Volume 52 part 2 (August 2007)
Bibliography
General Issues
Continents and Countries
- Africa
Egypt | Malawi | Namibia | Nigeria | Tanzania | Zimbabwe - America
Argentine | Cuba | United States of America - Asia
China | India | Indonesia | Iran |Japan | North Korea | Turkey - Australia and Oceania
Australia | New Zealand - Europe
Austria | France | Germany | Great Britain | Hungary | Italy | 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 SCIENCEBoltanski, Luc and Ève Chiapello. The New Spirit of Capitalism. Verso, London [etc.] 2005. xlvii, 601 pp. $ 95.00; £75.00.
This is the English translation of Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme (1999), an influential critique of the changes in global capitalism and its business culture that have taken place over the last three decades. Based on analysis of contemporary management texts, professors Boltanski and Chiapello argue that from the mid-1970s onwards, the hierarchical Fordist work structure has made way for a network-based form of organization, founded on employee initiative and autonomy at the workplace. At the same time, this development has been accompanied by increased material and psychological insecurity for employees.
Critical Junctions. Anthropology and History beyond the Cultural Turn. Ed by Don Kalb and Herman Tak. Berghahn, New York [etc.] 2005. viii, 185 pp. $45.00; £27.00.
The eight essays in this collection, originating from a special, tenth-anniversary issue of Focaal - European Journal of Anthropology, critique recent poststructuralist and postmaterialist cultural and social analysis since the linguistic or cultural turn in the overlapping fields of historical anthropology and anthropological history. In their introduction, the editors advocate "revitaliz[ing] the social" in anthropological and historical analysis, in part by rethinking class and class formation.
Economic and Political Contention in Comparative Perspective. Ed. by Maria Kousis and Charles Tilly. Paradigm Publishers, Boulder [etc.] 2005. xiii, 265 pp. $75.00. (Paper: $29.95.)
The eleven essays in this volume examine the interactions between political contenders and their political and economic surroundings, based on empirical research on primarily contemporary contentious politics in North America, Europe and East Asia. Drawing on and reacting to Charles Tilly's work in this field, most analyses in the volume focus on interactions between state and suprastate institutions, economic structures and actors, as well as on social groups staking claims. Included are contributions on specific political, economic and other opportunity structures; on economic change as a bearer of opportunity or threat and the impact of economic change on particular instances of political mobilization; and on the internal dynamics of contentious politics.
Fülberth, Georg. G Strich - Kleine Geschichte des Kapitalismus. PapyRossa Verlag, Köln 2005. 314 pp. € 19.80.
This textbook aims to offer a theoretical and historical overview of capitalism as both a societal and an economic system. Professor Fülberth first analyses the various theoretical definitions given by and debates amongst a range of authors, including Karl Marx, Werner Sombart, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein. He then offers a concise historical overview from early pre-industrial capitalism to the rise of neoliberal capitalism after 1974.
Goode, Luke. Jürgen Habermas. Democracy and the Public Sphere. [Modern European Thinkers.] Pluto, London [etc.] 2005. vi, 165 pp. £ 14.99.
This textbook aims to offer a critical introduction to the concept of the public sphere as developed by the German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas (1929) and to assess its relevance to contemporary society and social theory. In Habermas' work, the public sphere is seen as a social forum that allowed people to debate, while maintaining such a forum is considered essential to democracy. The erosion of these spaces as a result of a modern consumer society calls for a rethinking of democracy.
Lewis, William S. Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism. Lexington Books, Lanham [etc.] 2005. 238 pp. £15.99.
This study examines how the Marxist philosophy of Louis Althusser (1918-1990) derived from the developments and concerns of pre and postwar French Intellectual Marxism and the French Communist Party. Through this historical approach to Althusser's philosophy and its context, Professor Lewis aims to show that the work of Althusser provides interesting solutions to problems of Analytical and Continental approaches to Marxist thought that may have been relevant to contemporary Marxism.
Resistance in Practice. The Philosophy of Antonio Negri. Ed. by Timothy S. Murphy and Abdul-Karim Mustapha. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2005. vii, 265 pp. $90.00; £60.00; € 90.00. (Paper: $29.96; £17.99; € 27.00.)
The eight essays in this collection engage with the political philosophy of Antonio Negri (1933), Italian radical philosopher and activist, and co-author, with Michael Hardt, of the influential book Empire (2000). The first four contributions (by Michael Hardt, Sergio Bologna, Alisa Del Re and Steve Wright) discuss Negri's place in the countercultural context situated in the revolutionary decade following 1968. The other four contributions (by Kathi Weeks, Nick Dyer-Witheford, José Rabasa and Kenneth Surin) focus more on the relevance of Negri's work to radical militancy in the present.
Tilly, Charles. Trust and Rule. [Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiv, 196 pp. $55.00; £35.00. (Paper: $19.99; £14.99.)
This comparative study of trust networks (e.g. kinship groups, clandestine religious sects and trade diaspora) examines how and with what consequences members of these networks have throughout history insulated themselves against political control and have evaded, compromised with or even sought connections with political regimes. Professor Tilly argues that different forms of integration between trust networks and political regimes can produce authoritarian, theocratic and democratic regimes, and thus that studying of this integration can provide an essential background in explanations of democratization and de-democratization.
Workers in the Informal Sector. Studies in Labour History, 1800-2000. Eds: Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Jan Lucassen. Macmillan, Dehli [etc.] 2005. viii, 220 pp. Rs. 795.00.
The nine essays in this volume, based on a workshop organized by SEPHIS in Mexico City, critique the concept of "informal sector labour" as it applies to both historical and contemporary working conditions in the so-called informal sector in countries of the South. In regional case studies of e.g. Congo, Thailand, India and several Latin American countries, the contributors use approaches from various disciplines, such as economics, anthropology, history and sociology, to take issue with the Eurocentric paradigm of development that sees the emergence of an industrial proletariat, in a wage-labour relationship with capital, as a centrality and "informal" labour as transitional or residual.
HISTORY
Canning, Kathleen. Gender History in Practice. Historical Perspectives on Bodies, Class, and Citizenship. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2006. xiii, 285 pp. Ill. $56.50; £32.50. (Paper: $21.95; £12.50.)
In this volume, Professor Canning has brought together eight essays, all but one previously published (or revisions of such texts) between 1994 and 2004, examining major methodological and theoretical issues in feminist history and gender history and the impact these issues may have on our understanding of European history. Included are an overview of the state of the art in European gender history and two influential essays: "Feminist History after the 'Linguistic Turn'" (1994) and "The Body as Method" (1999). A thematic bibliography on gender history and theory is appended.
Conner, Clifford D. A People's History of Science. Miners, Midwives, and "Low Mechanicks". Nation Books, New York 2005. xiii, 554 pp. Ill. $17.95.
In this general history of science, Mr Conner contends that anonymous masses of ordinary people, including manual workers and artisans, have contributed much more to the development of science and technology than is generally acknowledged by historians. Reflecting a chronological perspective from the prehistoric period onward, the study highlights the period from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, encompassing the origins of modern science, with a geographic focus on Europe. Navigational sciences and the "union of capital and science" that occurred during the scientific revolution receive special consideration.
Eckhardt, Wolfgang. Von der Dresdner Mairevolution zur Ersten Internationale. Untersuchungen zu Leben und Werk Michail Bakunins. Verlag Edition AV, Lich 2005. 219 pp. Ill. € 48.00. (Paper: € 14.00.)
Mr Eckhardt has brought together in this volume a concise biographical study - including a review of a German biography of Bakunin by Madeleine Grawitz (2000) - and four essays on different aspects of Michael Bakunin: the discovery of new archival materials, known as the Dresdner Bakunin files; Bakunin's relationships with Karl Marx and George Sand; and his relationship with Johann Philipp Becker, a founding member of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA).
Gorny, Yosef. Converging Alternatives. The Bund and the Zionist Labor Movement, 1897-1985. [SUNY series in Israeli Studies.] State University of New York Press, Albany 2006. xiii, 309 pp. $27.95.
This study contrasts the attitudes towards the concept of a Jewish nation within the Bund and the Zionist labour movement from the foundation of the Bund and the first Zionist Congress of in 1897, until the remains of the Bund decided to join the Jewish local and world institutions in 1985. Professor Gorny covers historical developments including the Bolshevist Revolution, the rise of the Nazis in Germany, the Holocaust, the Jewish-Arab conflict and the gradual disappearance of these two movements to explain the connection between nationalism and multiculturalism in the Jewish modern tradition. See also Rena Fuks-Mansfeld's review in this volume, pp. 298-300.
Grier, David Alan. When Computers Were Human. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. viii, 411 pp. Ill. £22.95.
This study examines the history of scientific calculation labour from the invention of calculus and the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century to the wide-scale introduction of modern computers in the mid-1960s. Focusing on the actual workers who performed the calculations, Professor Grier reviews organized scientific computational projects in fields such as astronomy and engineering, dealing with division of labour, standardization, managerial control and professionalization and mechanization, and the role of female workers in this field.
Khan, Rahman. Autobiography of an Indian Indentured Labourer. Munshi Rahman Khan (1874-1972). Jeevan Prakash. Transl. By Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Ellen Bal and Alok Deo Singh. Shipra, Delhi 2005. lii, 271 pp. Rs. 495.00.; $25.00.
