BIBLIOGRAPHY

General Issues

SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Altvater, Elmar (et al.). “Die Natur ist die Probe auf die Dialektik”. Friedrich Engels kennenlernen. VSA, Hamburg 2020. 182 pp. Ill. € 14.80.

The ten contributions in this volume, published for the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, showcase his life and work, drawing him out of Marx's shadow. One author examines Engels's critical observation that capitalist accumulation, industrialization, and the use of fossil fuels would cause the collapse of the climate. Others describe his role in developing fundamental insights into the structural relationships of bourgeois society and the emergence of the international labour movement. Engels not only made it possible through massive financial donations for Marx to write his main work Das Kapital, but also helped ensure publication of the second and third volumes after his death.

Atkinson, Anthony B. Measuring Poverty around the World. Ed. by John Micklewright and Andrea Brandolini. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) 2019. xxvii, 429 pp. $29.95; £25.00.

What is poverty, and how much of it is there around the globe? In this book, Professor Atkinson offers an analysis of this central question. Better measurement of poverty is essential for raising awareness, motivating action, designing good policy, gauging progress, and holding political leaders accountable for meeting targets. Bringing together evidence about the nature and extent of poverty across the world, he addresses both financial poverty and other indicators of deprivation. He starts with first principles about the meaning of poverty, translating them into concrete measures and examining the data to which the measures may be applied. See also Michail Moatsos's review in this volume, pp. 295–297.

Gimenez, Martha E. Marx, Women, and Capitalist Social Reproduction. Marxist Feminist Essays. [Historical Materialism, Vol. 169.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2019. xi, 400 pp. € 159.00; $191.00. (E-book: € 159.00; $191.00.)

This collection of essays, written from the 1970s onwards, is a contribution to literature on the relationship between Marxism and feminism. Professor Gimenez offers a distinctive perspective on social reproduction, positing that relations of production determine those of social reproduction and linking the effects of class exploitation and location to forms of oppression predominantly theorized in terms of identity. Grounding her analysis on Marx's theory and methodology, she examines the relationship between class, reproduction, and the oppression of women in different contexts, such as the reproduction of labour power, domestic labour, feminization of poverty, and reproductive technologies.

Jacob, Frank. Emma Goldman and the Russian Revolution. From Admiration to Frustration. De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin [etc.] 2020. 235 pp. € 64.95. (Open Access.)

The Russian Revolution changed the world and determined the history of the twentieth century. Left-wing intellectuals around the world greeted the February Revolution with enthusiasm, as their hope for a new world and social order and the end of capitalism seemed close to fulfilment. Their joy proved short-lived, however, as the ideals of February 1917 were replaced by the realities of October 1917 and the subsequent Civil War. Russian-born American anarchist Emma Goldman was one of the intellectuals whose admiration for the revolution turned into frustration at its corruption. Dr Jacob discusses her evolving perception of the revolution between 1917 and the early 1920s, her transnational life and her role as a revolutionary intellectual.

Lebowitz, Michael A. Between Capitalism and Community. Monthly Review Press, New York 2020. 208 pp. $89.00. (Paper: $24.00; E-book: $17.00.)

In this book, Professor Lebowitz deepens the arguments he made in his award-winning Beyond Capital, demonstrating that capitalism comprises elements of a society of community. Whereas Marx constructs capitalism as an organic system that reproduces its premises of capital and wage labour, the author argues that the struggle of workers is common and activities based upon solidarity point in the direction of an alternative system that produces its own premises, communality, and recognition of the needs of others. Rather than emerging spontaneously, the path of community requires a revolutionary party that drives development of the capacities of people through their protagonism.

Letters from England, 1895. Eleanor Marx & Edward Aveling. Ed. by Stephen Williams and Tony Chandler. Transl. [from Russian] by Francis King. Lawrence Wishart, London 2020. viii, 249 pp. £22.00.

In 1895, Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling were two of the best-known socialists in Britain, mixing with the most influential figures of their time and committed to building a socialist political force based on the theories of Eleanor's father Karl and his collaborator Friedrich Engels. Marx and Aveling's letters to Russia from England offer a perspective on British socialism entering its crucial phase, culminating in the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900. As they reported from the heart of capitalist Britain, a Liberal government fell, having failed to keep its promises to labour. The introductory essay sheds light on the complex, tumultuous life and work together by the authors and reveals their friendships and political connections.

Musto, Marcello. The Last Years of Karl Marx, 1881–1883. An Intellectual Biography. Transl. [from Italian] by Patrick Camiller. Stanford University Press, Stanford (CA) 2020 (2016). xii, 194 pp. Ill. $70.00. (Paper: $22.00.)

In the last years of his life, Karl Marx expanded his research in new directions by studying recent anthropological discoveries, analysing communal forms of ownership in precapitalist societies, supporting the populist movement in Russia and expressing critiques of colonial oppression. Between 1881 and 1883, he also travelled beyond Europe. Focusing on these last years of Marx's life, this book demonstrates that Marx continued writing late in life, and that he was not the Eurocentric and economic thinker fixated on class conflict alone. Professor Musto highlights unpublished or previously neglected writings, many of which remain unavailable in English. This volume fills a gap in the popularly accepted biography and suggests an innovative reassessment of some of his key concepts.

Nord/Süd. Perspektiven auf eine globale Konstellation. Hrsg. von Jürgen Dinkel, Steffen Fiebrig, Frank Reichherzer. De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin [etc.] 2020. xi, 455 pp. € 79.95. (E-book: € 79.95.)

