Volume 52 part 3 (December 2007)
Bibliography
General Issues
Continents and Countries
- Africa
South Africa - America
Canada | Chile | Haiti | Mexico | Peru | United States of America - Asia
China | Indonesia | Iran - Australia and Oceania
New Zealand - Europe
Belgium | France | Germany | Great Britain | Italy | The Netherlands | Poland | Romania | 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 SCIENCEBaert, Patrick. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Towards Pragmatism. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. viii, 210 pp. $59.95; £50.00. (Paper: $24.95; £15.99.)
This study aims both to assess six major modern approaches in philosophy of the social sciences and to promote a new, original pragmatic stance in that discipline, an approach rooted in American realism. Dealing subsequently with naturalism, the approach developed by Emile Durkheim; Max Weber's interpretative method; Karl Popper's falsificationism; critical realism; the Frankfurter School's critical theory; and Richard Rorty's philosophy of pragmatism, Professor Baert presents the key authors of these approaches and sketches the philosophy of social sciences in connection to the disciplines discussed, such as sociology and history.
Borghetti, Maria Novella. L'oeuvre d'Ernest Labrousse. Genèse d'un modèle d'histoire économique. [Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales/Studies in History and the Social Sciences, 106.] Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 2005. 299 pp. € 25.00.
Camille-Ernest Labrousse (1895-1988) may be considered one of the founders of modern economic and social historiography in France and of histoire sérielle, quantitative history. In this study the author analyses both Labrousse's contributions to the economic history of France and his great significance for historical methodology by focusing on his treatment of sources, and the origins and application of his main theoretical concepts. The author also discusses the contemporary relationship between economic history and economic theory, the use of modern statistical methods and the creation of temporal categories.
Grumley, John. Agnes Heller. A Moralist in the Vortex of History. Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2005. xi, 327 pp. £16.99.
This study is intended as a comprehensive introduction to the work of the Hungarian born philosopher Agnes Heller. Starting out as a protégé of the Marxist theorist Georg Luckács, she elaborated her own, critical version of Marxism in path-breaking studies on Marx's theory of needs. After increasing political exclusion as an intellectual dissident and her forced emigration to Australia in 1977 (and later to the United States), she broke with Marxism. Subsequently she developed her own radical philosophy, leading to her idiosyncratic position of "reflective postmodernism", which, according to Dr Grumley, is both sceptical and utopian.
Haug, Wolfgang Fritz. Dreizehn Versuche marxistisches Denken zu erneuern gefolgt von Sondierungen zu Marx / Lenin / Luxemburg. [Berliner Beiträge zur Kritischen Theorie, Band 3.] Argument, Hamburg 2005. 317 pp. € 19.50.
In this revised edition of a volume originally published in 2001, the German Marxist scholar Wolfgang Fritz Haug, editor of the Historisch-kritisches Wörterbuch des Marxismus, brings together thirteen essays - most of which are revised versions of previously published articles - in which he reflects on the development of Marxist theory in the twentieth century and sketches the perspectives of Marxist theory and philosophy after the demise of the Soviet Union and the "real existing socialism". Appended are three essays in which Professor Haug discusses the contemporary relevance of Marx's learning process, Rosa Luxemburg's dialectical method and Lenin's concept of revolution.
Munck, Ronaldo. Globalization and Social Exclusion. A Transformationalist Perspective. Kumarian Press, inc., Bloomfield, CT 2005. xvi, 190 pp. £15.95.
The central argument in this study of the social effects of present-day globalization is that social exclusion, defined as all the ways that people are excluded from the necessities of life, is the necessary social counterpart to globalization. Professor Munck analyses the relationship between globalization and social exclusion from what he labels as a transformationalist perspective. Referring to the work of Karl Polanyi and others, he defines this perspective as one that enables us see that the great transformation brought about by economic globalization generates a countermovement, based on the continuously remerging human drive for positive social transformation.
North, Douglass C. Understanding the Process of Economic Change. [The Princeton Economic History of the Western World.] Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. xi, 187 pp. £18.95.
Noble-prize-winning economist Professor North, who introduced in economic history the theory of institutionalism, which holds that economic performance is determined largely by the kind and quality of institutions that support markets, aims to explain in this study how different societies throughout history have accomplished the institutional infrastructure defining their economic trajectories. Central to his argument is the concept of intentionality, a variable that emerges as the product of social learning. This, according to the author, shapes the economy's institutional foundations and thus its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.
Reed-Danahay, Deborah. Locating Bourdieu. [New Anthropologies of Europe.] Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 2005. xii, 208 pp. $55.00; £35.95. (Paper: $21.95; £14.95.)
Drawing on the perspectives of "autoethnography and autobiography", Professor Reed-Danahay examines in this study the life and work of the influential French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002). Using Bourdieu's own reflections on his life and career, the author situates him within the French academic and intellectual milieu and within the current state of anthropological and sociological theory. She deals with the major themes and concepts in Bourdieu's work, such as structure and practice, taste and distinction, habitus, social field, symbolic capital and symbolic violence.
Stjernø, Steinar. Solidarity in Europe. The History of an Idea. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiii, 392 pp. £48.00; $75.00.
This study examines the development of the concept of solidarity in eight European nations from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Examining how the definition has changed over time, Professor Stjernø analyses different aspects of solidarity, such as its foundation, its goal and the degree of inclusiveness. Comparing different concepts in the social democratic, Christian democratic, communist and fascist movements, he concludes that the Marxist conception of class solidarity has been broadened to include all citizens and to encompass issues such as women's rights, racial politics and the environment.
HISTORY
Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. Perilous Passage. Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital. [World Social Change.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 2005. xxv, 395 pp. $72.00.
In this global history of the rise of capitalism and of the West, economic historian Professor Bagchi aims to bring together "the insights of the historians of war and those of Marxist and world-system theorists to characterize the emergence and operation of actually existing capitalism as a system that engages in unlimited combat, backed when necessary by arms, for the conquest of labour power, nonlabour resources, and markets rather than one that operates on the principle of free markets". He challenges Eurocentric views on the rise of capitalism and argues that Europeans gained a decisive advantage over China and India thanks only to the maturing of the machine-based Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century.
Codello, Francesco. "La buona educazione". Esperienze libertarie e teorie anarchiche in Europa da Godwin a Neill. [Studi e ricerche storiche.] FrancoAngeli Storia, Milano 2005. 700 pp. € 42.00.
In addition to its revolutionary aspirations, anarchism has always included advocates of education and teaching. This book is a study of educational ideas and experiments from Godwin to the present and covers persons such as Stirner, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoy, Reclus, Fabbri and others, as well as experiments in different countries, some conducted under revolutionary circumstances, also inspired by the ideas of Francisco Ferrer. In a separate chapter, the author addresses the relationship between politics, education and culture elaborated in the Encyclopédie-Anarchiste.
Culturas imperiales. Experiencia y representación en América, Asia y Africa. Comp. Ricardo Salvatore. Colab. Renato Ortiz; Walter D. Mignolo; Gilbert M. Joseph [etc.] [Estudios Culturales.] Beatriz Viterbo, Rosario 2005. 383 pp. Ill. $44.00.
The twelve contributions to this volume, with an introduction by Ricardo Salvatore, are based on the colloquium Re-pensar el imperialismo, held at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires in August 2000. In his introduction, Salvatore discusses the changing context of imperialism. Globalization has put subjects such as "cultural imperialism" in new perspective. Migration, the rise of a multi-polar world and intensive circulation of cultural commodities have created a new context. Walter Mignolo has contributed a particularly interesting discussion of Wallerstein, Castells and Negri and Hardt, in which he devises the "colonialidad global" concept.
Gökay, Bülent. Soviet Eastern Policy and Turkey, 1920-1991. Soviet foreign policy, Turkey and communism. [Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe, Vol. 5.] Routledge, London etc. 2006. xiv, 184 pp. Ill. £70.00.
In this book the author analyses the relationship between the Soviet Union and Turkey on the one hand and the Soviet Union and the Turkish Communist Party on the other, revealing how the Comintern's encouragement of local communist parties conflicted with the policies of the Soviet leadership in fostering good relations with Turkey. The book offers a chronological framework for examining the extent to which the Soviet Union influenced the course of Turkish politics and exploited Turkey's communists to its advantage.
Laval, Michel. L'homme sans concessions. Arthur Koestler et son siècle. Calmann-Levy, Paris 2005. 706 pp. € 25.00.
This is a biography of the Hungarian-born writer Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), who became acclaimed in particular as author of the anti-communist novel Darkness at Noon (1940), dealing with the Stalinist purges. Mr Laval, who bases himself entirely on French editions of Koestler's works and secondary literature published in French, gives a chronological overview of Koestler's eventful life, emphasizing his cosmopolitism and his consistent and uncompromising critical stance towards totalitarian ideologies.
Papers for the People. A Study of the Chartist Press. Ed. by Joan Allen and Owen R. Ashton, [Merlin Press Chartist Studies, vol. 7.] Merlin Press, London 2005. xx, 232 pp. £45.00. (Paper: £15.95.)
The nine essays in this volume review the role of the press in the Chartist movement from its early beginnings in the 1830s to the movement's more variegated manifestation in the late 1850s. In this period the Chartist movement published over 120 newspapers and periodicals. Relating the rise of the Chartist press in the context of the evolution of journalism in this period, the essays cover not only England and Scotland but also include studies of the press in Wales, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Johansen, Anja. Soldiers as Police. The French and Prussian Armies and the Policing of Popular Protest, 1889-1914. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. ix, 329 pp. £55.00.