This is the English translation of the autobiography of Rahman Khan (1874-1972), an indentured labourer from the United Provinces, India, who left for Paramaribo, Surinam, at the age of 24. Originally written in Devangari, Khan, a practising Muslim, looks back on his early life in India and his career as contract plantation worker, plantation overseer and teacher. In their introduction, the editors place his life story in the broader contexts of colonialism, transnational migration and the living and working conditions of Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean.
Leo Trotzki. Sozialismus oder Barbarei! Eine Auswahl aus seinen Schriften. Hrsg.von Helmut Dahmer. Promedia, Wien 2005. 175 pp. S.fr. 22.70; € 12.90.
In this volume, Professor Dahmer, editor of a new German edition of Leo Trotsky's works, presents a selection of 25 of Trotsky's writings intended to offer an introduction to his political and sociological analyses. The essays are organized around three major themes: historical and political analyses (including the last chapter from Die permanente Revolution (1930)); fascism and Stalinism; and perspectives of socialism.
Myconos, George. The Globalizations of Organized Labour 1945-2005. [International Political Economy Series.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2005. viii, 208 pp. £50.00.
Aiming to establish how and in what measure the transnational network of labour organizations has globalized since 1945, this study considers two specific indicators: the extent of cross-border integration, and the degree of autonomy towards the state. Dr Myconos argues that while the transnational network of labour organizations is more integrated than ever, it remains heavily oriented towards the national state. Taking an agency-focused approach, he concludes that this paradox of increased transnational integration and continued fixation with state authority may in itself open new terrains of engagement, such as with oppositional civil realm actors less entangled with the national state.
Osterhammel, Jürgen and Niels P. Petersson, Globalization. A short history. Transl. by Dona Geyer. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. xi, 182 pp. £14.95.
In this English translation of an originally German volume, Geschichte der Globalisierung. Dimensionen, Prozesse, Epochen (2003), Professor Osterhammel and Dr Petersson trace the emergence of globalization over the past eight centuries. They aim to show that the phenomenon dates back to early modern large-scale trading between the Near East and South Asia, and that the period 1750 to 1880 marked a new phase of globalization, with the development of free trade and the long-distance impact of the industrial revolution. They argue that today's globalization is thus part of an ongoing transformation and not a radically new phenomenon.
Postma, Johannes Menne. The Atlantic Slave Trade. University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2005. xxii, 177 pp. Ill. £18.95.
This textbook gives an introductory overview of the history of nearly 400 years of Atlantic slavery. In the survey of the development of African slavery from 1502, when the first African slaves were taken to Hispaniola, until slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, Professor Postma deals with the following issues: the capture of slaves and the Middle Passage, the identities of slaves and their fate after capture, the economics of the slave trade, the abolitionist struggle and the legacy of slavery. Biographies of leading individuals and a selection of primary documents are included as well.
Snelders, Stephen. The Devil's Anarchy. The Sea Robberies of the Most Famous Pirate Claes G. Compaen and The Very Remarkable Travels of Jan Erasmus Reyning, Buccaneer. Autonomedia, Brooklyn, NY 2005. xi, Ill. 212 pp. $9.95.
This concise study of seventeenth-century Dutch piracy focuses on the careers of two exemplary pirates: Claes Compaen, who between 1623 and 1627 became renowned as a charismatic, successful pirate, and Jan Erasmus Reyning, a buccaneer who operated in the jungles of Santo Domingo. Dr Snelders places these pirate careers in the context of a rebellion against the hierarchical seventeenth-century society and analyses to what extent these pirates are to be regarded as libertarian radicals, rebelling against the emerging merchant capitalist class and forming an anarchist, egalitarian counter-culture of their own.
Sulle tracce di un fantasma. L'opera di Karl Marx tra filologia e filosofia. A cura di Marcello Musto. Manifestolibri, Roma 2005. 389 pp. € 30.00.
This anthology contains the 24 contributions to an international scholarly conference held in Naples in 2004. The participants were renowned experts on the work of Karl Marx. The objectives of the conference were to offer a platform for comparing the most recent interpretations of Marx's writings and to illustrate the resumption of the publication of MEGA². The gathering emphasized the philological aspects of Marx's work in accordance with the desire to distinguish the authenticity of Marx's ideas from party-based interpretations of them. The topics were: the MEGA², Marx during his early years, das Kapital and Marx as perceived today.
Szreter, Simon. Health and Wealth. Studies in History and Policy. [Rochester Studies in Medical History.] University of Rochester Press [etc.], Rochester [etc.] 2005. xiii, 506 pp. Ill. £90.00; £65.00.
Historical demographer, Professor Szreter (see IRSH, 41 (1996), pp. 421-424, and 49 (2004), p. 176) has brought together in this volume twelve essays, all but one previously published, on the historical relation between health and wealth. In the first part, he reviews the main historiographic debates from 1945 onward about the relationship between demographic change and economic development. The following four essays focus on an alternative interpretation of the principal causes of the change in mortality following the Industrial Revolution. The last part addresses contemporary policy issues concerning health and wealth from a historical perspective.
Treiber, Hubert and Heinz Steinert. Die Fabrikation des zuverlässigen Menschen. Über die "Walhlverwandtschaft" von Kloster- und Fabrikdisziplin. Mit einem Vorwort von Adolf Holl. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2005. 186 pp. Ill. € 24.90.
Taking Foucault's concept of disciplinization as a point of departure, together with insights from Max Weber and Norbert Elias, professors Treiber and Steinert compare in this revised edition of a study that was originally published in 1980 the process of social disciplining as developed in medieval monasteries with practices of disciplining workers in nineteenth-century factory settlements. Focusing among others on the workers' colony Kuchen in Württemberg, the authors argue that disciplining principles inside monasteries, such as a "methodical way of life", figure more generally in the nineteenth-century process of disciplining factory workers.
Van Goethem, Geert . The Amsterdam International. The World of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), 1913-1945. [Studies in labour history.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2006. vi, 320 pp. $99.95; £50.00.
This comprehensive history of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), from its origins in 1913 to its dissolution in 1945, is a revised English version of a Dutch dissertation (see IRSH, 50 (2005), pp. 520ff.). Dr Van Goethem examines the predicament of the IFTU during World War I and in the interwar period, when international solidarity became subject to increasing pressure. Themes dealt with include the challenges from rival Soviet organizations, the role of women, anti-fascist activities and the co-operation of international trade unions with Allied secret service and propaganda organizations. See also Reiner Tosstorff's review in this volume, pp. 300-303.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Dittature, opposizioni, resistenze. Italia fascista, Germania nazionalsocialista, Spagna franchista: storiografie a confronto. A cura di Lutz Klinkhammer, Claudio Natoli [e] Leonardo Rapone. [Biblioteca di storia contemporanea.] Edizioni Unicopli, Milano 2005. 340 pp. € 18.00.
This collection contains thirteen revised contributions to a scholarly gathering organized in Tuscany in 2003 on historical research in Italy, Germany and Spain about opposition and resistance to fascism. Rather than embarking on a systematic comparison of Nazism, fascism and Francoism, the contributors review the course of events in each of the countries concerned by examining resistance and opposition to these movements and their repression. The main focus is the perspective from which the three national historiographies address these themes: the methodology, the selection of the vantage points, the interpretations and the conceptual frameworks.
Hilson, Mary. Political Change and the Rise of Labour in Comparative Perspective. Britain and Sweden 1890-1920. Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2006. 352 pp. Maps. SEK 290.
This comparative study explores political change and the emergence of a working-class political movement in two naval dockyard towns, Plymouth in Britain and Karlskrona in Sweden, in the period 1890-1920. Dr Hilson explores the politics of naval defence in the local context and the challenges that this represented for the emerging labour movements in these cases. She argues that her comparison of local studies shows that successful cross-national comparisons should derive from a more pluralist understanding of the complex processes and regional patterns and variations that make up a national case. See also Kenneth Lunn's review in this volume, pp. 296-298.
Towards a Comparative History of Coalfield Societies. Ed. by Stefan Berger, Andy Croll [and] Norman LaPorte. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. vi, 287 pp. £55.00.
While mineworkers have often played a central role in labour historiography, the seventeen contributions to this volume aim to offer a new, comparative perspective on the history of mining by focusing on local coal mining societies that are compared and contrasted with similar communities elsewhere. Covering mining communities on five continents, the authors deal with issues such as political activism and class relationships from the perspectives of gender, ethnicity, race and specific localized cultural traditions, representations of miners and mining communities in photography and film and myths of radicalism among mine workers.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
The Global History Reader. Ed. by Bruce Mazlish and Akira Iriye. Routledge, New York [etc.] 2005. x, 302 pp. £17.99.
This anthology brings together 28 essays, previously published between 1983 and 2001, on the general theme of global history. Drawing on perspectives from history, as well as other disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology and development studies, contributions deal with a broad range of themes, including questions of periodization, time and space; the information revolution; multinational enterprises; migration; consumerism; environment; human rights; non-governmental organizations; nationalism and internationalism; and terrorism.
Lieten, Georges Kristoffel. Child Labour. Burning Questions. Inaugural Lecture. Delivered as the Professor in Child Labour Studies, in particular the historical and social aspects, on behalf of the International Institute of Social History at the University of Amsterdam, on Friday 21 November, 2003. Aksant, Amsterdam 2005. 37 pp. € 9.90.