Starting in the 1960s, the concepts “North” and “South” became important indices for speaking about global relations, dependencies and inequalities. Yet, when did we begin to speak of North and South? And what alternative interpretations did these terms elicit? In the eighteen contributions, the authors trace the pattern of the North/South multipolar genesis since the nineteenth century and its characteristics in politics, economics, society, and culture, showing how the North/South mind set influenced the actions of various groups of actors. The result is the image of a complex global constellation open to interpretation and contradiction, promoting self-empowerment and auguring alternative futures, which has shaped the second half of the twentieth century to the present day.

Sandbu, Martin. The Economics of Belonging. A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) [etc.] 2020. 282 pp. $24.95; £20.00.

In recent years, political debates on the economic and political order have increasingly polarized into violent clashes. Dr Sandbu proposes a detailed, radical plan for creating a just economy where everyone can belong. He demonstrates that the rising numbers of the left behind are not due to globalization. Rather, technological change and flawed domestic policies have eroded the foundations of an economy in which everyone can participate. Contending that we have to pursue dramatic reforms involving productivity, regional development, support for small- and medium-sized businesses, and increased worker representation, the author discusses how an active macroeconomic policy, education for all, universal basic income, and better taxation of capital could work together for society's benefit.

Zarembka, Paul. Key Elements of Social Theory Revolutionized by Marx. [Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Vol. 168.] Brill, Leiden 2021. xiv, 274 pp. € 140.00; $169.00. (E-book: € 140.00; $169.00.)

This book focuses on three dimensions of Marx's evolving work: the relations to philosophy, to the class nature of the economy and to some political factors. In Part One, the author argues that whatever Marx's attraction to Hegel earlier in life, his usefulness declined for Marx to the extent that Marx did not mention him in the last decade of his life. Part Two is about issues in Marx's Capital, such as the sharp distinction between the concepts “labour” and “labour power”, and how “value” has been defined in the context of a fully developed capitalist formation. Part Three addresses nationalism and state manipulation of society. After Marx, Luxemburg is, for the author, the most significant contributor to Marxism, and her works on political economy and nationalism are highlighted here.

HISTORY

Chitty, Christopher. Sexual Hegemony. [Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System.] Duke University Press, Durham (NC) [etc.] 2020. xii, 222 pp. Ill. $99.95. (Paper: $25.95.)

In this book, the late Dr Chitty traced 500 years of capitalist sexual relations, excavating the class dynamics of the efforts by the bourgeoisie to regulate homosexuality. Tracing the politicization of male homosexuality in Renaissance Florence, Amsterdam, Paris, and London between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as in twentieth-century New York City, Chitty showed how sexuality became a crucial dimension of the accumulation of capital and a technique of bourgeois rule. By grasping sexuality as a field of social contention and the site of class conflict, the bourgeoisie weaponized both sexual constraint and sexual freedom to produce and control a reliable and regimented labour class.

D'Atri, Andrea. Bread and Roses. Gender and Class under Capitalism. Transl. [from Spanish] by Nathaniel Flakin. Pluto Press, London 2021 (2004). xvii, 177 pp. Ill. £75.00. (Paper: £16.99; E-book: £9.99.)

Using the concrete struggles of women, the Marxist feminist D'Atri traces the history of the women's and workers’ movement from the French Revolution to Queer theory. She analyses the divergent paths feminists have woven for their liberation from oppression, revealing where they have hit dead ends and arguing that advances and setbacks in the struggle against patriarchy, within the framework of the capitalist system, coincide with periods of reforms, revolutions or reaction. With the global working class comprised of a disproportionate share of women, women are central in leading the charge for the next revolution and laying down blueprints for an alternative future.

De Romanis, Federico. The Indo-Roman Trade and the Muziris Papyrus. [Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy.] Oxford University Press, Oxford 2020. xxiv, 381 pp. Ill. Maps. £85.00.

This book presents a systematic interpretation of the mid-second-century AD Muziris papyrus, which preserves fragments of two documents: one a loan agreement to finance a commercial enterprise to South India; and the other an assessment of the fiscal value of imported South Indian cargo. The two texts clarify aspects of the early Roman Empire's trade with South India, including transport logistics and financial and legal elements, the trade goods included in the South Indian cargo and the technicalities of Roman customs duties. Professor De Romanis carefully considers sources and data and draws comparisons with the pepper trade from late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern period to shed new light on this important sector of the Roman economy.

Fedelma Cross, Máire. In the Footsteps of Flora Tristan. A Political Biography. [Studies in Labour History, 14.] Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2020. x, 259 pp. Ill. £90.00. (E-book: £90.00.)

This study devoted to Jules Puech (1879–1957), is a double biography that examines his life's work on the feminist and socialist Flora Tristan (1803–1844). Professor Fedelma Cross describes how Puech published the first in-depth biography in 1925. Together with his suffragist feminist wife Marie-Louise Puech (1876–1966), he was a militant in the early twentieth-century pacifist movement that advocated international arbitration. His research on Flora Tristan was enriched by his other projects but was thwarted by the wars of 1914–1918 and 1940–1945. Unmatched in his expertise as a writer on Flora Tristan, Puech also became a historian of Proudhon's legacy on the international aspirations of the labour movement.

Manjapra, Kris. Colonialism in Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2020. xv, 273 pp. Ill. Maps. £69.99. (Paper: £18.99; E-book: $20.00.)

Colonial formations are important political entities of contemporary times, as they function through nation states, international regulatory regimes, and global capital. Professor Manjapra provides a critique of the different and interlocking aspects of colonial power, including the ongoing resistance to it. He evokes living human histories, introducing manifestations of colonialism as expressed through war, militarization, extractive economies, migrations and diasporas, racialization, biopolitical management, and unruly and creative responses and resistance by colonized peoples across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. By exploring the histories of conquest, settler colonialism, racial slavery, and empire, the author exposes the enduring role of colonial force and the struggle for freedom in the making of the modern world.