The period 1890-1914 saw a wave of mass protest in both the German Empire and the French Third Republic, when industrial disputes, public protest and riots repeatedly jeopardized the political, social and economic order. This study compares the methods used by the German and French political elites to maintain public order and the role of the French and Prussian armies in controlling popular protest. Focusing on the use of troops in the two most industrialized areas of Germany and France, the Westphalian Ruhr district and the French region of Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Dr Johansen finds that the two countries took distinctly dissimilar paths in modernizing protest policing.
Patel, Kiran Klaus. Soldiers of Labor. Labor Service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America, 1933-1945. Transl. by Thomas Dunlap. [Publications of the German Historical Institute.] Cambridge University Press [etc.], Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xii, 446 pp. Ill. $65.00; £45.00.
This study aims to offer a comparative examination of the labour policies of Nazi Germany and of Roosevelt's New Deal. Focusing on the German Reichsarbeitsdienst, a public works project that provided work and education for young men, and exploring this organization's origins, evolution, organizational structure, educational dimension and its operations, Professor Patel examines the similarities and differences, mutual perceptions and transfers between the Reichsarbeitsdienst and its New Deal equivalent, the Civilian Conservations Corps. He notes striking similarities between the organizations, a fact that, according to the author, greatly irritated President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES
AFRICA
South Africa
Feinstein, Charles H. An Economic History of South Africa. Conquest, Discrimination and Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xxiii, 302 pp. £45.00; $75.00. (Paper: £19.99; $34.99.)
This monograph is intended as a synthesis of what is known about the economic history of South Africa, especially macro-economic aspects, such as agriculture, mining and industry. Economic history in South Africa has revolved entirely around social-political relationships between colonists, indigenous inhabitants and forced or voluntary labour migrants. The author also analyses the economic problems that have resulted from apartheid: low labour productivity and rising costs. Legal and social barriers preventing the emergence of a normal labour market had sweeping economic consequences as well. The book concludes with a substantiated "Guide to further reading".
MacDonald, Michael. Why Race Matters in South Africa. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2006. x, 245 pp. £29.95; $45.00; € 38.30.
This study is based on the assumption that "race" in South Africa is both a cultural and a political construct. The concept of "race" labeled whites as citizens and excluded blacks from both political and economic life. In this study the author aims to reveal that the black uprising of the 1980s made this situation untenable. The capital desired democracy. After 1994 the social wealth remained unevenly distributed. Efforts to refute the reproach that post-apartheid South Africa remains racist have led, according to the author, to a coalition of the ANC and the capital intent upon establishing a black bourgeoisie. From this perspective, the "race" concept is still very much alive in South Africa.
AMERICA
Brockett, Charles D. Political Movements and Violence in Central America. [Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xxi, 380 pp. £45.00; $75.00. (Paper: £19.99; $29.99)
Focusing on El Salvador and Guatemala in the period 1960-1990, this study is about the confrontation between popular movements and repressive regimes in Central America. Looking at both nonviolent social movements and revolutionary movements, Professor Brockett seeks to clarify the impact of state violence on contentious political movements and to explain under what conditions escalating repression provokes challengers to greater activity or the use of violence or, conversely, intimidates them into passivity. He argues that using the political process model to study contentious movements makes for fruitful analysis. See also Charles R. Hale's review in this volume, pp. 509-512.
O'Rourke, David K. How America's First Settlers Invented Chattel Slavery. Dehumanizing Native Americans and Africans with Language, Laws, Guns, and Religion. [Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics, Vol. 56.] Peter Lang, New York [etc.] 2005. 210 pp. € 52.50.
In this study, Mr O'Rourke adopts a linguistic and semiotic perspective to examine the mindset of the European settlers in North America that enabled them to devise the brutal and depersonalized system of chattel slavery. He analyses the system of language and logic and the visions of religion and society that led the settlers to see themselves as Christians and cultured humanists and at the same time to see Native Americans and Africans as "others" and as such unworthy of human status.
Reinhardt, Catherine. Claims to Memory. Beyond Slavery and Emancipation in the French Caribbean. [Polygons: Cultural Diversities and Intersections, Volume 10.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2006. xiii, 202 pp. Ill. $70.00; £42.00.
This study arises from the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1998. In France this event was celebrated as part of the French, universalist history. In the French Caribbean, however, commemorating the institution was considered more appropriate than celebrating its abolition. Reinhardt has used concepts from the works of Foucault, Nora and Edouard Glissant to reconstruct five realms of memory. Combining facts with fiction has created a cultural space that brings to light memories of slavery. Focusing on the second half of the eighteenth century, Dr Reinhardt uses many different sources, including pamphlets, letters, laws and plays in this exercise.
Canada
Frager, Ruth A and Carmela Patrias. Discounted Labour. Women Workers in Canada, 1870-1939. [Themes in Canadian History.] University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 2005. 189 pp. $45.00; £28.00. (Paper: $19.95; £9.25.)
Together with the rise of industrial capitalism in Canada, women's employment increased significantly in the period 1870-1939. Nonetheless, distinctive wage discrepancies and employment patterns continued to characterize women's labour market status, both for women wage-earners and for women as salaried workers. In this study, the authors analyse the reasons and mechanisms for this gender inequality. They also consider divisions among working women, examining how class and ethnic or racial differences have intersected with gender ones.
Heron, Craig and Steve Penfold. THE Workers' Festival. A History of Labour Day in Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 2005. xviii, 340 pp. Ill. $80.00; £50.00. (Paper: $39.95; £25.00.)
In this history of the origins and evolution of the celebration of Labour Day in Canada, the authors consider the social and cultural context of public celebrations and special days in the late nineteenth century and the efforts of organized crafts workers to have Labour Day recognized as a national statutory holiday. Additional themes include the development of the processions; the ways that Labour Day was represented in the media and interpreted by politicians, clergy and others outside the working classes; associations with leisure pursuits; and the decline of Labour Day in the first decades of the twentieth century and its subsequent revival in the latter half of the century.
Chile
Haslam, Jonathan. The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende's Chile. A Case of Assisted Suicide. Verso, London [etc.] 2005. xvi, 255 pp. $23.00; £16.99.
Recently disclosed sources, including archives in the former Soviet block, have enabled the author to provide a more focused account of what is generally known about Allende's fall. In his book Professor Haslam analyses in detail the positions of all players in the dangerous maneuvers that culminated in 11 September 1973. The politics of the Partido Socialista, the Marxist Movimiento del Izquierdo Revolucionario (MIR), connections with Castro and the U.S. interference are highlighted. The secrecy-obsessed Nixon administration supported the coup, even behind the back of the CIA, via the military intelligence service known as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Allende's strengths and weaknesses are addressed throughout the book.
Haiti
Girard, Philippe R. Paradise Lost. Haiti's Tumultuous Journey from Pearl of the Caribbean to Third World Hotspot. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2005. Ill. x, 230 pp. £26.50.
In this study of the colonial and political history of Haiti from its discovery by Columbus in 1492 until the present Professor Girard reviews the main phases of Haitian political history, from the colonial rule by the Spaniards and the French, through the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), the period of independence (1804-1915), the US occupation (1915-1934), to the unstable phase of dictatorships, coups d'état and US interventions in the second half of the twentieth century to show that rather than the legacy of colonialism and violence, the extended history of political misrule makes Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Mexico
Hart, Paul. Bitter Harvest. The Social Transformation of Morelos, Mexico, and the Origins of the Zapatista Revolution, 1840-1910. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 2005. xi, 291 pp. Ill. $42.50.
In this social history of the Mexican state of Morelos in the last half of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries, Professor Hart aims to explain the origins and causes of the Zapatista rebellion in Morelos in the years 1910-1919. He argues that in the nineteenth century the local peasant economy underwent a major transformation that resulted in a commercial agriculture of sugar plantations and gave rise to a rural working class. The social problems that arose from the volatile sugar industry and exclusionary political regime led to the rebellion under leadership of Emiliano Zapatista.
Peru
Aguirre, Carlos. The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds. The Prison Experience, 1850-1935. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2005. xi, 310 pp. Ill. £60.00. (Paper: £14.95.)
During the period examined here, Peru experienced authoritarian modernization, including prison reform. In 1862 the modern prison at Lima was opened as an institution for pioneering sophisticated ideas about rehabilitating prisoners through discipline, work and supervision. The author aims to show that these plans failed in most cases, first because of the Peruvian authorities were unable to implement measures; second because the prison inmates resisted. The third factor was the pervasive social context of exclusion of underlying groups, with beatings and whippings used as the standard means for reprimanding subordinates.
United States of America
Best, Gary Dean. Harold Laski and American Liberalism. Transaction, New Brunswick [etc.] 2005. x, 213 pp. £25.95.
This study of the relation of the British political scientist Harold Laski to American politics and political debate explores the origins of his involvement in American society and his influential role as a fervent Marxist critic of American capitalism and business culture. Professor Best argues that from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, due to the Great Depression and the subsequent political success of Roosevelt's New Deal, Laski could be considered the most influential Marxist public intellectual and had a strong impact on the left in the Democratic party, although his influence started declining after World War II.
Bjelopera, Jerome P. City of Clerks. Office and Sales Workers in Philadelphia, 1870-1920. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2005. ix, 208 pp. Ill. $45.00. (Paper: $22.00.)
Focusing on the city of Philadelphia in the last decades of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries, Dr Bjelopera examines the lives, work choices and workplace experiences of clerks and salespeople within the context of the emerging industrial order. Considering the experiences of male and female workers alike, the author explores issues such as shifting occupational structures, workplace cultures, leisure pursuits, residential patterns and educational backgrounds of the white-collar workforce as it emerged in this period.