In this professorial inaugural lecture on Child Labour Studies, Professor Lieten deals with questions about the historical context of the phenomenon of child labour, which can be traced back to the nineteenth century, when with the onset of the industrial revolution children came to be exploited under miserable circumstances in factories, and an international movement against child labour commenced. Discussing the contemporary campaigns against child labour, the author examines definitions, data about the amount of child labour, the extent to which the practice is restricted to developing countries, and what the best possible solutions to the problem might be.
Milanovic, Branko. Worlds Apart. Measuring International and Global Inequality. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. ix, 227 pp. £18.95.
This study addresses the issue of global income distribution among both countries and individuals. Reviewing commonly used concepts of unweighted international inequality and population-weighted inequality, Professor Milanovich introduces a third concept, that of interhousehold inequality, in combination with household survey data from more than one hundred countries to show that over the last fifty years both inequality between countries and inequality between individuals within countries have increased and are likely still growing. At the same time, the author argues, economic globalization makes the issue of international and global economic justice more topical than ever.
CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES
AFRICA
Egypt
Cohen, Mark R. Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt. [Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World.] Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc]. 2005. xi, 287 pp. £26.95.
Based on documents found in a medieval synagogue in Old Cairo, this study explores how the large Jewish community in medieval Cairo dealt with poverty within its midst. Professor Cohen uses insights from recent research into poverty and charity in medieval and early modern Europe to explain the central role of private charity. He concludes that the relatively narrow gap between the poor and the rich and the precariousness of wealth made charity one of the most important binding agents of the Jewish community. A selection of translated primary sources is appended.
Malawi
Mandala, Elias C. The End of Chidyerano. A History of Food and Everyday Life in Malawi, 1860-2004. [Social History of Africa.] Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH 2005. xiv, 346 pp. Ill. $139.95; £80.00.
Focusing on the food system in the Tchiri Valley region in Malawi, Professor Mandala explores in this study the concepts of food sharing and distribution and the co-existence of famine and abundance to show that a region's food processes involve both spatial and agricultural processes and social ones. To this end, he considers issues such as the relation between political and environmental crises and famine, how cotton-growing relates to food supply and daily food cultivation routines, as well as the historical phenomenon of food gaps on a seasonal basis. See also Jan-Bart Gewald's review in this volume, pp. 306-308.
Namibia
Leys, Colin and Susan Brown. Histories of Namibia. Living through the Liberation Struggle. Life histories told to Colin Leys and Susan Brown. The Merlin Press, London 2005. 165 pp. £14.95.
In this collection eleven participants in the Namibian struggle for independence share their stories. These accounts were gathered between 1989 and 1992. The tapes are stored at the National Archives and at the Centre for African Studies in Basle. The life stories are preceded by a brief introduction about the Namibian liberation struggle. The stories convey a varied impression of the generation that helped achieve the liberation and address armed struggle, life in exile, fighting in the city and the role of women in the liberation movement. The authors have also tackled embarrassing situations, such as SWAPO's detention of its own members (the "Spy crisis") in Lubango.
Nigeria
Sparks, Randy J. The Two Princes of Calabar. An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2004. 189 pp. € 14.95.
This study reconstructs the lives and adventures of two members of a ruling family of African slave traders in the port of Old Calabar, along the slave coast of Africa (present-day Nigeria), who were captured by English slave traders in 1767. The princes were betrayed by their African competitors and transported in enslavement to the Caribbean. Through their language and interpersonal skills they negotiated several escapes, ending up in England. There they sued for and won their freedom and returned to Old Calabar, where they probably resumed their business of slave trading. Based on the princes' rediscovered correspondence, Professor Sparks sketches the world of the eighteenth-century Atlantic slave trade from the perspective of the African elite.
Tanzania
In Search of a Nation. Histories of Authority and Dissidence in Tanzania. Ed. by Gregory H. Maddox and James L. Giblin. [Eastern African Studies.] James Currey; Kapsel Educational Publications; Ohio University Press, Oxford; Dar Es Salaam; Athens, OH 2005. xiv, 337 pp. £50.00. (Paper: £16.95.)
This collection, a Festschrift presented to Professor Kimambo when he stepped down as president of the Historical Association of Tanzania in June 2001, encompasses 17 contributions on Tanzanian nationalism and dissidence. Two contributions deal with the Zanzibar Revolution. The introduction relates the contributions through the "knowledge" theme. The colonial authorities monopolized knowledge as required and assigned indigenous knowledge a strictly local role. The nationalism that emerged in opposition to colonialism followed the same course but united colonial subjects at a national scale, curtailing the scope for political discourse. This is manifested clearly in the contribution by James R. Brennan "The Short History of Political Opposition & Multi-Party Democracy in Tanganyika 1958-64".
Zimbabwe
Jackson, Lynette A. Surfacing Up. Psychiatry and Social Order in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1908-1968. [Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry.] Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. xiii, 230 pp. Ill. $55.00; £31.50. (Paper: $24.95; £14.50.)
This study is a sociocultural investigation of colonialism, based on the case study of the Ingutsheni Lunatic Asylum. Opened in 1908 in Bulawayo, this institution was an important part of the colonial order. The author considers the subject from the perspectives of Fanon and Foucault. The concept of "surfacing up" denotes the European practice of labelling Africans who did not submit to the colonial order as patients. Psychiatry was used by the colonial powers to define the lives of the subjects in spatial and conceptual terms. Disciplining measures increased in the 1950s with the introduction of psycho-pharmaceutical drugs, electroshock therapy and lobotomies. The sources include 400 patient files.
AMERICA
Frank, Dana. Bananeras. Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America. South End Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2005. xiii, 137 pp. $12.00.
Professor Frank tells in this study the story of the successful unionization of women banana workers in several Central American countries over the past twenty years. Starting from Honduras, banana women have organized themselves and formed alliances with women in six other banana-exporting countries to establish stronger unions able to present a more powerful front against the transnational corporations and to empower women to struggle for gender equity and women's human rights.
Oostindie, Gert. Paradise Overseas. The Dutch Caribbean: Colonialism and its Transatlantic Legacies. Macmillan Caribbean, Oxford 2005. xi, 204 pp. £16.00.
This book is an abridged and revised version of Oostindie's Dutch work Paradijs Overzee (1997). Written with an English-speaking readership in mind, the author examines in this edition how the history of the Dutch Caribbean fits in the course of events throughout the area. The seven chapters, which may also be read as independent essays, address differences in decolonization between Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. The "identity" concept, in the Dutch Caribbean as well as in the metropolis, is central because of the strong tradition of migration. The book concludes with an up-to-date bibliography.
Argentine
DuBois, Lindsay. The Politics of the Past in an Argentine Working-Class Neighbourhood. [Anthropological Horizons.] University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 2005. xiv, 283 pp. £40.00; $60.00.
Centering on a case study of a Buenos Aires neighbourhood founded in the course of a massive squatter invasion during the early 1970s, this study explores the lasting impact of the transformative project undertaken by the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 that affected the Argentine working class. Professor Dubois analyses how a once-activist Peronist working class community was subdued by the military government's actions and turned apathetic and cynical, supporting a neoliberal Peronist presidency. See also Michiel Baud's review in this volume, pp. 313-315.
Cuba
Hatzky, Christine. Julio Antonio Mella (1903-1929). Eine Biographie. [Forum Ibero-Americanum. Acta Coloniensia, Band 2.] Vervuert Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004. 436 pp. Ill. € 56.00.
This is a biographical study of Julio Antonio Mella (1903-1929), a Cuban student activist and co-founder of the Cuban communist party who was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in exile in Mexico. Regarded as a trailblazer for the Cuban revolution of 1959, Mella has become part of official historical myths created by the Cuban regime in the 1960s, while anti-communists have suggested that his assassination was the result of a Stalinist purge. The author aims to disentangle historical myth from the facts about Mella's turbulent life and his ambivalent relations with the Cuban communist party.
Prados-Torreira, Teresa. Mambisas. Rebel Women in Nineteenth-Century Cuba. University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2005. xii, 186 pp. Ill. $59.95.
In the two wars that preceded Cuban independence (1868-1878 and 1895-1898) women figured prominently in supporting the Cuban cause. Known as Mabisas, the sobriquet for the female freedom fighters, they were recruited from all strata of the population, from among poor black and affluent white women alike. In this study the author describes the background to the support from women in the uprising and their concrete contribution. One chapter is devoted entirely to two important figures, namely Emilia Casanova and Ana Betancourt. In independent Cuba the Mambisas were regarded as heroines and martyrs. Still, women were not granted the right to vote until 1934.
United States of America
Bezís-Selfa, John. Forging America. Ironworkers, Adventurers, and the Industrious Revolution. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2004. xi, 279 pp. Ill. $39.95; £22.95.
In this study of the development of the iron industry and the related labour regimes in eastern British North America and the early Republic between 1620 and 1830, Professor Bezís-Selfa aims to show how this industry connects three revolutions: the industrial revolution, the American Revolution and what he describes as the industrious revolution: a transformation of the way people organized, conducted and valued work. As at the end of the colonial period British North America was the third-largest producer of raw iron, the industry's strategic importance for the struggle for independence was evident, as the industry became increasingly dependent on slave labour.