Mawani, Renisa. Across Oceans of Law. The Komagata Maru and Jurisdiction in the Time of Empire. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 2018. xv, 336 pp. Ill. Maps. $104.95. (Paper: $28.95.)

In 1914, the British-built and Japanese-owned steamship Komagata Maru left Hong Kong for Vancouver carrying 376 Punjabi migrants. Chartered by railway contractor and purported rubber planter Gurdit Singh, the ship and its passengers were denied entry into Canada and two months later deported to Calcutta. Based on close readings of the ship, the manifest, the trial, and the anti-colonial writings of Singh and others, Professor Mawani argues that the Komagata Maru's landing raised questions regarding the jurisdictional tensions between common law and admiralty law and the legal status of the sea. He follows the movements of a single ship and brings oceans into focus to trace British imperial power through racial, temporal, and legal contests.

Mom, Gijs. Globalizing Automobilism. Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900–1980. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2020. xxi, 666 pp. $199.00; £148.00. (E-book: $45.00.)

Why has car society proven so enduring, even in the face of mounting environmental and economic crises? In this follow-up to his Atlantic Automobilism, Professor Mom extends and shifts from the previous perspective in two directions: he tries to decentre the West methodologically by complexifying mobility culture from a global perspective, but also covers the third quarter of the century, by the end of which the West seemed to be on the verge of being dethroned as the natural locus of automotive culture. Drawing on archival research as well as on wide-ranging forays into popular culture, Mom reveals here the roots of the exuberance, excess, and danger that define modern automotive culture.

New Daggett, Cara. The Birth of Energy. Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) [etc.] 2019. x, 268 pp. Ill. $99.95. (Paper: $26.95.)

In this book, Professor New Daggett traces the genealogy of contemporary notions of energy back to the nineteenth-century science of thermodynamics. These early resource-based concepts of power first emerged during the Industrial Revolution and were tightly bound to Western capitalist domination and the politics of industrialized work. As the author shows, thermodynamics was deployed as an imperial science to govern fossil fuel use, labour, and colonial expansion, in part through a hierarchical ordering of humans and nonhumans. By systematically unearthing the historical connection between energy and work, she argues that only by transforming the politics of work will we be able to confront the energy problem.

Spengler III, Robert N. Fruit from the Sands. The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat. University of California Press, Oakland (CA) 2020. xii, 374 pp. Ill. Maps. $34.95; £29.00. (Paper, E-book: $26.95; £23.00.)

From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced from prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China and elsewhere in East Asia. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Dr Spengler III presents the story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Using preserved remains of plants found on archaeological sites, he identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes, as people carried them around the world transforming cuisines all over the globe.

Béla, Tomka. Austerities and Aspirations. A Comparative History of Growth, Consumption, and Quality of Life in East Central Europe since 1945. Central European University Press, Budapest 2020. ix, 445 pp. $105.00; € 90.00; £85.00.

This book analyses the economic performance and living standard in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland since 1945, placed in a wider European framework that underlines the themes of regional disparities and European commonalities. Going beyond the traditional growth paradigm, the author systematically studies historical patterns of consumption, leisure and quality of life. By adopting this “triple approach”, the research draws on history, economics, sociology, and demography, contributing substantially to debates on the dynamics of economic growth in communist and post-communist East Central Europe, on socialist consumer culture along with its transformation after 1990, and on how accounts on East Central Europe may be integrated into the field of historical quality of life research.

Van Bavel, Bas (et al.). Disasters and History. The Vulnerability and Resilience of Past Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2020. x, 231 pp. Ill. Maps. £69.99. (Paper: £22.99; E-book: $24.00.)

This book provides an overview of research into disasters from a historical perspective. Drawing on a range of case studies, including the Black Death, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and the Fukushima disaster of 2011, the authors examine how societies dealt with shocks and hazards and their potentially disastrous outcomes. They reveal how the outcomes of these disasters varied, not only between societies, but also within the same societies, according to social groups, ethnicity, and gender, demonstrating how studies of past disasters provide a lens through which to understand the social, economic, and political functioning of past societies and revealing features of societies that would otherwise have remained concealed.

Zimmermann, Susan. Immer mittendrin. Gewerkschafterinnen und linke Aktivistinnen zwischen Arbeiterbewegung und Frauenbewegung. [re:work. Arbeit global – historische Rundgänge, Bd. 3.] De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin 2021. vi, 61 pp. Ill. € 29.95. (E-book: € 29.95.)

At the turn of the year 1924–1925, five women formed the core of the women's committee of the International Trade Union Federation (Internationale Gewerkschaftsbundes IGB), a conglomerate of institution and organization, moderate activism, packages of demands, and political dodging (IGB Women's International). In this essay, Professor Zimmermann aims to broaden the horizon of research on social movements and politics connected with these movements. In Section One, she presents elements of “demarginalizing” and offers a critical analysis of the IGB Women's International. In Section Two, she deals with problems in research on class-related women's political networks and contributes to the discussion on how these may be overcome.

COMPARATIVE HISTORY

Ghodsee, Kristen. Second World, Second Sex. Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 2018. xviii, 306 pp. Ill. $99.95. (Paper: $26.95.)

Women from the state-socialist countries in Eastern Europe once dominated women's activism at the United Nations, although their contributions are deemed insignificant in comparison with those of Western feminists. In this book, drawing on interviews and archival research, Professor Ghodsee traces the activism of Eastern European and African women during the 1975 United Nations International Year of Women and the subsequent Decade for Women (1976–1985). Focusing on case studies of socialist Bulgaria and non-aligned but socialist-leaning Zambia, she examines the feminist networks that developed between the Second and Third Worlds and shows how alliances between socialist women challenged American women's leadership of the global women's movement. See also Alexandra-Maria Ghit's review in this volume, pp. 304–308.