Brody, David. Labor Embattled. History, Power, Rights. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2005. x, 166 pp. $40.00. (Paper: $20.00.)
In this volume, Professor Brody brings together nine essays (all previously published) on the relation between labour legislation and erosion of workers' rights in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century. Their common theme is the author's concern that labour laws originally designed to secure workers' rights have turned into instruments to curtail those same rights. All but one of the essays date from after 1992, when Professor Brody called for an "applied labor history", in which labour historians take responsibility to undergird workers' capacity to secure their rights through their scholarly work.
Horne, Gerald. Black and Brown. African Americans and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920. [American History and Culture.] New York University Press, New York [etc.] 2005. x, 275 pp. Ill. £40.50.
African Americans, especially those in the American South, figured in various instances and capacities in the political and social developments in Mexico and more in particular in the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. Professor Horne examines this involvement, covering the relation of Mexican abolitionism and African Americans in the American South, the role of black US soldiers ("Buffalo soldiers") in the invasion of Mexico in 1916 and Mexican efforts to cultivate African Americans as allies within the United States during World War I.
Naison, Mark. Communists in Harlem during the Depression. [Blacks in the New World.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2005. xxi, 355 pp. $25.00.
This study portrays communist activity in Harlem, New York from 1928 to 1941. During the Depression the Communist Party had a profound influence on African-American life -particularly in the civil rights struggle - that was unparalleled in any other period. Sketching the social and cultural ambience in Harlem and the Party's relationship with African-American organizations, Professor Naison explores how the Harlem Communist Party gained support from prominent intellectuals and Harlem residents.
Palladino, Grace. Skilled Hands, Strong Spirits. A Century of Building Trades History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. xii, 274 pp. Ill. $36.00; £19.50.
This study explores the institutional history of the American Building and Construction Trades Department "from a loose federation of contentious unions at the turn of the twentieth century, to the recognized voice of the building trades in the 1930s and 1940s, to the leading protector of prevailing wage laws, apprenticeship training, health and safety provisions, and collective bargaining in the second half of the twentieth century". In chronological order, Dr Palladino focuses, among others, on the struggle to forge a sense of industrial unity among the Trades Department's fifteen (and at times nineteen) autonomous and highly diverse affiliates.
Slaughter in Serene. The Columbine Coal Strike Reader. Ed. by Lowell May and Richard Myers. Bread and Roses Workers' Cultural Center, Denver, Colorado [etc.] 2005. 196 pp. Ill. $19.05.
This volume encompasses five essays on the 1927 strike in the Colorado coal mines led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) that culminated in a bloodbath in November 1927, when the Colorado state militia opened machine gunfire on the strikers causing six casualties. Eric Margolis and Richard Myers describe the wave of strikes in the 1920s in the Colorado coal mines and the events leading up to the shooting; Joanna Simpson offers an oral history of the events; Phil Goodstein places them in a broader political context; and Richard Myers adds a contribution on the role of mining women in the 1920s Colorado coal strikes.
Tait, Vanessa. Poor Workers' Unions. Rebuilding Labor from Below. South End Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2005. xi, 258 pp. Ill. £20.00.
Emerging from 1960s social justice movements, such as the civil rights movement, the New Left and the women's movement, trade union organizations of low-waged, poor workers have thrived in the United States over the past five decades, in stark contrast to the decline of mainstream AFL-CIO unions. This study documents the rise of these poor workers' unions that organize a wide variety of workers (including low-wage service workers, day labourers, domestic workers, undocumented immigrants etc.) and consist largely of people of colour and women. The author argues that the necessary innovations for the labour movement as a whole may be found in these poor workers' unions.
ASIA
China
Ming, Fung Chi. Reluctant Heroes. Rickshaw Pullers in Hong Kong and Canton, 1874-1954. [Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series.] Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 2005. xx, 216 pp. Ill. $49.50.
Focusing on two contrasting but interrelated cities in South China, this study explores the daily lives and social environments of rickshaw pullers in Hong Kong and Canton in the period 1874-1954. Dr Ming aims to show how rickshaw pullers, the majority of whom were migrant workers from varying places of origin, dialect and kinship, bridged the culture of petty traders and physical labourers, as they were partially self-employed. He argues that tackling both patron-client problems and directives, regulations and interventions of the British colonial and Chinese authorities, the rickshaw pullers regularly engaged in collective actions and thus became a formidable political force.
Indonesia
Bosma, Ulbe, Angelie Sens en Gerard Termorshuizen. Journalistiek in de tropen. De Indisch- en Indonesisch-Nederlandse pers, 1850-1958. Aksant/Het Persmuseum, Amsterdam 2005. 96 pp. Ill. € 12.50.
The four essays in this volume, published to coincide with an exhibition on the same subject, aim to offer insight into the history of Dutch newspaper journalism in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia from the nineteenth century until Dutch newspaper ceased publication there in 1957-1958. Gerard Termorshuizen contributes chapters on the newspaper press in the nineteenth-century Dutch East Indies and on the prominence of women in journalism there. Ulbe Bosma's contribution is about the role of journalism in the late colonial society in the period 1900-1940, while Angelie Sens examines the twilight years of Dutch journalism in Indonesia after 1945.
Iran
Nomani, Farhad and Sohrab Behdad. Class and Labor in Iran. Did the Revolution Matter? Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2006. xiii, 268 pp. $49.95.
This study analyses the effects of the Iranian revolution of 1979 on the economic structure and class configuration in Iranian society. Distinguishing two periods in the postrevolutionary period - the first, until 1988, characterized by a search for an Islamic utopia and populist-statist economic policies and the following period a time of reconstruction of capitalist relations and institutions and economic liberalization - Professors Nomani and Behdad use a quantitative model based on the work of Erik Olin Wright to analyse the changes in the social hierarchy in the Iranian workforce, as well as those in the class nature of the Iranian society. See also Parvin Alizadeh's review in this volume, pp. 512-514.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
New Zealand
Olssen, Erik and Hickey, Maureen. Class and Occupation. The New Zealand Reality. University of Otago Press, Dunedin 2005. 317 pp. $45.00.
Based on the work of the Caversham Project at the University of Otago, Professor Olssen and Dr Hickey attempt to identify New Zealand's occupational structure from 1893 to 1938, using the information gathered in the New Zealand Census. Considering how best to code occupations for the whole country and for the regions and localities within it, the authors aim to provide new insight into social change in New Zealand, in particular women's participation in the paid non-agricultural workforce; to analyse the role of scale in shaping the occupational order and the stratification system; and to assess the meaning of concepts such as "class", "industrial" and "urban".
EUROPE
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xix, 384 pp. Ill. $60.00; £35.00.
This is the second edition of the abridged version (published in 1983) of the influential two-volume The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, originally published in 1979. In this study, Professor Eisenstein focuses on the fifteenth century to show how printing and the establishment of printing shops effected three major cultural movements: the Renaissance, the Reformation and the scientific revolution. For this new edition, the author has written an afterword in which she addresses a number of the issues raised after the publication of The Printing Press as an Agent of Change and reaffirms her thesis that the advent of printing entailed a communications revolution with an enormous cultural and social impact.
Essays on Industrialisation in France, Norway and Spain. Ed. by Kristine Bruland. Tid og Tanke, Oslo 2005. 182 pp. Ill. N.kr. 249.00
The nine essays in this volume, both in English and in French, examine a broad variety of aspects of French, Spanish and Norwegian industrial development in the period from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Exploring development paths within specific regions, activities of particular firms or sectors and the evolution of labour migration, the contributions deal with central issues of the industrialization process, such as natural environments, culture, institutions, technology and finance.
Health Care and Poor Relief in 18th and 19th Century Southern Europe. Ed. by Ole Peter Grell, Andrew Cunningham and Bernd Roeck. [History of Medicine in Context.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. vi, 326 pp. £49.50.
This volume, the last in a series on health care and poor relief in Europe between 1500 and 1900, focuses on healthcare and poor relief arrangements by governments and the Catholic Church in Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The thirteen contributions reveal that, compared to Northern Europe (see IRSH, 49 (2004), p. 170), the effects of industrialization and the concurrent population growth were experienced later in most of these areas, and how the role of the Catholic Church in poor relief was far greater up until 1900.
Social Democracy in Europe. Ed. by Pascal Delwit. [Sociologie Politique]. Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, Bruxelles 2005. 250 pp. € 29.00.
The fourteen contributions to this volume analyse the present state, the transformations and the future prospects of social democratic parties in various western, central and eastern European countries. Included are essays on the recent development of the "third way" in a number of European social democratic parties (David S. Bell); the programmatic and ideological changes in European social democracy (Gerassimos Moschonas, Robert Ladrech); the role of social democracy in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall (Patia Gueorguieva; Attila Ágh); and European social democracy's relation with civil society (John Callaghan).
Belgium
Liebman, Marcel. Born Jewish. A Childhood in Occupied Europe. Transl. by Liz Heron. With an intr. by Jacqueline Rose. Verso, London [etc.] 2005. xix, 181 pp. £14.99.
This is the English translation of Né Juif. Une enfance juive pendant la guerre (Paris, 1977), the memoirs of the Belgian Marxist historian Marcel Liebman (1929-1986) of his childhood in Brussels under Nazi occupation. In addition to sketching his family's struggle to survive the constant threat of persecution and being on the run, the author documents the internal class war within the Jewish community, where Jewish notables escaped persecution, while immigrant Jews who lacked wealth and citizenship were denounced and deported.
Een mens leeft niet van brood alleen. Bouwstenen voor een culturele arbeidersgeschiedenis (1800-1940). Jan Art, Bart De Nil, Marc Jacobs (reds.). Amsab, Gent 2006. 304 pp. € 35.00.