Lause, Mark A. Young America. Land, Labor, and the Republican Community. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2005. viii, 240 pp. Ill. $42.00. (Paper: $20.00.)
This study of the antebellum American land reform movement examines how the creation of the National Reform Association (NRA) gave rise to an urban, working-class "agrarianism" that advocated equitable access to land and a federal Homestead Act granting land to landless. Professor Lause argues that the alliance between NRA land reformers, who maintained close ties with the Communist League in Europe, and radical abolitionists established the foundations for what became the new Republican Party.
MacCarthy, Kathleen D. American Creed. Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society 1700-1865. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2005. xi, 319 pp. $28.50; £20.00.
This study traces the evolution of civil society - defined as the broad range of institutions and activities that fall between the family and the state - and the ideals behind voluntary civic activism - both as charity and as volunteer efforts - in the United States from the eighteenth century to the Civil War. Professor McCarthy explores the interrelationship between the government, the market and the volunteer sector, as well as the extent to which philanthropy in both these capacities has historically fostered economic development and democratic participation and has thus been pivotal in American democracy.
Making Speech Free, 1902-1909. Ed. by Candace Falk. Assoc. ed.: Barry Pateman. Assist. ed.: Jessica Moran. Ill. ed.: Susan Wengraf. Consult. ed.: Robert Cohen. [Emma Goldman. A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 2.] University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2005. xxii, 639 pp. Ill. £38.95.
This is the second volume in a two-volume series that presents original texts, many of which have been published in or translated into English for the first time, to document the historical memory of Emma Goldman and the world of American and European radicalism she represented. The texts include personal correspondence, newspaper articles, government surveillance reports from America and Europe, court transcripts and lecture notes. This second volume focuses on Goldman's role in the early battle for freedom of expression and its relation with anarchist ideas and explores the early evolution of Goldman's magazine Mother Earth, launched in 1906.
Minchin, Timothy J. Fighting Against the Odds. A History of Southern Labor Since World War II. [New Perspectives on the History of the South.] University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2005. xiv, 232 pp. $59.95.
Dr Minchin aims to give a concise synthetic overview of the history of the experience of workers and organized labour in the American South between World War II and the present. Including oral histories and covering topical issues such as the decline of the textile industry and patterns of economic change, he argues that the South's lower wages, lower rates of unionization and legacy of racial segregation continue to set the region apart. The author believes that this situation is attributable not so much to the characteristics of the southern workers as to the particularly strong and often violent anti-labour attitude of southern employers and the persistent racial segregation.
Mixon, Gregory. The Atlanta Riot. Race, Class, and Violence in a New South City. [Southern Dissent.] University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2005. xv, 197 pp. Maps. £44.50.
Focusing on the Atlanta riot of 1906 as one of the defining events of race relations in Southern and African-American history, Professor Mixon examines in this study the context for racial violence in the city, the state of Georgia and the South as a whole, as well as the conditions that led to the outburst. He argues that traditional explanations regarding the riot should be revised to reflect consideration for the attempts of Atlanta's white elite to reaffirm their dominance over a black community that acquired greater autonomy and political influence as a result of the urbanization and industrialization at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Pfeifer, Michael J. Rough Justice. Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Ill. [etc.] 2004. x, 245 pp. Maps. $35.00.
In this cross-regional history of lynching and its relation to the development of criminal justice and dominant notions of race and gender in the United States from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, Professor Pfeifer argues that in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, mid-western, western, and southern lynchers shared a commitment to "rough justice": the harsh, informal and often communal punishment of what they perceived as serious criminal behaviour. As the rural and working-class rough justice enthusiasts eventually compromised with the bourgeois advocates of due judicial process, the death penalty, according to the author, remains as a legacy of this compromise.
Pietsch, Eva. Gewerkschaft, Betrieb und Milieu in der Bekleidungsindustrie. Europäische Einwanderer in Baltimore 1870-1930. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen. Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 28.] Klartext, Essen 2004. 413 pp. Ill. € 45.00.
This dissertation (University of Bielefeld, 2000) focuses on the development of the garment industry in the city of Baltimore in the decades around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century to explore the struggle of immigrant workers, primarily from central, eastern and southern Europe for collective organizations. Based on trade unionists' and employers' sources, Dr Pietsch aims to show how the changes in garment production, from small-scale sweatshops to large-scale factory production, affected existing forms of solidarity based on ethnicity, gender and professional qualifications, and how this process corroborated the complementary nature of class-based and ethnic social ties.
Rhomberg, Christopher. No There There. Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2004. xiii, 315 pp. Ill. $40.00; £26.95. (Paper: $19.95; £12.95.)
In this history of the Californian city of Oakland in the twentieth century, Professor Rhomberg looks at the urban social movements and the successive periods of popular insurgency that have characterized the city's history: Ku Klux Klan action in the 1920s, labour protests in the 1940s and the rise of civil rights and black power struggles in the 1960s. He argues that the episodes of popular insurgency inform us about critical discontinuities in the general American experience of urban political community.
Slater, Joseph E. Public Workers. Government Employee Unions, the Law, and the State, 1900-1962. ILR Press (an imprint of Cornell University Press), Ithaca [etc.] 2004. viii, 260 pp. € 39.95.
This study analyses how public sector labour law in the United States evolved from the early twentieth century onward, why it developed separately from and was much more restrictive than private sector labour law, and what effect this had on public sector unions and on organized labour as a whole. Professor Slater examines a series of battles that public sector unions fought in the workplace, courts and the political arena, culminating in the first public sector labour laws in the 1960s and a substantial rise in labour organization in the public sector.
Witt, John Fabian. The Accidental Republic. Crippled Workingmen, Destitute Widows, and the Remaking of American Law. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2004. 311 pp. £32.95.
Between 1865 and the 1910s injury and death rates among American workers rose dramatically, coinciding with a profusion of initiatives and institutions to cope with this acute industrial accident crisis. Professor Witt explores in this study the effects of the legal and political struggle over accident law for the ideology of free labour in this period, government intervention in economic life and the way the American administrative welfare state developed.
Zipf, Karin L. Labor of Innocents. Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715-1919. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 2005. xi, 207 pp. $42.95.
In this study of the legislative and judicial history of forced apprenticeship in eighteenth and nineteenth-century North Carolina, Professor Zipf explores how the state, codified by law, used involuntary apprenticeship not only to define who was an unacceptable parent but also to indenture their children. The author shows how free people of colour and poor white single mothers were disproportionately affected by this practice that also provided an alternate source of cheap labour after slavery was abolished. Only with the 1919 Child Welfare Act and the statutory elimination of apprenticeship did this practice end.
ASIA
China
Zheng Yangwen. The Social Life of Opium in China. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiii, 241 pp. Ill. $70.00; £40.00. ($29.99; £15.99.)
This study traces the introduction and transformation of opium consumption in China over a period of 500 years, from the late fifteenth to the late twentieth centuries. Situating opium and its consumption in its social and cultural context, the author aims to show how the introduction and social acceptance of opium smoking resulted from both exogenous and endogenous forces, and how Chinese people of different classes, times and regions formed a complex culture of consumption. She concludes that the institution that opium became helps elucidate many aspects of these 500 years of Chinese history.
India
Chari, Sharad. Fraternal Capital. Peasant-Workers, Self-Made Men, and Globalization in Provincial India. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Cal.) 2004. xxv, 379 pp. Ill. £31.95.
In the final decades of the twentieth century a booming fashion industry serving the global market emerged in the town of Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, South India. In this ethnographic study, Dr Chari focuses on the men of modest, Gounder-caste origins, who entered the industry as peasant-workers and, working through networks of small, family-owned firms producing for global markets, became successful factory owners in their own right. The author analyses how these self-made men drew on their cultural background and a system of fraternal capitalism, while remaking the traditional class and gender relations in the local garment industry. See also Dina Siddiqi's review in this volume, pp. 311-313.
Indonesia
Martyn, Elizabeth. The Women's Movement in Post-Colonial Indonesia. Gender and nation in a new democracy. [Women in Asia Series.] RoutledgeCurzon, London [etc.] 2005. xi, 264 pp. £60.00.
This study examines women's activism in the decade following Indonesia's independence in 1949. Questioning the meaning of democratization for women in this period and their relationship to national sovereignty, Dr Martyn explores women's organizations and their activities; women's social and economic roles; and the various cultural, regional and ethnic attitudes in Indonesia towards women. The author argues that the political change of the nationalist movement has failed to fully address women's interests and needs. See also Agung Ayu Ratih's review in this volume, pp. 315-317.
Roosa, John. Pretext for Mass Murder. The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'État in Indonesia. [New Perspectives in Southeast Asian Studies.] University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2006. xii, 329 pp. Ill. $60.00 (Paper: $23.95.)
The events and background of the failed coup d'état in Indonesia of September 30th 1965, when young leftist-nationalists and people associated with the Indonesian Communist Party kidnapped and assassinated a number of anti-communist army leaders and proclaimed a revolution, followed by unprecedented repression and bloodshed, have remained a huge mystery for contemporaries and historians alike. In this study Professor Roosa aims to unravel this mystery through new primary source materials and interviews. See also Olle Törnquist's review in this volume, pp. 308-311.