Graber Majchrzak, Sarah. Arbeit – Produktion – Protest. Die Leninwerft in Gdansk und die AG “Weser” in Bremen im Vergleich (1968–1983). [Zeithistorische Studien, Bd. 62.] Böhlau, Wien [etc.] 2021. 563 pp. Ill. Maps. € 65.00. (E-book: € 54.99.)

On 14 August 1980, the workers at the Gdansk Lenin shipyard laid down their work and started an occupation, as a result of which the first independent trade union Solidarnosc was founded. One month later, workers from the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on the other side of the Iron Curtain took to the streets to protest the loss of jobs. Dr Graber Majchrzak shows from the perspective of the workers how companies in two different political–economic systems have reacted to changes in production methods and increased competition on the world market since the 1970s and notes that the crises in East and West at the end of the 1970s were closely related.

Professional Guilds and the History of Insurance. A Comparative Analysis. Ed. by Hellwege, Phillip. [Comparative Studies in the History of Insurance Law/ Studien zur vergleichenden Geschichte des Versicherungsrechts, Vol. 7.] Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2020. 288 pp. € 99.90. (E-book: € 89.90.)

German literature claims that modern insurance (law) derives from three sources: marine insurance; the co-operative protection provided by medieval and early modern guilds; and state-run insurance schemes. English scholars suggest that marine insurance is the only foundation for modern insurance (law). The aim of the twelve contributions in this edited volume is to test these different narratives by assessing, from a comparative perspective, whether the support offered by medieval and early modern professional guilds to members in need may be analysed in terms of insurance, and whether guild support had a lasting impact on the development of modern insurance and insurance law.

Madariaga, Aldo. Neoliberal Resilience. Lessons in Democracy and Development from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) [etc.] 2020. xv, 348 pp. $45.00; £38.00.

Looking at four decades of change in four countries once considered to be leading examples of effective neoliberal policy in Latin America and Eastern Europe – Argentina, Chile, Estonia, and Poland – Professor Madariaga examines the domestic actors and institutions responsible for defending neoliberalism. The author demonstrates that political power is strongest in countries where traditional democratic principles have been slowly and deliberately eroded. He identifies three mechanisms through which coalitions of political, institutional, and financial forces have propagated neoliberalism's success: privatization of state companies to create a supporting business class; use of political institutions to block the representation of alternatives in congress; and constitutionalization of key economic policies to shield them from partisan influence.

The Military in the Early Modern World. A Comparative Approach. Ed. by Markus Meumann and Andrea Pühringer. [Herrschaft und soziale Systeme in der Frühen Neuzeit, Bd. 26.] V&R Unipress, Göttingen 2020. 312 pp. Ill. € 39.99.

Considering the early modern period reveals that the forms and structures of the armed forces not only changed between 1500 and 1800, but also varied throughout different regions of the world and even within Europe. Twelve case studies from contexts, milieus, and “lifeworlds” of the early modern period that differ in time and space, as well as socially and politically, are presented in this volume, dealing with the armed forces in the Holy Roman Empire, Western and Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, and North America. They convey a multifaceted picture of the military in the early modern period, highlighting the complexity of organized violence in that era.

Refugee Crises, 1945–2000. Political and Societal Responses in International Comparison. Ed. by Jan C. Jansen and Simone Lässig. [Publications of the German Historical Institute.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2020. x, 310 pp. $99.99. (E-book: $80.00.)

This study examines responses to mass refugee movements from local communities to supranational organizations. Bringing together ten case studies from around the world, this book explores a broad spectrum of types of migration and international and domestic contexts. Whilst the driving forces and numbers of people involved and the backgrounds (national, religious, social) of the migrants vary considerably, this book highlights the common factor: that each receiving country was confronted with the crucial question of how to deal with the arrival of a large number of people seeking refuge. They could not simply be sent away, but they were also widely seen in the receiving countries as an unpredictable challenge to stability and social cohesion.

Von Saldern, Adelheid. Kunstnationalismus. Die USA und Deutschland in transkultureller Perspektive 1900–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2021. 494 pp. Ill. € 39.10. (E-book: € 29.99.)

The great validation of the arts is one of the dimensions of nationalism. In Germany in the first half of the twentieth century nationalist circles were looking for contemporary “true German art”, which the National Socialists promised to chart. In the United States, a search for “true American art” in a nationalistic sense was conducted as well. The arts should free themselves from European influence. Professor von Saldern analyses the discussions about the orientation of the arts and art criticism according to national concerns, examining the parallels and differences in both the cultural practices and the social structures and political constellations in the two countries, making clear how nation-related narratives shaped the transatlantic network of relationships.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Freeburg, Christopher. Counterlife. Slavery after Resistance and Social Death. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 2021. x, 137 pp. Ill. $89.95. (Paper: $23.95.)

In this book, Professor Freeburg poses a question to contemporary studies of slavery and its aftereffects: what if freedom, agency, and domination were not the overarching terms used for thinking about Black life? In pursuit of the answer to this question, he submits that current scholarship is too preoccupied with demonstrating acts of political resistance by enslaved Africans and argues that Black social life extends beyond such concepts. The author examines a rich array of cultural texts, from works by Frederick Douglas to spirituals, from television cartoons to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which depict slavery to show how enslaved Africans created meaning through artistic creativity, religious practice, and historical awareness both separate from and alongside concerns about freedom.

Melia, Steve. Roads, Runways and Resistance. From the Newbury Bypass to Extinction Rebellion. Pluto Press, London 2021. xiv, 233 pp. £75.00. (Paper: £16.99; E-book: £9.99.)