The nine contributions to this large and richly illustrated volume are intended as a foundation for a comprehensive history of working-class culture in Flanders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book includes more theoretically-oriented essays, for example on repertoires, networks and cultural practices (Marc Jacobs), on progressive forms of corporatism (Bert De Munck) and the role of Hendrik de Man in social-democratic cultural discourse (Hans Mortelmans) and historical studies of areas such as Christian working-class culture (Jan De Maeyer), sports (Roland Renson) and relations between the cultural avant-garde and the political left in the middle of the twentieth century (Tanguy Eeckhout and Hans Mortelmans).
France
André Philip, socialiste, patriote, Chrétien. Colloque "Redecouvrir Andre Philip" tenu à l'Assemblée nationale les 13 et 14 mars 2003 sous la dir. scientifique de Christian Chevandier et de Gilles Morin. [Histoire économique et financière de la France.] Comité pour l'Histoire Économique et Financière de la France. Paris 2005. 503 pp. € 30.00.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium, held in March 2003 at the French Assemblée nationale in Paris, on the life of André Philip (1902-1970), socialist politician and economist. The twenty-nine contributions in the volume deal with his life and career, with his manifold political and academic offices and activities, including in the French government in exile in London during World War II and as minister of economic affairs after the liberation, and with his political and ideological views. In a preface the well-known philosopher Paul Ricoeur describes his memories of Philip. Excerpts from the correspondence of Philip with De Gaulle are appended.
Beach, Cecilia. Staging Politics and Gender. French Women's Drama, 1880-1923. Palgrave Macmillan, New York [etc.] 2005. 186 pp. € 35.00.
Focusing on the French women playwrights and activists Louise Michel, Nelly Roussel, Véra Starkoff, Madeleine Pelletier and Marie Lenéru, Professor Beach relates their dramatic works to the social, political and feminist movements of the decades around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with which these authors were associated. Examining their works in the context of theatrical movements such as anarchist theatre, social protest theatre, theatre of the people and theatre of ideas, she explores the themes these authors addressed in their plays, including revolution, reproductive rights, divorce and education of women and workers.
Bell, David Scott. François Mitterrand. A Political Biography. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xii, 219 pp. £15.99.
This biography of François Mitterrand (1916-1996) explores his political career, which spanned more than four decades and encompassed a broad variety of political positions and roles. Professor Bell analyses Mitterrand's remarkable journey from the conservative right to his unprecedented fourteen years as socialist president of the French Fifth Republic, examining his techniques for attaining and wielding political power. The author argues that the story of Mitterrand's ambition, manipulation and ideological fluidity elucidates the entire political history of postwar France.
Cours de philosophie. La bienveillance dans les jugements. Édition présentée, établie et annotée par Jòrdi Blanc.[Jean Jaurès Oeuvres philosophiques, 1.] Vent Terral, Valence d'Albigeois 2005. 557 pp. € 35.00.
This first volume of a series of the philosophical works of the French socialist Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) encompasses two hitherto unpublished texts: the text of a philosophy course that Jaurès taught at the lycée of Albi in 1882-1883 and the text of a lecture delivered at the end of that school year, "La Bienveillance dans les jugements" (benevolence in judgements). The editor of the volume offers a general introduction to Jaurès philosophical work and a study of how this period of Jaurès's philosophy teaching in Albi affected the development of his ideas.
Daumalin, Xavier, Jean Domenichino, Philippe Mioche [e.a.]. Gueules noires de Provence le bassin minier des Bouches-du-Rhône (1744-2003). Éditions Jeanne Laffitte, Marseille 2005. 271 pp. Ill. € 35.00.
In 2003 the last operating coal mines were closed in the French department Bouches-du-Rhône, the area of the Rhône River delta. This large, richly illustrated volume offers a comprehensive history of coal mining in this region, which originated from the mid-eighteenth century. Arranged chronologically in three sections, covering the initial phase of small enterprises until 1938; the phase of the large industrial companies until 1946; and the period of nationalizations until the final closures, the book covers three main themes: the development of the companies and organizations involved; the evolution of the related techniques; and the labour and social relations.
Dessertine, Dominique, Olivier Foure [and] Didier Nourrisson. La mutualité de la Loire face aux défis. Enracinement local et enjeux nationaux (1850-1980). Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne 2005. 308 pp. Ill. € 20.00.
In the Loire department in France mutual insurance organizations, of both working-class and of middle-class origins, evolved relatively early on into a regional centralized mutualité, a not-for-profit mutual insurance company that contributed significantly to the emergence of a national federation of mutualités. This study explores the history of these organizations in the Loire region and the related centralization from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, relating it to other trends, such as the rise of social security.
Épistémologie du syndicalisme. Construction disciplinaire de l'objet syndical. Sous la dir. de Vincent Chambarlhac, Georges Ubbiali. [Logiques Sociales]. L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 194 pp. € 17.50.
The authors of the eight contributions to this volume discuss the various approaches used by different social sciences to study trade unionism, predominantly in France. The approaches described are used in the disciplines of history, sociology, business administration, social psychology, ethnology, law, political science and economics. The contributors review the analytical methods used in their discipline and assess in what measure those from other disciplines are appropriate for trade union research in their own. In the afterword, René Mouriaux discusses the topical relevance of trade unionism research in the light of the strike wave in France in 2004.
Heuer, Jennifer Ngaire. The Family and the Nation. Gender and Citizenship in Revolutionary France, 1789-1830. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. viii, 256 pp. $34.95.
This study examines the contradiction between the revolutionary innovations in national citizenship brought about by the French Revolution and the legal status of men and women in their family relationships. Professor Heuer sketches how in the wake of the new revolutionary laws and practice various sorts of conflicts arose between family and citizenship rights, how this situation was reversed in the later years of the Revolution, as authorities progressively subordinated national bonds to familial ones, and how eventually in the Napoleonic Civil Code women's rights and obligations as citizens were formally and consistently superseded by their position in the family.
Huguet, Jean-Marc. La formation d'une élite ouvrière. Industries électrique et gazière 1940-1970. Préface de Anne Vincent-Buffault. [Histoire et mémoire de la formation.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 319 pp. € 27.00.
This study aims to give a detailed history of the origins and evolution of vocational training and training centres and methods in the electric and gas industries in France from the period of the Vichy regime in 1940 until 1970. On the basis of the history of vocational training in a large industrial sector that was nationalized following World War II, Dr Huguet aims to show the enormous changes that took place in the organization and practice of professional education and training due to increases in the demand for skilled labour during the course of industrialization.
Lefebvre, Henri. Critique of Everyday Life, Vol. III. From Modernity to Modernism (Towards a Metaphilosophy of Daily Life). Verso, London [etc.] 2005. xxxiv, 179 pp. £20.00.
This is the English translation of the third and final volume of the series Critique de la vie quotidienne, which originally was published in 1981. The French historian, sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre concludes his critical analysis of quotidian experience in modern consumer society here. This everyday life is colonized, according to the author, by the commodity, as he aims to show by exploring phenomena such as the commercialization of sex or the disappearance of rural festivities. In his preface, the translator places Lefebvre's work in the context of the postwar French intellectual landscape.
Papieau, Isabelle. Portraits de femmes du faubourg à la banlieue. [Logiques Sociales.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 145 pp. € 13.20.
Extensive discussions about the position of women living in suburbs have given rise to several stereotypes. In this study, Dr Papieau analyses the changing images of women in suburbs in France from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. She addresses the discourse among naturalists on female poverty and degeneration as a result of urbanization; the emancipation of suburban women as factory workers in the late nineteenth century; and the social isolation of women in the twentieth-century banlieues.
Rappe, David. La Bourse du travail de Lyon. Une structure ouvrière entre services sociaux et révolution sociale. Préface de Daniel Colson. Atelier de création libertaire, Lyon 2004. 223 pp. Ill. € 15.00.
This history of the Bourse du travail (labour exchange) of the city of Lyon covers the period from its foundation in the late 1880s to the beginning of World War I. Mr Rappe provides in the first chapter a chronological overview of the early beginnings, the revolutionary period of the 1890s and the turn towards reformism at the start of the twentieth century. The following chapters focus in part on the role of the Bourse in social security, education, medical and legal services, as well as its cultural function; its relationship with the local trade union movement; and the composition of its membership.
Raymond, Gino G. The French Communist Party during the Fifth Republic. A Crisis of Leadership and Ideology. [French Politics, Society and Culture.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2005. x, 233 pp. £50.00.
In this study of the position and development of the French Communist Party (PCF) since the beginning Fifth Republic (1958), Dr Raymond explores the party as part of and in connection with the evolution of French society in this period. He analyses the party's failure to adapt to the modernization of French society and the challenges of presidentialism and in the final part assesses how the PCF tries to secure its survival as a credible force of the French left.
Shafer, David A. The Paris Commune. French Politics, Culture, and Society at the Crossroads of the Revolutionary Tradition and Revolutionary Socialism. [European History in Perspective.] Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2005. xi, 226 pp. Ill. £16.99.
This introductory textbook offers a narrative overview of the history of the Paris Commune in 1871 and its origins in the preceding period, as well as an assessment of the evolution of the extensive historiography on the subject. Professor Shafer aims to show how the Commune emerged from a political culture that was formed in part by the heritage of the French Revolution and by typical nineteenth-century events and ideas.
Tartakowsky, Danielle. La part du rêve. Histoire du 1er Mai en France. Hachette Littératures, Paris 2005. 333 pp. € 23.00.