Iran
Martin, Vanessa. The Qajar Pact. Bargaining, Protest and the State in Nineteenth-Century Persia. I.B. Tauris, London [etc.] 2005. x, 214 pp. Ill. £45.00.
In this social history of Iran under the Qajar government in the period 1834-1896, Professor Martin focuses on the non-elite, lower social groups in urban society. The author argues that though despotic, the regime tried to strike a balance between the state and society. She presents three local case studies of Bushire, Shiraz and Isfahan to illustrate this effort. Four thematic chapters deal with the role of women in political demonstrations; the role of the unruly poor in ensuring social justice in communal battles with the state; the weakening of the social position of soldiers and the army; and the lot of slaves in Iranian, Islamic society.
Japan
Gendering Modern Japanese History. Ed. by Barbara Molony and Kathleen Uno. [Harvard East Asian monographs, vol. 251]. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2005. xi, 607 pp. $60.00; £38.95; € 51.00.
The sixteen essays in this anthology aim to review the history of Japan from 1868 onward from a gender perspective. Organized in five sections representing main themes in gender studies, the contributors deal with the construction of identities and how this process relates to culture; gender and sexualities; gender, imperial regimes and war; gender divisions of labour in households, economy and society in general; and theories about gender, power and the state.
Nagata, Mary Louise. Labor Contracts and Labor Relations in Early Modern Central Japan. [Changing Labour Relations in Asia.] RoutledgeCurzon, London [etc.] 2005. viii, 184 pp. £60.00.
Focusing on the city of Kyoto, one of the three great cities of the Tokugawa period, the author examines in this study the legal, economic and social relations of labour in the commercial enterprises of early modern Japan. Dr Nagata argues that although commercial businesses were family firms (as in early modern European cities), family practice and organization differed in that outsiders were incorporated into family space. Using documents of accusation, investigation, apology, reconciliation and punishment, the author focuses specifically on cases of conflict and their resolution in the paternalistic environment of the family.
North Korea
Lankov, Andrei. Crisis in North Korea. The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956. [Hawai'i Studies on Korea.] University of Hawai'i Press [etc.], Honolulu 2005. xv, 274 pp. Ill. £32.95.
The period of de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union was also a turning point in North Korean history. This study examines, based on recently opened Soviet archives, press accounts and interviews, the impact of post-1953 Soviet reforms on North Korea and the unsuccessful de-Stalinization attempts. Dr Lankov documents the various dissident groups, their attempts to oust Kim Il Song in the failed "August plot" of 1956 and the influence of China and the Soviet Union on the purges of the opposition up until the end of the 1950s, when Kim succeeded in creating his own version of "national Stalinism".
Turkey
Kaya, Ibrahim. Social Theory and Later Modernities. The Turkish Experience. [Studies in Social and Political Thought.] Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2004. xi, 180 pp. £40.00. (Paper: £18.50.)
Examining the establishment and development of the modern Turkish nation-state as a case study, Professor Kaya analyses its historical background, the role of ethnicity and nation and the ways in which state, society and economy were configured in the Turkish republic. Placing his study in the context of the current debate about modernization in relation to Eurocentrism, he argues that the case of the Turkish republic reveals that modernization is not identical to "Westernization", and that there are multiple historical versions of modernities. Focusing on the role of Islamism and the paradoxical role of women within that movement, he argues that this must be understood as a modern movement rather than as a return to tradition.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
Australia
A Turbulent Decade. Social Protest Movements, and the Labour Movement, 1965-1975. Ed. by Beverley Symons and Rowan Cahill. Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney 2005. x, 94 pp. $20.00.
In September 2001 the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) organized a conference on social protest movements and the Australian labour movement in the period 1965-1975. The papers in this volume are based on this conference and consist of memoirs of activists from the Anti-Vietnam War and Anti-Conscription Movements, the Student, New Left and Counter Culture Movements, Women's Liberation, Gay and Lesbian Rights, Aboriginal Land Rights and Civil Rights, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Trade Union Movement and the Australian Labour Party. The veteran activists recall and reflect upon the period that came to be known as Australia's "cultural revolution".
New Zealand
Class, Gender and the Vote. Historical Perspectives from New Zealand. Ed. by Miles Fairburn and Erik Olssen. University of Otago Press, Dunedin 2005. 288 pp. Ill. $39.95.
The twelve essays in this volume represent recent work produced by two major New Zealand research projects: the Caversham Project, initiated by Erik Olssen in the late 1970s (see also IRSH, 44 (1999), pp. 419-449), and the working class conservatism project, founded by Miles Fairburn and S.J. Haslett. All essays derive generally from the idea that the problem of fragmentation in contemporary historical sciences may be addressed through a quantitative approach to history. Themes covered include class and social structure, social mobility, voting behaviour and the cultural dimension of class and politics. The concluding chapter provides advice on electronic processing of large historical data sets.
EUROPE
L'apogée des syndicalismes en Europe occidentale 1960-1985. Sous la dir. de Michel Pigenet, Patrick Pasture et Jean-Louis Robert. [Série Internationale, vol. 75.] Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris 2005. 282 pp. € 25.00.
The eight essays in this volume, originating from a comparative, transnational and multi-disciplinary project, examine the role and position of trade unions in Western Europe during the heyday of trade unionism and the modern welfare state. The contributions, most written by a team of authors, deal with trade unionism in the automotive industry; in education; trade unionism and its relation to the welfare state in Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands; the role trade of unions within factories; their relations with the new social movements since 1968; trade union militancy and militants in Belgium and France; and links with public opinion and greater prominence of communication.
Dissent and Opposition in Communist Eastern Europe. Origins of Civil Society and Democratic Transition. Ed. by Detlef Pollack [and] Jan Wielgohs. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xviii, 275 pp. $99.95; £55.00.
The eleven contributions to this volume examine the social and political significance of (intellectual) dissidence and opposition in ten state-socialist societies in the postwar period: Poland (Stefani Sonntag); Czechoslovakia (Oldrich T?ma); Hungary (Máté Szabó); the GDR (Marc-Dietrich Ohse); Soviet Russia (Viktor Voronkov and Jan Wielgohs); Estonia (Rein Ruutsoo); Romania (Cristina Petrescu); Bulgaria (Dimitrina Petrova); Croatia (Katarina Spehnjak and Tihomir Cipek); and Slovenia (Ivan Bernik). In their conclusion, the editors stress the importance of considering national differences in comparing the various country studies.
Genegenheid en gelegenheid. Twee eeuwen partnerkeuze en huwelijk. Red. Jan Kok en Marco H.D. van Leeuwen. Aksant, Amsterdam 2005. viii, 339 pp. Ill. Maps. € 25.00.
This volume aims to offer a general overview of historical research on marriage choices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Netherlands and Flanders. The fourteen contributions examine questions such as how these choices came about, increases in freedom of choice, who and what influenced marriage choice, and how marriage choice relates to integration of ethnic and other minorities, to reproduction and to social stratification and social class.
Judentum und Historismus. Zur Entstehung der jüdischen Geschichtswissenschaft in Europa. Ed. by Ulrich Wyrwa. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2003. 256 pp. € 34.90; Sfr 58.60.
The ten essays in this volume deal with the radical change in historical thinking amongst European Jewry and the emergence of Jewish historiography in the nineteenth century. Contributors trace this development in Germany, England, France, Italy and the Polish-language area and explore specific themes, such as consideration of the Jewish past from a middle-class perspective, the relation between Jewish historiography and theology, the role of history in Jewish historical novels and the demand for historical perspectives in Jewish family commemoration.
Lynch, Katherine A. Individuals, Families, and Communities in Europe, 1200-1800. The Urban Foundations of Western Society. [Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time, No. 37.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2003. xiii, 250 pp. Ill. £25.99.
In this study of how the rise of different forms of voluntary association in European towns and cities related to the demographic and family history of Europe from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, Professor Lynch explores why and how men and women created communities for mutual protection outside solidarities of kinship, as well as the role these communities played in the emergence of a civil society. Aiming to show the various features of European urban society that stimulated this collective organization outside the family, she covers a broad range of communities from "confessional" associations in the Reformation to the "imagined" community of the French Revolution. See also Marco H.D. van Leeuwen's review in this volume, pp. 295-296.
Rutar, Sabine. Kultur - Nation - Milieu Sozialdemokratie in Triest vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Soziale Bewegungen. Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 23.] Klartext Verlag, Essen 2004. 384 pp. € 45.00.
The central theme in this dissertation (European University Institute, Florence, 2001) is the development of the cultural praxis within social-democratic cultural associations in the city of Triest during the final decades of the Habsburg monarchy. Dr Rutar examines the collective interpretation schemes that provided the foundation for a multinational urban political milieu. The strong presence of the issue of nationalities and nationalism in this ethnic, linguistic - and soon also political - frontier city offers, according to the author, a hybrid reality in which new ideas and value systems quickly gained currency.
Tilly, Charles. Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000. [Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xiv, 305 pp. £16.99.
Professor Tilly uses a comparative general history of contentious politics in France and Britain from the mid-seventeenth to the twentieth century as a foundation for more general comparisons of the relationship of democratization, "de-democratization" and contentious politics across Europe. He finds that democratization occurred as a result of struggles during which few participants were consciously trying to create democratic institutions. He argues that favourable circumstances for democratization vary from era to era and from region to region as functions of previous history, international environments, available models of political organization and predominant patterns of social relations.