In 1989, Margaret Thatcher's government announced, “the biggest road-building programme since the Romans”. This book tells the story of the most controversial issues in transport in the UK and the protest movements they instigated. Drawing on a range of documents and over fifty interviews with government ministers, advisors, lobbyists, activists, and protest leaders, Dr Melia discovers how transport ministers were undermined by their own prime ministers, protestors were alternately attacked or tacitly supported by the police, and smartly-dressed protestors found a way onto the roof of the Houses of Parliament. The author examines the impact of the protests of the past and elaborates on the impact that climate protestors today may have on transport of the future.

A Region in Revolt. Mapping the Recent Uprisings in North Africa and West Asia. Ed. by Jade Saab. Daraja Press, Ottawa 2020. xv, 164 pp. $25.00. (E-book: $10.00.)

A wave of mass protest movements has spread across North Africa and West Asia, including Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran. The mass protests have much in common, from opposing authoritarian regimes and worsening economic situations to demanding radical changes in social relations. Despite their similarities, each protest movement operates under different conditions that cannot be ignored. The specific historic, political, and economic contexts of each country have determined who the key actors of the uprisings are and their location across old and new divides. The six contributions in this book elaborate on these similarities and differences to paint a clearer picture of these movements.

Continents and Countries

AFRICA

Tamale, Sylvia. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Daraja Press, Ottawa 2020. xv, 411 pp. Ill. CAD $40.00. (E-book: CAD $10.)

Six decades after African countries gained formal independence, the continent still struggles to free itself of the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Analysed through the eyes of Afro-feminism, this book revisits some of the fundamental preconditions for radical transformation. Focusing on unlearning imperial power relations by shaking off the colonial filters, including the instruments of law, education, religion, family, and sexuality, Professor Tamale re-envisions Pan-Africanism as a more inclusive decolonial movement for embracing Afro-feminist politics. Challenging the traditional human rights paradigm and its concomitant idea of “gender equality”, she proposes the African philosophy of ubuntu as a serious alternative for reinvigorating African notions of social justice. See also Pamela Ohene-Nyako's review in this volume, pp. 308–310.

Algeria

Surkis, Judith. Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830–1930. [Corpus Juris: The Humanities in Politics and Law.] Cornell University Press, Ithaca (NY) 2019. xvi, 335 pp. Ill. Maps. $115.00. (Paper: $29.95; E-book: $14.99.)

During the colonial rule over Algeria, the French state shaped and reshaped the meaning and practice of Muslim law. In this book, Professor Surkis traces how colonial authorities constructed Muslim legal difference and used it to deny Algerian Muslims full citizenship. In disconnecting Muslim law from property rights, French officials increasingly attached it to bodies, beliefs, and personhood. The author argues that powerful affective attachments to the intimate life of the family and fantasies about Algerian women and the sexual prerogatives of Muslim men shaped French theories and regulatory practices of Muslim law. Women's legal status in particular came to represent the dense relationship between sex and sovereignty in the colony. See also Mary Lewis's review in this volume, pp. 310–313.

Egypt

Shechter, Relli. Rise of the Egyptian Middle Class. Socio-Economic Mobility and Public Discontent from Nasser to Sadat. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2019. xv, 269 pp. Ill. £75.00. (Paper: £24.99; E-book: $26.00.)

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Egypt experienced swift economic growth resulting from a regional oil boom, hardly registered in Egyptian public discourse, which continuously claimed that the country was experiencing multiple economic, social, and cultural crises. Dr Shechter investigates this discrepancy by documenting the massive socio-economic mobility in Egypt. He analyses statistical data, indicating the changes in the employment structure and the spread of mass consumption. Examining cultural resources, such as Egyptian academic writing, the press, the cinema, and the literature, the author offers a local version of a wider Middle Eastern and international story: the global formation of middle-class societies that succeeded only in part in their pursuit of respectable lives.

Tanzania

Becker, Felicitas. The Politics of Poverty. Policy-Making and Development in Rural Tanzania. [African Studies Series, Vol. 143.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2019. vii, 366 pp. Ill. Maps. £90.00. (Paper: £24.99; E-book: $26.00.)

In this book, Professor Becker traces the dynamics of rural poverty based on the exportation of foodstuffs and examines what has kept the development industry going despite its failure to break this cycle. She argues that development planners often exaggerated their prospects to secure funding, repackaged old strategies as new to maintain the appearance of their promise, and shifted blame to rural Africans for failing to meet the expectations they had raised. Focusing on the role of environmental, practical, financial, and political limitations in shaping development intervention, the author reveals overarching patterns in policy implementation, offering accounts of the attitudes of villagers towards poverty and inequality, giving readers an understanding of their priorities.

AMERICA

Argentina

Poy, Lucas. El Partido Socialista argentino 1896–1912. Una historia social y politica. Ariadna Ediciones, Santiago de Chile 2020. 287 pp. Maps. € 22.74. (Open Access.)

In this book, the author analyses the origins of the Partido Socialista, examining initial experiences with building an independent workers’ political party in Argentina, encouraged by the Argentine working class itself, very early in its history. Although he pays attention to theoretical and programmatic issues, as well as to organizational developments, Dr Poy's main goal is to understand the place of the PS in structuring the class consciousness of the Argentine proletariat. He examines this process in the framework of a capitalist economy, in the formation of its organizations of combat and in the context of its relationship with the political groups active in the left.

Canada

Langford, Will. The Global Politics of Poverty in Canada. Development Programs and Democracy, 1964–1979. [Rethinking Canada and the World, Vol. 7.] McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal [etc.] 2020. xi, 412 pp. Ill. Maps. Can. $130.00. (Paper: Can. $39.95.)