In this comprehensive history of the First of May in France, Professor Tartakowsky gives a chronologically ordered overview of its origins in 1890 and its emergence as the first non-religious national holiday. She traces its relation with the struggle for the eight-hour day, with labour activism and with the emancipation and identity of the labour movement in France. In the last chapter, she looks at the present-day connection with the anti-globalization movement and other causes.
Germany
Bavaj, Riccardo. Von links gegen Weimar. Linkes antiparlamentarisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik. [Politik- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Band 67.] Dietz, Bonn 2005. 535 pp. Ill. € 38.00.
This revised edition of a dissertation (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 2004) is a comprehensive study of leftist anti-parliamentary ideas in the Weimar Republic. Covering the political ideas and activities of individuals, such as Max Adler, Karl Korsch, Georg Luckács, Johannes R. Becher, Erich Mühsam, B. Traven, Ernst Toller, George Grosz, Kurt Tucholsky and Carl von Ossietzky, and organizations as the KPD, the Levi group and the Leninbund, Dr Bavaj aims to show how the young parliamentary democracy in the Weimar Republic was undermined not only by the right-wing anti-parliamentary opposition but also by the anti-parliamentary left.
Becker, Steffen. Von der Werbung zum "Totaleinsatz". Die Politik der Rekrutierung von Arbeitskräften im "Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren" für die deutsche Kriegswirtschaft und der Aufenthalt tschechischer Zwangsarbeiter und -arbeiterinnen im Dritten Reich 1939-1945. dissertation.de - Verlag im Internet GmbH, Berlin 2005. 534 pp. € 59.00.
This dissertation (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2004) examines Nazi recruitment and forced labour policies towards workers in Czechoslovakia from the annexation in 1939 until the end of World War II. Dr Becker relates how Czech workers were actively recruited even before the annexation, and how slowly but surely from the end of 1941 this voluntary recruitment was largely replaced by forced employment policies. In the second part of the book, he focuses on the organizational, legal and practical aspects of the employment of Czech workers in Nazi Germany.
Blasius, Dirk. Weimars Ende. Bürgerkrieg und Politik 1930-1933. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. 188 pp. € 24.90.
In this study of the last three years of the Weimar Republic, Mr Blasius focuses on the threat of civil war in his examination of the political developments and strategies of the ruling bourgeois elites in particular. Basing himself predominantly on the newspapers' coverage of the political conflicts and street violence, the author aims to show how the danger of an impending civil war, resulting from the increase of political violence of the extreme right and extreme left, especially in 1932, played a major role in the media rhetoric in political decision-making.
How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich. Ed. by Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Mark Cioc, and Thomas Zeller. [Ohio University Press Series in Ecology and History]. Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 2005. vi, 283 pp. $49.95. (Paper: $22.95.)
The nine chapters in this volume assess whether the objectives of the National Socialists overlapped with those of the environmentalists in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century. Contributors examine policies, persons, institutions and methodologies to determine whether such overlaps were manifested in laws and policies. Included are essays on the Reich Nature Protection Law, its pre-Nazi origins and its impact on various regions; on individuals, including Martin Heidegger and Klaus Haushofer and their influence on Nazi ideology regarding environmental and geopolitical expansion; and Nazi landscape planning in annexed areas in Eastern Europe.
Hunn, Karin. "Nächstes Jahr kehren wir zurück ...". Die Geschichte der türkischen "Gastarbeiter" in der Bundesrepublik. [Moderne Zeit, Band XI.] Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005. 598 pp. € 46.00.
This dissertation (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 2004) is about the large-scale labour migration from Turkey to West Germany in the period from 1961 to 1984. Dr Hunn explores how from 1961, when the recruitment of temporary guest workers started, until the recruitment stop in 1973 around 865,000 Turkish men came to work in West Germany, and how, contrary to the initial expectations of both the guest workers and the German authorities, these migrant workers gradually and reluctantly underwent a difficult integration as permanent immigrants.
Hutton, Christopher M. Race and the Third Reich. Linguistics, Racial Anthropology and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. vii, 272 pp. Ill. £16.99
This study examines the major questions addressed in racial studies by academic theorists in Nazi Germany. Placing them in the context of the evolving intellectual and ideological landscape of the Third Reich, Professor Hutton focuses on the field of racial anthropology and the politically and intellectually central concept of the Volk to demonstrate that Nazi race theorists actually denied that "Aryan" was a racial category and saw no necessary link between ideal physical appearance and ideal racial character. By defining Jews and others as racial outsiders to be excluded from the body of the German Volk, however, these race theorists became pivotal in the crimes of the Nazi state.
Jegielka, Stephan. Das KZ-Aussenlager Genshagen. Struktur und Wahrnehmung der Zwangsarbeit in einem Rüstungsbetrieb 1944/45. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2005. 110 pp. Ill. € 24.90.
This is a concise study of the KZ-Außenlager Genshagen, a forced labour camp about twenty kilometres south of Berlin, where forced labourers were put to work in the armaments industry of Daimler-Benz. The author explores the organizational structure of the camp and its relation to the Daimler-Benz company to assess the extent to which ordinary Germans living and working in the vicinity of the labour camp were aware of its circumstances and character. Thus, he aims to refute the contention that most ordinary Germans were not aware of the terror of the concentration camps.
Kössler, Till. Abschied von der Revolution. Kommunisten und Gesellschaft in Westdeutschland 1945-1968. [Beiträge zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien, Band 143.] Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005. 499 pp. € 64.80.
This dissertation examines the communist movement and its integration in the democratic political system in West Germany in the period 1945-1968, against the background of the political stabilization of West German society and the progression of the Cold War. Focusing on regional developments in the Ruhr area, Dr Kössler argues that, after its unexpected revival in the years after World War II, the communist movement became largely integrated within the West German democracy through local and regional political negotiations, despite the Cold War rhetoric and its perceived position as a representative of the East German SED.
Lesanovsky, Werner. Lernen, lernen und abermals lernen. August Bebel über Volksbildung, Erziehung und Pädagogik. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2005. 338 pp. € 52.80.
This study examines August Bebel's views on education, schooling and pedagogy. Based on the complete edition of his works, Professor Lesanovsky gives a comprehensive, chronologically ordered overview of the origins and development of Bebel's views on the role of education in socialist policies. Placing Bebel's views in their social historical context, the author aims to show how educational and pedagogical issues became increasingly important in Bebel's political activities and ideas, and how his views were an integral part of his socialist ideology and pivotal to his pursuit of a socialist society.
Literatur und Kultur der Arbeitswelt. Inventar zu Archiv und Bibliothek des Fritz-Hüser-Instituts. Hrsg. v. Rainer Noltenius. Bearb. v. Hanneliese Palm und Gregor Vogt. K.G. Saur, München 2005. 420 pp. € 98.00.
The Fritz-Hüser Institut in Dortmund collects, researches and exhibits German and foreign workers' literature and culture. This volume offers a comprehensive inventory the Institut's archives and library. In the introduction to the inventory, the editor sketches the history of the Institut and its founder Fritz Hüser (1908-1979). The Institut holds a large number of personal archives of literary writers from working-class backgrounds.
Mühlhausen, Walter. Friedrich Ebert 1871-1925. Reichspräsident der Weimarer Republik. Dietz, Bonn 2006. 1064 pp. Ill. € 48.00.
This political biography of Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925), the first president of the Weimar Republic from 1919 until his death in 1925, aims to offers a comprehensive and extensive overview of his eventful political career. Dr Mühlhausen gives a largely chronologically ordered analysis of Ebert's background and his involvement in the social democratic movement, as well as his pivotal but frequently criticized role in national German politics from the end of the German Empire in 1918, through the chaotic revolutionary phase of 1918-1919 to the troublesome years of coups d'état, strikes and economic crisis in the Weimar Republic.
Nagel, Christine. "In der Seele das Ringen nach Freitheit" - Louise Dittmar. Emanzipation und Sittlichkeit im Vormärz und in der Revolution 1848/49. Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein 2005. 320 pp. € 35.00.
This dissertation (Universität Kassel, 2005) is a biographical study of the life and work of the nineteenth-century literary writer and early feminist Louise Dittmar (1807-1884), who actively participated in the Vormärz and the March 1848 Revolution. Dr Nagel discusses Louise Dittmar's contributions to the debates on democratization to reveal how she consistently incorporated women's rights in her appeals for democratic rights. This position made her, according to the author, an outsider in the male-dominated political discourse and brought her in conflict with contemporary opinions on morality.
Oltmer, Jochen. Migration und Politik in der Weimarer Republik. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. 564 pp. Ill. € 49.90.
This revised Habilitationsschrift (Universität Osnabrück, 2001) aims to give a comprehensive overview of migration policies and patterns in the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). Professor Olmert reveals how in the Weimar Republic predominant perception of immigration as a threat and a burden led to increasing control and regulation. The author focuses on transnational migration, immigration and privileging of ethnic Germans from lost territories, labour migration and the role of international treaties in relation to ethnic-nationalist preferences in the immigration policy.
Quellen zur Alltagsgeschichte der Deutschen 1815-1870. Hrsg. v. Hartwig Brandt und Ewald Grothe. [Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte der Neuzeit. Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe, Band 44.] Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005. xxii, 234 pp. € 65.90.
This selection of source documents aims to offer a multi-layered glimpse of German daily life in a period of rapid economic and political modernization: 1815-1870. The documents, which are predominantly selected from previously published source materials, are categorized according to fifteen themes: signs of the time; villages, regions, towns and countryside; dwellings, public hygiene and environment; food, poverty and disease; gender, childhood, births and deaths; the bourgeois family; rural economy and crafts and trades; education, schooling and academic professions; religion, mentality and churches; mobility and migration; cultural life; courts of law; places and rituals of politics; protest, crime and punishment; and the military and war.