Austria
Healy, Maureen. Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire. Total War and Everyday Life in World War I. [Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare, Vol. 17.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2004. xv, 333 pp. £45.00; $75.00.
During the final phase of World War I, from 1917 onward, the city of Vienna succumbed to civilian mutiny before the final collapse of the Habsburg state in 1918. This study examines this collapse from the perspective of everyday life in the empirical capital. As deteriorating conditions led to severe material shortages and near starvation, Professor Healy argues, a war mentality spread to all sites of everyday life, and Viennese civilians waged a socially devastating war against one another, changing popular conceptions of "Austria".
France
Bloyet, Dominique [et] Jean-Pierre Sauvage. La répression anti communiste en Loire-Inférieure 1939-1944. Geste editions, La Crêche 2004. 380 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
Between July 1942 and March 1943, 331 militants and sympathizers of the PCF - the French communist party that had already become clandestine from September 1939 onward - from the Loire Atlantique Department were arrested by the French police. Among them were several Spanish Republican refugees. This study traces their fate. The authors discovered through archival research that 61 were executed, 121 deported to German concentration camps and the others sent to French prisons and internment camps.
Chambost, Anne-Sophie. Proudhon et la norme. Pensée juridique d'un anarchiste. [L'Univers des normes.] Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2004. 295 pp. € 22.00.
Following a recent study on the views of the French utopian socialist and anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) on the issue of justice and violence (see IRSH, 51 (2006), p. 341), this second study is about Proudhon on the judiciary. Mrs Chambost explores how Proudhon solves the apparent paradox implied in the anarchist relation to law by distinguishing between discipline imposed by the state (heteronymous principle) and discipline that reflects a consensus between members of society (autonomous principle). At the same time, she aims to show how Proudhon was also a critical and astute observer of nineteenth-century judiciary trends.
Goldhammer, Jesse. The Headless Republic. Sacrificial Violence in Modern French Thought. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. x, 205 pp. $45.00; £24.50.
This study examines the French debate over the role of sacrifice and sacrificial violence in the process of political foundation. Focusing on the theoretical debate among three French counter-Enlightenment intellectuals (Joseph de Maistre, Georges Sorel and Georges Bataille), Professor Goldhammer explores why French revolutionaries reclaimed ancient concepts of sacrificial violence, how this action instigated a modern theoretical debate about the role of sacrifice in founding politics, and how these intellectuals reconceptualized this relationship between sacrificial bloodshed and political foundation.
Jourdan, Maxime. Le Cri du Peuple (22 février 1871-23 mai 1871). L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 306 pp. € 25.50.
Le Cri du Peuple was the most important and well-known daily newspaper in Paris during the Commune, in terms of its circulation, the quality of its contents and the prestige of its executive editor Jules Vallès. This study examines the newspaper's short-lived history and its role and position in the political turbulence of the Paris Commune. As critics of various sides, the editors were torn between their desire for editorial independence and their support for the Communard cause. Thus, the author argues, Le Cri du Peuple remains a role model for political journalism.
Le Bars, Loïs. La Fédération unitaire de l'enseignement (1919-1935). Aux origines du syndicalisme enseignant. Syllepse, Paris 2005. 556 pp. € 35.00.
This study explores one of the origins of educational syndicalism in France as apparent from the establishment and development of the Fédération unitaire de l'enseignement. Dr Le Bars sketches how the Fédération, founded in 1919 as part of the revolutionary, communist Confédération générale du travail - unitaire (CGTU), in addition to representing the more politically radical element of educational syndicalism in France, was at the vanguard of educational innovation. In 1935, the Popular Front policy of the French communist party and the CGTU in the 1930s led the Fédération to merge with the Syndicat national des instituteurs (SNI).
Mollier, Jean-Yves. Le camelot et la rue. Politique et démocratie au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles. Fayard, Paris 2004. 365 pp. Ill. € 22.00.
In this history of street peddlers and newspaper boys in France in the period 1870-1914, Professor Mollier aims to show how they were pivotal in the political developments of the era, as distributors of often-contentious literature and brokers of what he labels the library of the pavement. Examining how in the course of the nineteenth century street peddlers, selling a wide variety of goods, pamphlets and newspapers evolved into the typical French phenomenon of the camelots, the author sketches their central role in the tumultuous political events of the period, including the Panama scandal and the Dreyfus affair.
Rosenberg, Clifford. Policing Paris. The Origins of Modern Immigration Control between the Wars. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2006. xviii, 241 pp. $57.50; £32.95. (Paper: $23.95; £13.50.)
This study explores the origins of immigration control and surveillance by police and security services of political activists in France in the interwar period. Professor Rosenberg aims to show how in the period after 1918, the French police, alarmed by the Bolshevik Revolution and out of fear for immigrant criminality, became the first major state force anywhere that systematically imposed distinctions of citizenship and national origins. He argues that with these new policies the modern concept of "immigrant" took shape. See also Mathieu Deflem's review in this volume, pp. 303-305.
Germany
Borsdorf, Ulrich. Hans Böckler. Band 1: Erfahrungen eines Gewerkschafters 1875-1945. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen, Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 31.] Klartext, Essen 2005. 386 pp. Ill. € 48.00.
Lauschke, Karl. Hans Böckler. Band 2: Gewerkschaftlicher Neubeginn. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen, Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 32.] Klartext, Essen 2005. 422 pp. Ill. € 39.90.
This is a two-volume biography of Hans Böckler (1875-1951), a German trade-union leader and the first chairman of the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), the postwar West-German trade union confederation. It consists of a revised and expanded edition of a biography, written by Ulrich Bosdorf, originally published in 1982 (see IRSH, 28 (1983), p. 269) and covering his life up until 1945, and a second volume, by Karl Lauschke, which deals with the postwar years, in which Böckler was a trailblazer in his struggle for a unified trade union confederation and parity employee participation in the mining industry.
Broué, Pierre. The German Revolution, 1917-1923. [Historical Materialism Book Series.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2005. xxvii, 991 pp. € 129.00.
Originally published in French as La revolution en Allemagne, 1917-1923 (1971), this is a very comprehensive and detailed reconstruction study of the six years during which German leftist revolutionaries, and in particular the German Communist Party (KPD), attempted to bring about a socialist revolution in Germany. After outlining the prewar developments in the SPD and the crisis of German social democracy during World War I, Professor Broué gives a chronological account of the political developments over the period and assesses the prospects of socialist revolution in this period. In an introduction to the English translation, Eric D. Weiz sketches the historiographical context of this major work.
Der Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund 1956-1963. Bearb. von Jens Hildebrandt unter Mitarb. Von Boris Schwitzer. [Quellen zur Geschichte der deutschen Gewerkschaftsbewegung im 20.Jahrhundert, Band 12.] Dietz, Bonn 2005. 970 pp. € 78.00.
This bulky volume is a new part of an ongoing, multi-volume publication of sources concerning the history of the German trade-union movement from 1914 (see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 122). It documents the history of the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), the West German trade union central, in a period where it gained awareness of its political role and power in West German politics. The 137 documents brought together here consist mainly of the minutes of executive board meetings and related correspondence.
German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing 1919-1945. Ed. by Ingo Haar and Michael Fahlbusch. Foreword by Georg G. Iggers. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2005. xxi, 298 pp. $80.00; £ 47.00. (Paper: $25.00; £15.00.)
The thirteen essays in this volume focus on the involvement of German scholars and academic institutions dedicated to history, geography, ethnography and demography in the foundation and development of Nazi ideology and politics of territorial expansion, colonial exploitation and racist exclusion culminating in the Holocaust. The contributors explore academic programmes and key figures, who from the 1920s onward elaborated ideas and concepts that paved the way for the Nazi policies of ethnic cleansing and looting of cultural treasures. Some of these academics were later active in the SS and the Wehrmacht. Many nevertheless easily resumed their academic careers in postwar Germany.
Großewinkelmann, Johannes. Zwischen Werk- und Schulbank. Duales System und regionale Berufsausbildung in der Solinger Metallindustrie 1869-1945. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen, Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 27.] Klartext Essen, 2004. 366 pp. € 29.90.
From the 1850s until the aftermath of World War II, Germany experienced an unprecedented professionalization of the labour force. Vocational training came to be organized increasingly through a dual system of off-the-job and in-firm training. This study explores the reason behind the development of this dual system, focusing on the system for training metal workers. Competition between the regional and central state authorities was an important factor underlying the system, according to Dr Grossewinkel.
Kühn, Andreas. Stalins Enkel, Maos Söhne. Die Lebenswelt der K-Gruppen in der Bundesrepublik der 70er Jahre. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2005. 358 pp. € 39.90; S.fr. 69.40.
In the 1970s, several radical communist youth movements, which all emerged from the student revolts of 1967/1968, were active in West Germany. This study focuses on three of these groups, generally referred to as "K-Gruppen", which subscribed to Maoist ideals: the KPD/ML, the KPD and the KBW. Dr Kühn explores the origins of these splinter groups, their ideological contexts and mutual differences and the everyday experiences of their members and sympathizers. Although their actual political influence remained marginal, the longer-term influence lies, according to the author, in the fact that many former members of the K-Gruppen have become part of the political and academic elite in present-day Germany.
