismo en la periferia de Barcelona (1918-1939). Coord. Jose Luís Oyón-Juan, Juan José Gallardo. Ediciones Carena; Grupo historia José Berruezo, Barcelona 2004. 467 pp. Maps. € 22.00.
This anthology comprises 13 contributions to a colloquium held in 2003 at the initiative of the School for Architecture of Vallès and the historical research group "José Berruezo". The research and analysis addressed the situation of workers in the new working-class districts built around Barcelona between 1918 and 1939. The contributions have been arranged in five sections: the explosive growth of the suburbs; the social characteristics of the working class on the urban periphery; the separation between living and working; new working-class neighbourhoods and sociability; collective action and political behaviour. The absence of a union infrastructure in these neighbourhoods enabled other, more politicized forms of collective action to materialize.
La conquista de la libertad. Historia de las Comisiones Obreras de Andalucía (1962-2000). Prólogo de Antonio Miguel Bernal. Alfonso Martínez Foronda (coord.), Encarnación Lemus López, Antonio Barragán Moriana [etc]. Fundación de Estudios Sindicales; Archivo Histórico de CC.OO.-A. S.l. 2003 [2004]. 823 pp. Ill. € 15.00.
This is a detailed history of the Andalusian federation of the communist trade union federation Comisiones Obreras (CCOO). The book is divided into four parts, each written by a different academic author. The first is the history of the Andalusian CCOO from its establishment until it officially became a trade union in 1976 and accounts for more than half the book; the second part addresses the years of consolidation and expansion of activities (1977-1987); the third part is about the position of the CCOO on the social accords (1977-1997); and the last one reviews the trade union campaigns from 1977 to 2000. The book is based on extensive archival research and a great many interviews.
Contribuciones a la historia del PCE. Fundación de Investigaciones Marxistas FIM, Madrid 2004. 330 pp. € 15.00.
This anthology comprises six lectures from a series about the history of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), including contributions on the Spanish context in which the party was established, the repercussions in Spain of the crisis in the Second International and the history of the PCE until 1932. There are also four contributions to a symposium at the University of Madrid about various aspects concerning the establishment of the Spanish Popular Front. Both sections are from 1980, and the texts have been republished following the 2004 congress about the history of the PCE (see IRSH, 51 (2006), p. 543). Two testimonies from party leaders about postwar PCE policy conclude the book.
Fascismo en España. Ensayos sobre los orígenes sociales y culturales del franquismo. Eds Ferran Gallego [y] Francisco Morente. [Contr. by] Alejandro Andreassi, Maria Silvia López, Enrique Selva [etc.]. El Viejo Topo, S.l. 2005. 454 pp. € 24.00.
The nine contributions to this collection cover several essential characteristics of Spanish fascism: the utopia of workers and entrepreneurs associating in a common lobby; conceptions of work; the "aesthetic" nature of the leadership; the relationship between ideology, culture and politics; the political strategy of the Falange; the imminent revolution myth as a factor supporting the dynamics of the Franco regime. The book also contains a lengthier study by Ferran Gallego about the leading theoretician Ramiro Ledesma Ramos. This study enables the author to analyse several crucial aspects in the rise of Spanish fascism.
Gutiérrez Molina, José Luis. La tiza, la tinta y la palabra. José Sánchez Rosa, maestro y anarquista andaluz (1864-1936). Editorial Tréveris; Libre Pensamiento, Cádiz 2005. 385 pp. Ill. € 12.00.
This is the biography of an Andalusian schoolteacher who alternated his work for the anarchist press and activities as a propagandist with sojourns in prison and in exile. Sánchez Rosa opposed the syndicalist course of the CNT and was expelled from that trade union in 1920. Dr Gutiérrez Molina conveys an extensively documented life course and in the second part of the book reproduces the pamphlets and stories of Sánchez Rosa. The appendix comprises the bibliography of the pamphlets and their respective locations, as well as those of his press articles, and prefaces to publications by others, a chronology, a list of sources and an extensive secondary bibliography.
Sánchez Rodríguez, Jesús. Teoría y práctica democrática en el PCE (1956-1982). [FIM Historia.] Fundación de Investigaciones Marxistas FIM, Barcelona 2004. 411 pp. € 19.00.
This study examines the political line adopted by the leadership of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) during the period under review. The democracy issue is pivotal here, on the one hand as an objective of the party policy under Francoism and on the other hand as guidance along the path to socialism. In 1982 the party was neutralized following a series of exclusions, a crushing electoral defeat, the end of euro-communism and the subdivision into three parties. The author presents this party history in the national context of the transition to democracy and relates it to the course of the international communist movement.