Rosa Luxemburg. Denken und Leben einer internationalen Revolutionärin. Hrsg. von Fritz Keller [und] Stefan Kraft. Promedia, Wien 2005. 173 pp. € 12.90.
This volume offers a selection of 53 (fragments) of the political writings of the Polish-German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919). The editors have presented the material in fourteen thematic chapters to give a comprehensive overview of the main themes in Luxemburg's work and political views: social inequality, women's emancipation, rights of the individual, political and trade union organization of the working class, the Russian Revolution, imperialism, internationalism and the perspectives of the socialist movement. A selection of more personal correspondence and a chronological overview of her life are appended.
"Schafft die Einheit". Aachen 1945: Die freien Deutschen Gewerkschaften werden gegründet. Hrsg. von DGB- Bildungswerk, [und] NRW e.V. Klartext, Essen 2005. 104 pp. € 7.95.
The three essays brought together in this small volume deal with the formation of the first postwar free German trade union in March 1945 in the city of Aachen. Dr Brülls and Mr Casteel sketch in the first essay the preparations and actual foundational activities in the context of the final phase of World War II and the British occupation. Professor Schneider explores the broader setting for the newly founded unions in the British occupation zone from 1945 to 1947. In the concluding essay, Professor Strasser offers a critical analysis of the present-day significance and relevance of trade unions.
Sozialreform als Bürger- und Christenpflicht. Aufzeichnungen, Briefe und Erinnerungen des leitenden Ministerialbeamten Robert Bosse aus der Entstehungszeit der Arbeiterversicherung und des BGB (1878-1892). Hrsg. von Volker Mihr, Florian Tennstedt [and] Heidi Winter. [Konfession und Gesellschaft. Beiträge zur Zeitgeschichte, Band 35.] Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005. 411 pp. Ill. € 45.00.
This volume encompasses a selection from the personal notes, correspondence and memoirs of Robert Bosse (1832-1901), chief officer of the Prussian Home Office under Bismarck in the period that the labour insurance acts and the civil code were passed. In the extensive introduction, the editors argue that apart from information on the political debate about this pivotal labour legislation, the sources provide insight into the religious foundations of political and social and the Weltanschauung of a leading civil servant and subsequently the secretary of culture.
Städtische Gesellschaft und Polizei. Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Polizei in Gelsenkirchen. Hrsg. von Stefan Goch. [Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Stadtgeschichte, Band 12.] Klartext, Essen 2005. 476 pp. Ill. € 29.90.
Published in honour of several anniversaries, this large, richly illustrated volume featuring nineteen contributions offers a social history of the police in the German city of Gelsenkirchen and its relation to the urban society. Following two general essays on the development of the police from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, nine contributions provide a chronological overview of the structural and organizational changes and of the main events until 1953, when Bundesländer became responsible for police administration. In the last seven contributions, various aspects of police work and organization over the last half century are addressed.
Great Britain
Benson, John. Affluence and Authority. A Social History of Twentieth-Century Britain. Hodder Arnold, London [etc.] 2005. xvi, 240 pp. £16.99.
This textbook is intended as a broad overview of British social history during the twentieth century, dealing with the profound and unprecedented economic, political, cultural, demographic and ideological changes that have marked the past hundred years. Professor Benson focuses on the material conditions in explaining the comparative stability of British society during this period. He argues that although improvements in the standard of living have been unevenly distributed among various groups, it remains the single most important factor for understanding this stability.
Immigrants in Tudor and Early Stuart England. Ed. by Nigel Goose and Lien Luu. Sussex Academic Press, Brighton [etc.] 2005. x, 263 pp. £24.95. The twelve essays in this volume aim to give a reassessment of the size, nature, status, international connections and economic, social and cultural impact of Dutch and French immigrants in England from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. Issues addressed include the immigrants' origins, legal status, their status on the labour market, government policy on immigration, reception by and assimilation within the host communities and the ongoing relationship between immigrants and the broader international community.
Labour's Grass Roots. Essays on the Activities of Local Labour Parties and Members, 1918-45. Ed. by Matthew Worley. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. ix, 267 pp. £47.50. The ten essays in this volume examine the divisional party activity and experience of the Labour Party in Great Britain at a local and regional level in the three decades after World War I. Focusing on party-membership at a grass-roots level, the contributors deal with issues such as gender, nationalism, the co-operative movement and trade unionism to enhance general understanding about the priorities and expectations of the people who sustained and cultivated the nation's social-political base at local and regional levels. In the final contribution, Stefan Berger compares branch life in the British Labour Party to that in the German Social Democratic Party during the interwar period.
Luu, Lien Bich. Immigrants and the Industries of London, 1500-1700. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. xiii, 366 pp. Ill. £55.00. This study examines how immigrants contributed to London's economic growth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Looking at silk weaving, beer brewing and the silver trade, Dr Luu explores the links between internal and external immigration and demographic and economic growth, the different means by which migrants moved to London, their occupational profiles and the transmission of skills to the local population to reveal the role of foreign immigrants in the industrial development of London. See also Erika Kuijpers' review in this volume, pp. 499-501.
Peck, Linda Levy. Consuming Splendor. Society and Culture in Seventeenth-Century England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xv, 431 pp. Ill. $35.00; £20.00. Focusing on London in the period 1600-1670, this study traces the increase in the consumption of luxury goods in England and the consequent transformation of social and cultural practices, gender roles, royal policies and the domestic economy. Professor Peck examines how from the early seventeenth century onward a new infrastructure for the import and sale of luxury goods was created with active support of the royal court, and how the well-to-do eagerly appropriated and copied foreign material culture. This transformation in the acts and meanings of luxury consumption marks, according to the author, the birth of modern consumer society.
Peters, Kate. Print Culture and the Early Quakers. [Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2005. xiii, 273 pp. Ill. £45.00.; $75.00. The early Quaker movement in seventeenth-century Britain used printed media remarkably effectively to disseminate their ideas throughout the country. This study examines the organization behind Quaker pamphleteering and analyses how the printing press enabled Quaker leaders to publicize the movement as a uniform, national phenomenon. Dr Peters argues that this also shows that the early Quaker movement was not merely a disillusioned spiritual remnant of the English Revolution but was an effective campaign that brought about dialogue with both the body politic and society at large.
Smith, Angela K. Suffrage Discourse in Britain during the First World War. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005. 153 pp. £40.00. Based on textual and literary analysis of suffrage magazines, wartime diaries and a range of topical novels, Dr Smith explores in this study the relationship between the suffrage campaign in Britain and World War I. Reading these texts as integral parts of the responses from suffragettes to the war, the author aims to ascertain whether World War I offered opportunities that enabled women to demonstrate irrefutably their entitlement to full citizenship or in fact delayed their enfranchisement.
Sutton, Anne F. The Mercery of London. Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2005.xvii, 670 pp. £75.00. This study gives a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the mercers' trade in London from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Considering the reasons why the London mercers became dominant in linen import and distribution and the export of English cloth to the Low Countries and the concomitant rise in the social status of mercers, Dr Sutton explores the origins of the earliest itinerant mercers and artisans who produced and sold mercery goods (linen, silk, worsted, and small manufactured items) and places the development of the London mercery in the context of European trade.
Sykes, Alan. The Radical Right in Britain: Social Imperialism to the BNP. [British History in Perspective.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2005. xii, 184 pp. £16.99. In this introductory textbook on the history of the radical right in Britain Dr Sykes traces the origins of the extreme right to the Victorian and Edwardian era, when rejection of liberal principles and fear of imperial disintegration and racial decadence led to the rise of Social Imperialism. He follows the evolution of the extreme right from the end of the nineteenth century through the rise of British fascism, Sir Oswald Mosley, the virtual anarchism of Distributism and Social Credit, to the rise of the National Front in the 1960s and the British National Party in the 1990s.
Taylor, Anne. The People's Laird. A Life of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham. The Tobias Press, Appleton le Moors 2005. 352 pp. Ill. £15.00. This is a biography of the Scottish socialist, writer and adventurer Robert Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936), the first-ever socialist British Member of Parliament and founder of the Scottish Labour Party and the National Party of Scotland. Following an adventurous career as a cattle ranch owner in Argentina, Graham returned to Britain, was converted to socialism and campaigned for causes such as the eight-hour working day and free speech. Mrs Taylor gives a chronological account of his life, with ample attention to his literary activities and his growing interest in Scottish nationalism.
Italy
Carte di lavoro. Un tratto di storia sociale della Sit Siemens-Italtel dell'Aquila attraverso volantini e comunicati 1968-1990. A cura di Riccardo Lolli, pres. di Giorgio Benvenuto, postfazione di Adolfo Pepe. Textus, L'Aquila 2005. 252 pp. Ill. € 18.00.
This book contains facsimile reproductions of pamphlets, communiqués and photographs about the struggle by workers from the Italtel factory in L'Aquila in the Abruzzi. The period 1968-1990 marked the rise and decline of Italian trade unions. The book opens with the 1968 factory sit-in and traces all stages of the struggle to restructure the firm in later years. Each of the five sub-periods covered in the book is preceded by a brief introduction. The documents come from trade union archives and personal papers.
Dalla proletaria a Unicoop Tirreno. La cooperazione di consumo nell'Italia tirrenica (1971-2004). A cura di Ivan Tognarini. [Storia e studi cooperative.] Il Mulino, Bologna 2005. 396 pp. Ill. € 26.00.
The five chapters in this volume describe the history of the geographic and social expansion of consumer cooperatives in the area that borders on the Tyrrhenian Sea. This process was instigated by the La Proletaria cooperative, which was founded in Livorno in 1944. The internal mechanisms, the means of communication and the tedious expansion to the South are reviewed here as well.