Kurlbaum-Beyer, Lucie and Notz, Gisela. Krieg tötet Zukunft. Leben und Arbeiten für eine friedliche Welt. Hrsg. und eingel. von Gisela Notz. Dietz, Bonn 2004. 224 pp. Ill. € 12.80.
These are the memoires of the social democrat and trade unionist Lucie Kurlbaum-Beyer (1914). Raised in a working-class, trade-unionist family, she figured prominently in the socialist workers' youth organization before 1933, was arrested twice during the Nazi era and became a leading official in the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), in the SPD, as well as in various consumer organizations after 1945. Central to her autobiographical sketch is the way her experiences during the Nazi era and World War II have left a deep imprint on her postwar activities.
Miller, Susanne. So würde ich noch einmal leben. Erinnerungen. Aufgezeichnet und eingel. von Antje Dertinger. Dietz, Bonn 2005. 216 pp. Ill. € 14.80.
In these memoirs, recorded by Mrs Dertinger, Susanne Miller (1914), social democratic activist and historian, looks back on seventy years of political activism and historiographical work. Early in her life she joined the Internationale Sozialistische Kampfbund, went into exile in London (where she met Willi Eichler) and became a leading figure in the postwar SPD, thereby contributing to the development of the Godesberger party programme. After her dissertation, she became one of the leading historians in the SPD.
Remeke, Stefan. Gewerkschaften und Sozialgesetzgebung. DGB und Arbeitnehmerschutz in der Reformphase der sozialliberalen Koalition. [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen. Schriftenreihe A: Darstellungen, Band 33.] Klartext, Essen 2005. 519 pp. € 39.90.
This dissertation (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2003) explores the role played by the Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), the West German trade union confederation, in the practical and legislative development and expansion of the social welfare state in the era of social liberal reform under the chancellorship of Willy Brandt (1969-1974). Considering the DGB policies on a broad range of social and social security-related issues, Dr Remeke concludes that the trade union was well-positioned to influence the design and realization of the modern German welfare state.
Steiner, André. Von Plan zu Plan. Eine Wirtschaftsgeschichte der DDR. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, München 2004. 275 pp. € 19.90; SFR 35.20.
In this economic history of the GDR, Dr Steiner explores why the communist regime failed to keep up with economic growth in West Germany, and why shortages and a growing national debt persisted and contributed in the long run to the demise of communism in East Germany. The author argues that the main problem was the belief in the power of economic planning and the possibility of engineering economic growth through an economic policy of planning and an all-encompassing grip of the state on economic life.
Timoschenko, Tatjana. Die Verkäuferin im Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich. Etablierung und Aufwertungsversuche eines Frauenberufes um 1900. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2005. 177 pp. Ill. € 36.40.
This revised MA thesis examines how in Germany in the decades around 1900 being employed as a shop assistant gradually became socially acceptable for women. Mrs Timoschenko aims to show how the increasing feminization of sales personnel from the 1890s onward was critically debated at the time, among others in relation to the poor working conditions and remuneration. The first attempts at unionization met with fierce resistance among the existing male-dominated trade unions. Remarkably, the large department stores provided a major impetus toward improving working conditions and vocational training.
Great Britain
Craciun, Adriana. British Women Writers and the French Revolution. Citizens of the World. [Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2005. xi, 225 pp. Ill. £45.00.
This study aims to illuminate the extent to which Romantic-period British women writers cultivated a radicalized cosmopolitanism through their engagement with French revolutionary politics in the 1790s. Dr Craciun covers the entire range from women writers' identification with the "citizens of the world" ideal to the conservative loyalist dismissal of this ideal by writers such as Jane West. Other writers examined include Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Helen Maria Williams, Anne Plumptre and Lady Morgan.
Harris, Bernard. The Origins of the British Welfare State. Society, State and Social Welfare in England and Wales, 1800-1945. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2004. xii, 402 pp. £17.99.
This study aims to offer a general overview of the development of social welfare provisions in Britain (primarily in England and Wales) and the concomitant increase in the extent of state welfare intervention between 1800 and 1945. Starting with the social problems caused by the early nineteenth-century industrialization that provided the foundation for provisions in the areas of health, housing, education and poverty relief, Dr Harris deals chronologically with the expansion of public welfare provisions, including the enormous changes associated with World Wars I and II.
The Invisible Woman. Aspects of Women's Work in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Ed. by Isabelle Baudino, Jacques Carré [and] Cécile Révauger. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. xii, 188 pp. Ill. £45.00.
The fourteen essays in this volume examine women's work in eighteenth-century Britain in three different environments (middle-class households, male-dominated occupations and environments and the world of arts), where working women formed only small groups, holding marginal positions on the labour market, often employed irregularly. The contributors, working in the field of cultural history and social history alike, argue that the temporary, unreliable nature of this work related in part to the changing needs of women at different periods of their lives, but that it also had much to do with the status of women's work in eighteenth-century British society.
Morris, R. J. Men, Women and Property in England, 1780-1870. A Social and Economic History of Family Strategies amongst the Leeds Middle Classes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiii, 445 pp. Ill. £55.00; $95.00.
Using wills, family papers, property deeds, account books and letters as important sources, this study examines middle-class behaviour and property relations in early industrial society from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, focusing on the city of Leeds. Professor Morris' central argument is that in order to survive the economic difficulties resulting from the process of industrialization, middle-class families strongly relied on networks, affirmed by a "gift" network of material goods, finance, services and support. Analysing both individual family networks and the broader domestic and international networks in which families operated, the author aims to show how property figured very much at the centre.
Quinault, Roland. Landlords and Labourers in Warwickshire c.1870-1920. [Dugdale Society Occasional Papers, Nr. 44.] Dugdale Society [etc.], Stratford-upon-Avon 2004. 26 pp. € 5.00.
This small study sketches the changing relationship between landowners and rural labourers in rural and mining areas in Warwickshire, where prominent families were politically active, in the period from 1870 to the 1920s. In this period the enfranchisement of labourers, heightened political awareness, the rise of regional newspapers and unionization of rural labourers and miners led to a temporary decline in the political dominance of Tory landowners, which was nonetheless restored at the end of the period.
Reay, Barry. Rural Englands. Labouring Lives in the Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2004. xiii, 274 pp. Ill. € 16.99.
This textbook aims to provide a general history of rural work and rural workers in nineteenth-century England. Looking at both representations and experiences of rural labour, Professor Reay stresses the diversity and dynamism of rural life in this period and argues that localization is so widespread that the unitary notion of a "rural England" should be replaced by a notion of plural "rural Englands".
Rodrick, Anne B. Self-help and Civic Culture. Citizenship in Victorian Birmingham. [Historical Urban Studies.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2004. xiv, 258 pp. £49.99.
This study explores the changing nature of self-improvement and citizenship in the city of Birmingham in the Victorian period, during which an active culture of self-improvement existed in the form of institutes, societies and journals aimed at disseminating knowledge and learning to a wide group of people. Professor Rodrick attempts to show that self-improvement was seen as a way of creating active and responsible citizens in an age when direct political participation was restricted to a minority, thus illustrating the relationship between culture and political power.
Towns, regions and industries. Urban and industrial change in the Midlands, c. 1700-1840. Ed. by Jon Stobart and Neil Raven. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2005. xiv, 272 pp. Maps. £55.00.
The fourteen essays in this volume aim to offer an analysis of the intertwined processes of urbanization and industrialization in the British Midlands from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Using the link between socio-economic and spatial transformation as the common comparative framework, contributors examine how change in one place related to and influenced processes occurring elsewhere in the region, focus on the industrial development of specific Midlands towns and compare regional development in the Midlands with broader domestic and international developments.
Women and Work Culture. Britain c. 1850-1950. Ed. by Krista Cowman, and Louise A. Jackson. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. x, 251 pp. £45.00.
The twelve contributions to this volume offer a cultural history of women's work in Britain from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The collection focuses on five themes: the changing meanings attributed to work, including ideas of work among Victorian liberal feminists and women Quakers; factory labour, including shopfloor culture at the Rowntree Factory in York; youth, including young working women's contributions to the family economy in the interwar period; medicine and science, including gender and the laboratory culture; and women and war, among which an essay on women working for the British military in World War I.
Woodall, Ann M. What Price the Poor? William Booth, Karl Marx and the London Residuum. [Rethinking Classical Sociology.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. xii, 233 pp. £50.00.
Both Karl Marx and William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, arrived in London in 1849, and both responded in their work in their own distinct way to the poverty they saw around them. Analysing the relationship between Booth's theological discourse and activism and Marx's sociological imagination and social analysis, Dr Woodall argues in this study that Booth's establishment of the Salvation Army and Marx's economic theory are comparable to the extent that both derived from their interactions with the London poor, and each in his own way saw the workings of laissez-faire capitalism as the main cause of the poverty.
Worley, Matthew. Labour Inside the Gate. A History of the British Labour Party between the Wars. I.B. Tauris, London [etc.] 2005. 278 pp. £45.00.
As the British Labour Party in the interwar period evolved from a pressure group, to the national opposition, to a party of government, this period is crucial in the party's development, according to Dr Worley. In this study he aims to offer a comprehensive account of both the parliamentary party and the growing network of constituency parties, combining policy, social history and economics with themes such as gender and culture.