In this book, Dr Langford explores the relationship between poverty, democracy, and development during the 1960s and 70s, in the midst of the Cold War and decolonization movement, analysing three Canadian development programmes that unfolded on local, regional, and international scales. It reveals the interconnections of anti-poverty activism carried out by the Company of Young Canadians among Métis in northern Alberta and francophones in Montreal, by the Cape Breton Development Corporation and by Canadian University Service Overseas in Tanzania. In dialogue with the New Left, liberal reformers committed to development programmes they believed would empower the poor to confront their own poverty and thereby foster a more meaningful democracy.

Rutherford, Scott. Canada's Other Red Scare. Indigenous Protest and Colonial Encounters During the Global Sixties. [Rethinking Canada in the World, Vol. 6.] McGill Queen's University Press, Montreal [etc.] 2020. viii, 208 pp. Ill. Maps. Can. $110.00. (Paper: Can. $29.95.)

Indigenous activism put Northwestern Ontario and Treaty Three territory on the map in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on archival documents, media coverage, published interviews and memoirs, as well as on his own lived experience growing up in Kenora, Dr Rutherford reconstructs a period of turbulent protest and the responses it instigated, from support to disbelief to outright hostility. Indigenous organizers advocated for a range of issues, from better employment opportunities to the recognition of nationhood, using tactics such as marches, cultural production, community organizing, journalism, and armed occupation. Inspired by global currents, from black American freedom movements to Third World decolonization, they challenged the inequalities and racial logics that shaped settler-colonialism and daily life in Kenora.

Caribbean

Shaffer, Kirwin R. Anarchists of the Caribbean. Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion. [Global and International History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020. xiv, 318 pp. Ill. Maps. £39.99. (E-book: $40.00.)

Anarchists who supported the Cuban War for Independence in the 1890s launched a transnational network linking radical leftists from the revolutionary hub in Havana to Florida, Puerto Rico, Panama, and beyond. Over the course of three decades, anarchists migrated around the Caribbean and back and forth to the US, promoting their projects and transferring money and information across political borders for a variety of causes. In response, US security officials forged their own transnational anti-anarchist campaigns with officials across the Caribbean. In this book, Professor Shaffer illustrates how men and women throughout the Caribbean and beyond sought to shape a counter-globalization initiative to challenge the emergence of modern capitalism and US foreign policy whilst rejecting nationalist projects and Marxist state socialism.

Cuba

Fitz, Don. Cuban Health Care. The Ongoing Revolution. Monthly Review Press, New York 2020. 303 pp. Ill. $95.00. (Paper: $26.00; E-book: $19.00.)

Cuba has transformed its healthcare to the extent that this “Third-World” country has been able to maintain a First-World medical system at a fraction of the cost. Weaving together complex themes in Cuban history, Don Fitz describes how Cuba set up a unified system of clinics and pioneered the family doctor–nurse teams that became a model for poor countries throughout the world, as well as how Cuba survived the scourge of AIDS and the increasing suffering that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union and went on to establish the Latin American School of Medicine, which still brings thousands of international students to the island.

Jennings, Evelyn P. Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana. State Slavery in Defense and Development, 1762–1835. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge (LA) 2020. xii, 283 pp. $45.00.

Examining the political economy surrounding the use of enslaved labourers in the capital of Cuba from 1762 to 1835, Dr Jennings demonstrates that the policies and practices of Spain in owning and employing enslaved workers after 1762 helped bring about a rapidly expanding plantation economy in the nineteenth century, and that the composition of workforces assigned to public projects depended on the availability of enslaved workers on various interconnected labour markets. As plantation production emerged as the most dynamic sector of Cuba's economy by 1810, and Atlantic networks for obtaining enslaved workers became increasingly strained, colonial officials expanded the state's authority to force deserters, vagrants, and fugitives to labour in public works to offset the reduced access to enslaved labourers.

Ecuador

Becker, Marc. The CIA in Ecuador. [American Encounters/Global Interactions.] Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 2020. xi, 317 pp. Ill. Maps. $104.95. (Paper: $27.95.)

Drawing on recently released US government surveillance documents on the Ecuadorian left to chart social movement organizing efforts during the 1950s and emphasizing the competing roles of the domestic ruling class and grassroots social movements, the author details the struggles and difficulties that activists, organizers, and political parties faced. He shows how leftist groups, including the Communist Party of Ecuador, navigated disagreements over tactics and ideology, and how these influenced shifting strategies in support of rural Indigenous communities and urban labour movements, noting the failure of the CIA to understand that the Ecuadorian left was rooted in local social struggles rather than bankrolled by the Soviet Union.

Mexico

Rivera Mir, Sebastián. Edición y comunismo. Cultura impresa, educación militante y prácticas políticas (México, 1930–1940). [Historia y ciencias sociales.] University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill (NC) 2020. ix, 286 pages. Ill. $30.00. (E-book: $12.99.)

Among many militants on the left, publishing accounts for an important part of their activities. Learning to use the mimeograph, hand out books, write articles, sell brochures, and distribute loose leaves, among many other practices, have accompanied the left throughout its history. Professor Rivera Mir focuses in particular on the challenges that Mexican communist militants faced in the 1930s in printing their own editions. The chapters concern aspects such as government censorship, transnational editorial dynamics, disputes with anti-communism, or the actions of militants, who found a way to make the revolution in print. Ultimately, the author analyses how these efforts reconfigured not only daily life, but also the scope of political projects.

United States of America

Kettler, Andrew. The Smell of Slavery. Olfactory Racism and the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2020. xxvii, 229 pp. Ill. £29.99. (E-book: $32.00.)

In the Atlantic World, different groups were aromatically classified in opposition to other ethnic, gendered, and class assemblies. The African subject was defined as a scented object, appropriated as filthy to establish levels of ownership through discourse that marked African peoples as unable to access spaces of Western modernity. Embodied cultural knowledge was potent enough to alter the biological function of the five senses to create a European olfactory consciousness made to sense the African other as foul. Demonstrating that the roots of racism transgressed intellectual and political arenas, Dr Kettler explains that concerns with pungency within the Western self were emitted outward upon the freshly dug outhouse of the mass slave grave called the Atlantic World.