Fuhrmann, Ivetta e Gianna Montanari. Scuola, storia e memoria del sindacalismo torinese. Negli anni di movimento Sessanta e Settanta. Manzoni, Torino 2005. (Incl. CD-ROM). xiv, 318 pp. Ill. € 18.00.
This is the history of the Turin teachers' unions that belonged to the socialist (UIL), Catholic (CISL) and communist (CGIL) confederations and of their role in educational reforms during the turbulent years from 1968 to 1978. Separate chapters are devoted to the history of the respective trade unions, as well as to trade union actions at the schools and those at the universities, respectively. In the second part the authors share their personal recollections and analyse the interviews they conducted and recorded on a CD-ROM accompanying the book.
Gregor, A. James. Mussolini's Intellectuals. Fascist Social and Political Thought. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2005. x, 282 pp. £22.95.
In this intellectual history of Italian Fascism, the renowned expert on totalitarian ideologies Professor Gregor offers a chronological account of the leading intellectual figures of Italian Fascism, tracing how the movement's ideas evolved in response to social and political developments inside and outside Italy from its origins in socialist ideology into a separate body of thought. Rebuking older interpretations, the author contends that Fascism was animated by a credible and coherent belief system.
Onofri, Nazario Sauro. Gli antifascisti, i partigiani e le vittime del fascismo nel bolognese (1919-1945). Volume I. Bologna dall'antifascismo alla Resistenza. Istituto per la Storia della Resistenza e della società contemporanea nella provincia di Bologna "Luciano Bergonzini" (ISREBO), Comune di Bologna 2005. (Incl. CD-ROM). 405 pp.
Despite being the first volume in a series of six biographical dictionaries this one has been published last. The five subsequent volumes, published between 1985 and 1998, contain over 27,000 entries about victims of fascism in Bologna. These five volumes have been posted on the website: http://www.iperbole.bologna.it/iperbole/isrebo. The data also appear on a CD-ROM accompanying Volume One. The present volume has been composed from the listings in the previously published volumes and contains 400 entries about formations of partisans, names of places, assaults, parties and periodicals, as well as an extensive bibliography about fascism, anti-fascism, war and resistance in Bologna, a chronology (1919-1945) and a bibliographical essay about biographical dictionaries of Bologna's inhabitants since the nineteenth century.
Regione di confine. La Calabria (1927-1943). A cura di Ferdinando Cordova [e] Pantaleone Sergi. Bulzoni Editore, Roma 2005. 346 pp. Ill. € 20.00.
This book comprises eight contributions to a colloquium held in Limbadi in Calabria in April 2004 and dedicated to the internal exile imposed by the fascist regime to neutralize political opponents. From 1926 the exiles were banned to remote regions from which escape was impossible. The 145 sites of exile in Calabria accommodated 2,119 prisoners. The contributions are about the role of exile in the fascist system of oppression, the areas in Calabria where the exiles stayed, women in exile, exiled Calabrians and Marco Leto's motion picture La Villeggiatura, which is based on the exile of Carlo Rosselli.
The Netherlands
Borrie, Gilles W.B. M.A. Reinalda (1888-1965). Een geboren bestuurder. Aksant, Amsterdam 2005. ix, 410 pp. Ill. €30.00.
This is a political biography of Marius Antoon Reinalda (1888-1965), a social democratic politician and governor, who was prominent in local and provincial politics and administration. Born into a working-class family, he started his a career in the publishing business before becoming city councillor, alderman and finally mayor of his home town Haarlem. He was the first social democrat to become provincial governor. Dr Borrie characterizes Reinalda as typical for the magisterial style of governance among his contemporaries.
Niet voor het gewin. Not-for-profit ondernemingen van de christelijk-sociale beweging in Nederland. Red. G.J. Schutte [e.a.] [Cahier over de geschiedenis van de christelijk-sociale beweging, 6.] Uitgeverij Aksant/CNV, Amsterdam/Utrecht 2005. 179 pp. Ill. € 13.60.
In this sixth volume in a series on the history of the Dutch Protestant trade-union movement (see IRSH, 47 (2002), p. 168f. and 49 (2004), p. 180 for previous volumes), the ten contributors deal with a wide variety of not-for-profit activities launched by the Protestant trade-union movement in areas outside its core operations. Included are essays on healthcare activities, trade-union insurance companies, newspapers and film production, leisure pursuits, banking and agricultural schooling.
Poland
Blatman, Daniel. En direct du ghetto. La presse clandestine juive dans le ghetto de Varsovie (1940-1943). Les editions du cerf [etc.], Paris [etc.] 2005. 541 pp. Ill. € 49.00. A clandestine Jewish press emerged in the Warsaw ghetto from the beginnings of its creation in 1940 under the German occupation. As part of the collection created in the ghetto by the historian Emmanuel Ringelblum, a collection which survived the destruction of the ghetto in 1943 in buried cans, these newspapers are the main sources for this history of the Warsaw ghetto. Professor Blatman deals with Jewish-Polish relations in 1939-1940, the role of the Judenrat, everyday life under the deteriorating conditions, the clandestine political organizations and their variegated ideologies and newspapers and the deportations and the situation in the run-up to the liquidation of the ghetto.
Ost, David. The Defeat of Solidarity. Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. ix, 238 pp. $39.95; £21.95.
Focusing on the role of the Solidarity trade union in Poland after the collapse of the communist system, Professor Ost examines the evolution of postcommunist society in Eastern Europe. He analyses why workers, the main supporters of Solidarity, felt betrayed by its leaders and have largely rejected liberal democracy and embraced right-wing nationalism. The author argues that instead of ignoring and marginalizing workers, the leaders should have mobilized and channelled their fears and anger to secure a liberal democratic society.
Romania
Siani-Davies, Peter. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2005. xi, 315 pp. Ill. $45.00; £24.50.
In this history of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989, when the seemingly unshakable Ceau?escu regime was toppled in little more than a week, Dr Siani-Davies seeks to unravel the many mysteries that continue to surround the events and circumstances leading up to the change. He focuses in this study on how participants from various political signatures and with varying interests interpreted the events according to particular scripts and myths of revolution and plotting rooted in Romanian historical experience.
Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Bernstein, Frances Lee. The Dictatorship of Sex. Lifestyle Advice for the Soviet Masses. Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb 2007. xvii, 246 pp. Ill. €42.00.
In the years after the Russian revolution the "sex question" assumed the dimensions of a "sex crisis" during the NEP years, with the dramatic increase in prostitution, venereal diseases and abortion rates. This study examines the efforts of both the Narkomzdrav (the People's Commissariat of Public Health) and the medical profession to address this problem through an extensive campaign of "sexual enlightenment" that featured of pamphlets, articles, lectures and educational posters, urging a normative and highly restrained heterosexuality.
Fursenko, Aleksandr and Timothy Naftali. Khrushchev's Cold War. The Inside Story of an American Adversary. W.W. Norton & Company, New York [etc.] 2006. 670 pp. Ill. $35.00; £22.99.
In this study Professors Fursenko and Naftali render a detailed account of the period of Khrushchev's rise to power in 1955 until he was ousted in 1964. They explore his personal responsibility for the international crises between 1956 and 1962 in the Middle East, Central Europe and the Caribbean. The authors enjoyed complete access to the protocols and minutes - the records of decisions and debates - of the Central Committee Presidium, which were fully declassified and published only in 2003, Professor Fursenko being the editor in chief of this publication.
Hedeler, Wladislaw. Nikolaj Ivanovi? Bucharin. Bibliographie seiner Schriften und Korrespondenzen 1912-1938. Mit einem Anhang: Bucharins Karikaturen und Bucharin in der Karikatur. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005. xvi, 560 pp. Ill. € 69.80.
In this new, expanded edition of the bibliography of works of Nicolai Bukharin, Professor Hedeler has included materials found in the Bukharin collection in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), adding some 160 new entries and now also covering his correspondence (see IRSH, 39 (1994), p. 513 for the first edition). Larissa Rogovaya sketches the origins of this collection in the RGASPI. Appended is a directory of 532 cartoons and drawings, both about Bukharin and by Bukharin, 27 of which are reproduced here and analysed in a contribution by Alexander Vatlin.
Peaucelle, Irina and Pavel Konovalov. Aperçu de mémoires. Esquisses de l'histoire russe du 20ème siècle. [L'esprit économique.] L'Harmattan, Paris [etc.] 2005. 204 pp. € 17.50.
Based on the memoirs and the manuscript of an autobiography of Pavel Konovalov (1901-1987), an ordinary member of the communist party of the Soviet Union and army engineer, Dr Peaucelle examines in this study five themes in twentieth-century Russian social, economic and political history that figure prominently in Konovalov's writings: the peasant economy; vocational training and the social role of the factory; education and coming of age; the role of trade unions as a topic of debate between Trotsky, Lenin and Bukharin; and every-day militancy and the organization of work by communist engineers during World War II.
Pollock, Ethan. Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2006. viii, 269 pp. Ill. € 22.95.
In this book Dr Pollock analyses Stalin's forays in the field of science, places them within the context of broader academic disputes and then traces their impact on both high politics and Soviet conceptualizations of the Cold War. Based primarily on newly accessible materials from Russian archives, especially the Central Committee papers from RGASPI, the six debates from the late 1940s and early 1950s in philosophy, biology, linguistics, physics, physiology and political economy are analysed in detail.
Priestland, David. Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization. Ideas, Power, and Terror in Inter-war Russia. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2007. xii, 487 pp. £55.00.