Hungary
Kenez, Peter. Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets. The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944-1948. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2006. ix, 312 pp. Ill. £45.00; $75.00.
In this detailed study of the establishment of the communist regime in Hungary in the immediate postwar years, Dr Kenetz argues that the developments that led to the imposition of communist control resulted from a series of improvisations on the part of the Soviet Union; that the non-communist politicians who resisted full-scale Sovietization had, up to a certain point in time, legitimate reasons for hoping to retain a measure of democracy; and that the communist take-over led to a much-needed social and political revolution.
Italy
Un cammino lungo un secolo. Il lavoro e l'identità democratica dell'Italia. Ediesse, Roma 2005. 193 pp. € 11.00.
This anthology comprises 30 contributions to a series of gatherings organized in 2004 by the Fondazione Giuseppe di Vittorio, the think tank of the Confederazione generale italiana di Lavoro (CgiL) trade-union confederation. The objective was to enrich general understanding of events, episodes and individuals in the twentieth-century history of the CgiL. The topics covered include: the general strike of November 1904 and the clashes with the police that preceded it, the settimana rossa of 1914, the assassination of Matteotti, the mine explosion at Ribolla (1954) and prominent figures from the history of the CgiL: Giorgio La Pira, Oreste Lizzadri and Agostino Novella.
Canteri, Celestino. Memorie del nostro '900. Circoli comunisti, lotte e vita nella Torino capitale operaia. Il Circolo Carlo Marx e il Circolo Garibaldi, Torino, Barriera di Nizza, 1908-1975. A cura di Donato Antoniello. [Di fronte e attraverso, 673.] Jaca Book [etc.], Milano 2004. 206 pp. € 14.00.
This book covers the history of two centres, which were opened by workers from a neighbourhood in Turin and accommodated political, cultural and recreational activities. Celestino Canteri, a worker, wrote these two accounts based on the recollections of members of the clubs. The first volume, which is about the Circolo Karl Marx (1908-1954), was published in 1973. The second volume, which is about the Circolo Garibaldi (1948), a chapter of the Communist Party, is published here for the first time. Donato Antoniello has added detailed notes to both volumes, placing the texts in their socio-political context.
Fabbri, Luigi. Epistolario. Ai corrispondenti italiani ed esteri (1900-1935). A cura di Roberto Giulianelli. [Strumenti per la ricerca storica, 3.] BFS edizioni, Pisa 2005. 527 pp. € 20.00.
This publication comprises the letters written by the Italian anarchist publicist Luigi Fabbri (1877-1935). Dr Roberto Giulianelli has added detailed notes, as well as the introduction to the volume. A confidant of Errico Malatesta, Fabbri figured prominently and was highly respected in Italian and international anarchism. He was the editor of periodicals including Il Pensiero (1903-1911) and formed a vast network of correspondents in Italy and abroad, with whom he discussed matters concerning publications, as well as theoretical and practical issues within the anarchist movement. The correspondence here covers the period 1900-1935 and is arranged chronologically.
Sacchetti, Giorgio. Senza frontiere. Pensiero e azione dell'anarchico. Umberto Marzocchi (1900-1986). Pref. di Claudio Venza. Zero in Condotta, Milano 2005. 543 pp. Ill. € 35.00.
This is a biography of the eminent figure of Italian post-war anarchism Umberto Marzocchi. Based on police reports, correspondence from Marzocchi's private archive, press publications, internal bulletins of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana (FAI), interviews and personal recollections on the part of family members and the author, Dr Sacchetti describes a life that reflects all stages of Italian anarchism in the twentieth century from the Bienio Rosso and the rise of fascism, via the Spanish Civil War and the French resistance to his role within the postwar anarchist organization. Half of the book consists of articles by Marzocchi in theme-based chapters: ideas for the revolution; anarchist organization and activism; Spain as a paradigm; anti-fascism.
Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Hellbeck, Jochen. Revolution on My Mind. Writing a Diary under Stalin. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2006. xi, 436 pp. Ill. $29.95; £19.95; € 25.50.
Jochen Hellbeck studied a wealth of diaries that became available for research during the 1990s from former State and Party archives, from "social" archives such as "Memorial" and the "Narodnyj archive" and from private sources. He found that rather than protecting themselves against totalitarianism in their diaries, most of the diarists sought to anchor their life in a larger narrative of the revolutionary cause in an effort to manifest themselves as historical subjects who helped implement history's progression toward the perfect future.
Plaggenborg, Stefan. Experiment Moderne. Der sowjetische Weg. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt [etc.] 2006. 401 pp. € 39.90; S.fr. 69.40.
This book is intended to contribute to theorization about modernity, based on the historic events relating to the Soviet Union. The author postulates that the Bolshevist experiment derives not only from the Russian circumstances but is also embedded in the European courses of events and should be examined within the context of the history of modernity. On this subject, the author argues on the one hand that theoretical sociology focused too heavily on Western Europe and North America and thus overlooked the events in Eastern Europe and on the other hand that the discipline neglected to address the actual historical events in sufficient detail.
Transchel, Kate. Under the Influence. Working-Class Drinking, Temperance, and Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1895-1932. [Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies.] University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2006. x, 209 pp. $35.00; € 37.00.
This book examines how those in power, both before and after the revolution, related to drinking and the impact of their views on state social policy and on Russia's working classes. It also attempts to reveal and explain the various strategies used by members of the working class to cope with the new realities after the revolution. The focus is on male workers in construction and heavy industry, comparing the situation in four cities: Moscow, Kharkov, Saratov and Tomsk.
Spain
Albaladejo, Jordi and Joan Zambrana. Inicis d'un sindicalista llibertari Joan Peiró a Badalona 1905-1920. Edicions fet a mà, Badalona 2005. 182 pp. Ill. € 12.00.
In this study the authors aim to explore the origin and initial syndicalist and social activities of Juan Peiró (1887-1942). Badalona was where Peiró, who worked in the glass industry and later served as the secretary of the CNT, established the foundation for the views he later expressed about anarcho-syndicalism. The first volume, which covers the period 1905-1914, conveys the local social and political context of Badalona and offers an impression of the labour movement there and the start of the anarcho-syndicalist one, while the second volume explores Peiró's role in its subsequent development. The annex comprises the bibliography of his articles in the assorted periodicals of the movement from 1905 to 1920.
Castillo, Santiago . Trabajadores, ciudadanía y reforma social en españa. Juan José Morato (1864-1938), Tomo I. Siglo XXI [etc.], Madrid 2005, xx, 459 pp. € 17.00.
Castillo, Santiago . Trabajadores, ciudadanía y reforma social en españa. Juan José Morato (1864-1938), Tomo II. Siglo XXI [etc.], Madrid 2005, xiv, 431 pp. € 16.00.
Juan José Morato (1864-1938) joined the typographers' union and the Socialist Party (PSOE) as a young man. He held important positions with the central periodical El Socialista, the National Committee of the party and the trade union. He also worked as a journalist, went on research trips in Spain and abroad and explored lifestyles and living and working conditions among the working class. This book features a biography, followed by a selection from his work as a journalist, primarily from the Heraldo de Madrid. The second volume contains his work from the period after he resigned from the PSOE, when he became freer in his analysis.
Ealham, Chris. Class, Culture and Conflict in Barcelona 1898-1937. [Routledge/Cañada Blanch studies on contemporary Spain.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2005. xvi, 264 pp. Ill. £70.00.
In this study of economic, social and political life in Barcelona in the period 1898 to 1937, Dr Ealham aims to explain why the city became one of the era's most prominent revolutionary centres and the capital of the European anarchist movement. Exploring the sources of anarchist power in the city, the author identifies a range of social groups, movements and institutions that competed with one another to impose their own political and urban projects on the city, resulting in a range of frequently violent conflicts for control of the city, both before and during the Spanish Civil War. See also the author's article on the subject in IRSH, 50 (2005), pp. 373-397.
López García, Basilisa. Obreros cristianos en Europa. Relaciones internacionales de la HOAC (1946-1975). Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2005. 486 pp. € 20.00.
This dissertation (Universidad de Murcia, 2005) reviews the international relations of the Catholic labour organization Hermandad Obrera de Acción Católica. In an effort to overcome Spain's post-war isolation, the Franco regime encouraged the different organizations pertaining to the Acción Católica to establish international contacts. The course of events within the Church informed the views of Spanish Catholics, leading many to defend democratic values and the struggle for human rights. These developments position this study in research about anti-Francoism and the labour movement. The author has based his work on archival research, the periodicals of the organizations and witness testimonies. An extensive documentary appendix appears at the end of the book.
Marín Gelabert, Miquel Á. Los historiadores españoles en el franquismo, 1948-1975. La historia local al servicio de la patria. Institución "Fernando el Católico" [etc.], Zaragoza 2005. 395 pp. € 22.00.
In this study about Spanish historiography during the Franco dictatorship, the author, who is preparing a PhD thesis on the subject, reviews the role of local historiography. During the Franco era the state encouraged local historiography via the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) as a means toward self-legitimation. Mr Marín Gelabert explores how this effort materialized between 1948 and 1965 at universities and CSIC research centres and analyses the research methods applied and interactions with scholars in other countries. The author concludes by addressing the transition in the period 1965-1975 to a university model of local historiography.