ASIA

Chung, Erin Aeran. Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020. xvi, 261 pp. £79.99. (Paper: £26.99; E-book: $28.00.)

Despite labour shortages and shrinking working-age populations, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan shared restrictive immigration policies until the early 2000s. While Taiwan maintained this trajectory, Japan took incremental steps to expand immigrant services, and South Korea enacted sweeping immigration reforms. Based on the scholarship that focuses on culture, domestic political elites, and international norms, Professor Chung shows the important role of civil society actors, including the immigrants, in giving voice to immigrant interests and shaping public debate and immigration policy. Based on more than 150 interviews and focus groups with over twenty immigrant communities, the author examines how the civic legacies of past struggles for democracy shape current movements for immigrant rights and recognition.

China

Elfstrom, Manfred. Workers and Change in China. Resistance, Repression, and Responsiveness. [Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2021. xviii, 232 pp. Maps. £75.00. (E-book: $80.00.)

Strikes, protests, and riots by Chinese workers have been increasing over the past decade. While the state has addressed a number of grievances, civil society groups pushing for reform experience increasing repression. Using extensive fieldwork and statistical analysis, Professor Elfstrom examines why these two seemingly conflicting developments are occurring simultaneously, adopting a holistic approach encompassing national trends in worker–state relations, local policymaking processes, and the dilemmas of individual officials and activists. Instead of taking a stand in the debate over whether non-democracies such as China are on the verge of collapse, the author explores the daily evolution of autocratic rule, proposing a new model of bottom-up change within authoritarian systems.

Factory Politics in the People's Republic of China. Ed. by Joel Andreas. [Rethinking Socialism and Reform in China, Vol. 5.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2020. x, 189 pp. Maps. € 132.00; $159.00. (E-book: € 132.00; $159.00.)

Over the past seven decades since the 1949 Revolution, every aspect of Chinese society has been profoundly transformed multiple times. The eight contributions contained in this volume focus on the tumultuous twists and turns in the industrial sector, especially on aspects of industrial relations that involve contention and power, that is, factory politics. They were selected among articles that have appeared in the Chinese journal Open Times (开放时代) over the past decade. Arranged in approximate chronological order, all articles address changes in labour processes, labour relations and labour management, factory hierarchies, social cleavages and conflicts, and power and contention for power within industrial enterprises. See also Ju Li's review in this volume, pp. 313–316.

Yukyung, Yeo. Varieties of State Regulation. How China Regulates Its Socialist Market Economy. [Harvard East Asian Monographs, 436.] Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge (MA) [etc.] 2020. xiv, 202 pp. $49.95; £39.95; € 45.00. (Paper: $22.00; £17.95; € 20.00.)

Since the 1990s, as major state firms in China were spun off from the ministries that managed them, the nature of the state in governing the economy has been transformed into that of a regulator. Drawing on over a hundred interviews conducted with Chinese central and local officials, firms, scholars, journalists, and consultants, Professor Yeo demonstrates that forms of central state control vary considerably across leading industrial sectors, depending on the dominant mode of state ownership, conception of control, and governing structure. By contrasting the regulation of the automobile industry, a relatively decentralized sector, with the highly centralized telecommunications industry, he reveals how China's central party state maintains regulatory authority over key local state-owned enterprises.

Iran

Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Eskandar. Revolution and its Discontents. Political Thought and Reform in Iran. [The Global Middle East.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2019. xiii, 441 pp. £105.00. (Paper: £24.99.)

The death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iran–Iraq War and the marginalization of leading factions within the political elite had severe intellectual and political repercussions for the Iranian state and society. These events created the conditions for the emergence of Iran's post-revolutionary reform movement. Dr Sadeghi-Boroujerdi examines the rise and evolution of reformist political thought in Iran and analyses the complex network of publications, study circles, and think tanks that encompassed a range of prominent politicians and intellectuals in the 1990s. In his meticulous account of the relationships between the post-revolutionary political class and intelligentsia, he explores a panoply of political and ideological issues still vital for understanding Iran's revolutionary state.

Korea

Stories that Make History. The Experience and Memories of the Japanese Military Comfort Girls–Women. The Research Team of the War & Women's Human Rights Center (Ed.), Transl. [from Korean] by Angella Son. [Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes, Vol. 3.] De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin [etc.] 2020. xxiii, 301 pp. Ill. Maps. € 68.95. (Open Access.)

The experiences of Korean comfort girls–women are a paradigmatic example of how military sexual violence can obliterate the dignity of women and shame them into non-existence. Examining how their innocence was turned into inadequacy – actively by the Japanese government and passively by the Korean government – until Kim Hak-sun broke the silence in 1991 with the support of Korean activists, this book, written by a research team of seventeen members, features the voices of twelve Japanese military comfort girls–women. Dealing with issues as incongruent stories, the narrow nationalism in Korean society, and the contradictory sexual ethics of the Korean patriarchy, the interviewers provided the women with a platform for justice and healing.

Middle East

Karam, Jeffrey G. The Middle East in 1958. Reimagining a Revolutionary Year. I.B. Tauris, London 2021. xix, 226 pp. Ill. £76.50. (E-book: £61.50.)

The revolutionary year of 1958 epitomizes the height of the social uprisings, military coups, and civil wars that erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, amidst waning Anglo-French influence, growing US–USSR rivalry and competition, and alignments between Arab and non-Arab regimes. The fifteen contributions in this book explore this pivotal year in its global, regional, and local contexts and from a wide range of declassified and multilingual archives, reports, memoirs, and newspapers, shedding new light on topics such as the Suez War, Turkey's position in the regional Cold War, the internationalization of the Algerian War of Independence, and the influence of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the revolutionary storms across the region.