This study poses the question of how much Marxist and Marxist-Leninist ideas contributed to Stalinist violence. The author attempts to understand the ideological context within which the Bolshevik leadership adopted its strategies by examining statements by leaders and propagandists. He focuses on the campaigns of the late 1920s and second half of the 1930s and on the Terror of 1936-1938 in particular.
Schedewie, Franziska. Selbstverwaltung und sozialer Wandel in der russischen Provinz. Bauern und Zemstvo in Veronez, 1864-1914. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2006. (Incl. CD-ROM). 473 pp. € 65.00.
This study - adapted from the author's dissertation (Heidelberg, 2004) - is about the social and social-economic changes in Russian villages after the great reforms of the 1860s. Concentrating on four uezdy (districts) in Voronezh province and making extensive use of Zemstvo statistics and Zemstvo journals, the participation of peasants in the Zemstva and the organs of local self-government instituted in 1864 are examined, as the author seeks to show that the peasants did not passively undergo their fate but were active both in the Zemstva and in social and economic modernization in Russia as a whole. Several tables and the maps and illustrations are published on the accompanying CD-ROM.
Tomoff, Kiril. Creative Union. The Professional Organization of Soviet Composers, 1939-1953. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2006. xiv, 321 pp. $57.50; £32.95.
This study is devoted to the all-USSR Union of Soviet Composers, which the author examines as a professional organization, rather than as a government-supervised body or a trade union. He analyses how composers and musicologists interacted with powerful political leaders and the government bureaucracy, and how the Union competed with other cultural institutions. Chapters are devoted to the formation of the Union and its predecessors (1932-1941), to confrontations of the Union with the Soviet leadership during the campaigns of Zhdanovshchina and anti-cosmopolitism after the war and to the functioning of the Stalinist cultural elites.
Ulrich, Jürg. Kamenev. Der gemässigte Bolschewik. Das kollektive Denken im Umfeld Lenins. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2006. 263 pp. Ill. € 19.80.
This book is one of the first biographies of Lev Borisovich Kamenev (1883-1936). Inspired by Ludwik Fleck's sociological-scientific ideas about collectives and styles of thought, the author, a retired professor in neuropathology and initiator of the Stiftung für Sozialgeschichte Osteuropas, describes the political thoughts and activities of Kamenev from the period of his illegality and exile before 1917 through his participation in Lenin's government and in different left and right-wing opposition groups until his trial and execution in 1936 in Stalin's first Moscow Show Trial.
Unfried, Berthold. "Ich bekenne". Katholische Beichte und sowjetische Selbstkritik. [Studien zur historischen Sozialwissenschaft, Band 31.] Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2006. 385 pp. Ill. € 44.90; Sfr. 77.00.
Members of the Soviet communist party were regularly required to perform a ritualized form of "self-criticism", at which each individual gave account before the collective. In this study, Dr Unfried aims to compare this form of confession with other forms, such as sacramental confession in the Catholic church. Based on Soviet archival sources from the 1930s, he examines this practice and its effects on the people involved.
Spain
III Congreso sobre el Republicanismo. Los exilios en España (Siglos XIX y XX). Volumen I: Ponencias. Coord. José Luis Casas Sánchez y Francisco Durán Alcalá. Priego de Córdoba 2005, € 15.00.
III Congreso sobre el Republicanismo. Los exilios en España (Siglos XIX y XX). Volumen II: Comunicaciones. Coord. José Luis Casas Sánchez y Francisco Durán Alcalá. Priego de Córdoba 2005, € 15.00.
These two volumes comprise the ponencias and comunicaciones at the Third Congress about the history of Spanish Republicanism held in November 2004 in Priego de Córdoba, where Niceto Alacalá-Zamora was born. The period reviewed covers the assorted exiles, from that of the liberals during the Ancien Régime until the one after the Civil War, with the main focus of course on the exile following the Civil War, which is broadly covered, including the role of intellectual and cultural aspects. A separate group of contributions is about the Andalusians.
Avilés, Juan. Pasionaria. La mujer y el mito. Ed. a cargo de Isabel Belmonte López. Plaza y Janés, Barcelona 2005. 303 pp. Ill. € 19.00.
This is a biography of Dolores Ibárruri (1895-1989), a leading communist figure from the Spanish Civil War period and the exile of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) in the Soviet Union. It is also in part a history of Spanish communism. The author, who is affiliated with the Spanish Open University, previously published a history of the early years of Spanish communism (see IRSH, 46 (2001), p. 517). Ibárruri, who was known as La Pasionaria, came from a family of miners, joined the Central Committee of the PCE in 1930 and became renowned as a gifted speaker during the Civil War.
Cabezas, Octavio. Indalecio Prieto, socialista y español. [Biografía, 15.] Algaba ediciones. Madrid [etc.] 2005. 765 pp. € 27.69.
This is the biography of Indalecio Prieto (1883-1962), a socialist who joined the moderate wing of the socialist party (PSOE) at age 16. He advanced from a stenographer and journalist to a delegate from 1918 to 1923 and during the Second Republic. Under the socialist governments of the Republic and during the Civil War he held various ministerial posts and was repeatedly driven into exile after the revolutionary upheavals of 1917 and 1934 and after the Civil War. While in exile in Mexico, he helped other Spanish exiles and remained active in the socialist party.
Lorenzo, César M. Le mouvement anarchiste en Espagne. Pouvoir et révolution sociale. Les Éditions Libertaires, S.l. 2006. 559 pp. € 35.00
This is a revised and enlarged edition of Les anarchists espagnols et le pouvoir 1868-1969 (1969), which was annotated in IRSH, 15 (1970), p. 162. The author gives a chronologically ordered overview of the ideological and political development of the anarcho-syndicalist movement in Spain, from its origins in the 1860s to its political and social role in the Spanish Civil War and in the long period of exile and illegality afterwards. See also David Berry's review in this volume, pp. 502-504.
Pons Prades, Eduardo. Realidades de la Guerra Civil. Mitos, no, ¡Hechos! Prólogo de Sergi Pámies. La esfera de los libros, Madrid 2005. 597 pp. Ill. € 38.00.
This is one of the most recent works about the Spanish Civil War by the Spanish publicist Pons Prades (see IRSH, 44 (1999), p. 149 and 51 (2006), p. 356). In this work the author has reviewed a broad range of themes from the history of the Civil War: rural and urban collectivizations; military aspects; the aftermath. His sources include a great many eyewitness reports and personal life histories.
Sánchez Pérez, Francisco. La protesta de un pueblo. Acción colectiva y organización obrera. Madrid 1901-1923. Ediciones Cinca, Madrid 2005. xxiv, 425 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
This study based examines the major strike movement in Madrid, which peaked in 1919 and 1920, highlighting the format, purpose and means of the industrial action. After reviewing the social-historical context, Professor Sánchez Pérez first addresses the bread riots that recurred periodically from 1907 and then the collective action of the different occupational groups from the perspective of the workers. These groups include construction workers, bakers and the union of graphic workers that belonged to the socialist UGT, as well as several dissident unions. See also Chris Ealham's review in this volume, pp. 504-506.
Souto Kustrín, Sandra. "Y Madrid?, Qué hace Madrid?" Movimiento revolucionario y acción colectiva (1933-1936). Prólogo de Julio Aróstegui Sánchez y Eduardo González Calleja. Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, Madrid 2004. xxviii, 456 pp. € 22.00.
In this revised dissertation (Universidad Complutense, Madrid 2004), Dr Souto Kustrín examines the collective action of the leftist labour organizations - parties and trade unions - in the region of Madrid under a right-wing government. The author has based her historical study on social-science theories about social movements and focuses mainly on the great general strike in Madrid in October 1934. In her analysis the author continuously considers how the course of events in Europe influenced the different actors. She conducted her research in government archives, party archives, the International Institute of Social History and collections of periodicals. See also Jesús Izquierdo Martín's review in this volume, pp. 507-509.
The Splintering of Spain. Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Ed. by Chris Ealham and Michael Richards. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005. xxiii, 282 pp. Ill. Maps. $90.00; £50.00.
In an effort to transcend the standard dualism in the historiography of the Spanish Civil War (such as fascism versus communism, tradition versus modernity), the ten essays in this collection by Spanish, British and American historians examine the complex interaction of national political events with more cultural, local factors from everyday life that contributed to the shape and the course of the civil war. The authors of the first three contributions explore the broad themes of violence, nationalism and religion; three others look at populism, urbanism and empowerment on the republican side; and the final three essays focus on regions and social groups on the nationalist side.
Vega Sombría, Santiago. De la esperanza a la persecución. La represión franquista en la provincia de Segovia. Crítica, Barcelona 2005. xxii, 543 pp. € 29.50.
This is an abridged version of a PhD thesis defended in 2003 at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Dr Vega aims to offer an exhaustive study about all forms of violence used in the province of Segovia to suppress the supporters of the Republic in this traditionally right-wing stronghold. The author met with fierce opposition from the authorities during his research in the provincial archive. The sources include several interviews, and the annexes feature geographic, chronological and other types of details about the repression and list the names of the victims.
Zofío, Juan Carlos. Gremios y Artesanos en Madrid, 1550-1650. La sociedad del trabajo en una ciudad cortesana preindustrial. [Biblioteca de historia, 58.] Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas [etc.] Madrid 2005. 616 pp. € 44.23.
This is an edited version of a PhD thesis defended at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid in 2002. Using documents from national, local and notarial archives, the author has conducted labour sociology research to examine how labour was organized among master artisans in pre-industrial Madrid and has studied their social relations as well. Following introductory chapters about sources and methodology and the historiography of the guilds and industry in Madrid, he reviews guilds, their power, the social environment of master artisans and, finally, the dynamics of relations between guilds and master artisans.