Khalili, Laleh. Sinews of War and Trade. Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. Verso, London [etc.] 2020. xvi, 352 pp. Ill. Maps. £20.00. (Paper: £11.99; E-book: £20.00.)

On the map of global trade, China is the factory of the world. Much of the materials shipped from China are transported through the ports of Arabian Peninsula. This book details what the making of new ports and shipping infrastructure has meant for the Arabian Peninsula itself, the region, and the world beyond. Professor Khalili examines how maritime transportation is not simply an enabling companion of trade but central to the very fabric of global capitalism. The ports that serve maritime trade, logistics, and hydrocarbon transport bring about racialized hierarchies of labour, engineer the lived environment, aid the accumulation of capital regionally and globally, and carry forward colonial regimes of profit, law, and administration. See also Marten Dondorp's review in this volume pp. 319–322.

Pratt, Nicola. Embodying Geopolitics. Generations of Women's Activism in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. [Simpson Imprint in Humanities.] University of California Press, Oakland (CA) 2020. xii, 308 pp. Maps. $85.00; £70.00. (Paper, E-book: $29.95; £25.00.)

When women took to the streets during the mass protests of the Arab Spring, the subject of feminism in the Middle East and North Africa returned to the international spotlight. In this book, relations of power in regional and international politics are explored to understand women's struggles for their rights. Based on over a hundred extensive personal narratives, Professor Pratt traces women's activism of different generations in the region. Each of the seven chapters addresses a significant geopolitical period in the histories of Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, from independence to the Arab uprisings, and considers the ways in which gender is part of the bigger picture of geopolitical upheaval.

Pakistan

Armytage, Rosita. Big Capital in an Unequal World. The Micropolitics of Wealth in Pakistan. [Dislocations, Vol. 29.] Berghahn Books, New York 2020. x, 195 pp. $120.00; £89.00. (E-book: $29.95.)

In this ethnography of the micro-politics of elite lives, Dr Armytage examines the networks, social practices, marriages, and machinations of the elite in Pakistan and the personal relationships, daily lives, and family histories of Pakistan's most prominent and wealthiest business families, demonstrating how an elite group can shape and determine the economic and political structures of the nation, and how private interactions define the opportunities available to the broader population. As Pakistan's elite becomes increasingly adept at managing processes of regional trade and foreign investment, these practices remain central in the allocation of national wealth, along with those who are excluded from partaking in it.

Philippines

Umali, Bas. Pangayaw and Decolonizing Resistance. Anarchism in the Philippines. Ed. by Gabriel Kuhn. PM Press, Oakland (CA) 2020. 116 pp. Ill. $15.00. (E-book: $8.95.)

Activist–author Bas Umali demonstrates in this book that anarchist ideas are still alive in the Philippines, a country that he would like to see renamed an “archipelagic confederation”.

Pangayaw refers to indigenous ways of maritime warfare. Umali relates traditional forms of communal life in the archipelago to modern-day expressions of anti-authoritarian politics. His provocative essays address crucial questions on liberation, such as who are the agents, and what are the means? In weaving together independent research and experiences from grassroots organizing, the author sketches a course of resistance in the Global South that relies not on Marxist determinism and Maoist people's armies but on the self-empowerment of the masses. See also Rosanne Rutten's review in this volume, pp. 316–319.

Woods, Colleen. Freedom Incorporated. Anticommunism and Philippine Independence in the Age of Decolonization. [The United States in the World.] Cornell University Press, Ithaca (NY) 2020. ix, 267 pp. Ill. $49.95. (E-book: $24.99.)

In this broad historical account, Professor Woods demonstrates how, in the mid-twentieth-century Philippines, US policymakers and Filipino elites promoted the islands as a model colony. Despite this propaganda, radical movements in the Philippines highlighted US hegemony over the Philippines, threatening American efforts to separate the US from sordid histories of imperialism and the colonial racial order. By linking political struggles over local resources, including the Hukbalahap Rebellion in central Luzon, to a war against communism, American and Filipino anti-communists legitimized the use of violence as a means to capture and contain alternative forms of political, economic and social organization.

EUROPE

Ladd, Brian. The Streets of Europe. The Sights, Sounds, and Smells that Shaped Its Great Cities. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2020. 303 pp. Ill. Maps. $30.00. (E-book: $18.00.)

In the 1800s, the European street was where social worlds connected and collided, while in the twentieth century the life of the street was transformed completely, as wealthier citizens withdrew from the crowds to seek refuge in suburbs and automobiles. Dr Ladd recounts the rich social and cultural history of the European city street, looking closely at four major cities: London; Paris; Berlin; and Vienna. As demographics and technologies changed, so did the structure of cities and the design of streets. By unearthing the vivid descriptions recorded by contemporaries, the author reveals the changing nature of city life, showing why streets matter, and how they can contribute to public life.

Belgium

Inequality and the City in the Low Countries (1200–2020). Ed. by Blondé, Bruno (et al.) [SEUH. Studies in European Urban History (1100–1800), Vol. 50.] Brepols, Turnhout 2020. 409 pp. Ill. Maps. € 99.00. (Open Access.)

Across the globe, at least half the world population lives in urban agglomerations, and urbanization continues to expand. This book engages with the complex interplay between urbanization and inequality by concentrating on the Low Countries, one of the oldest and most urbanized societies of Europe and questioning whether the historic poly-nuclear and decentralized urban system of the Low Countries contributed to specific outcomes in social inequality. Included are twenty-three essays and case studies on cultural inequalities, the relationship between social and consumption inequality, the politics of (in)equality, and the impact of shocks and crises, as well as the complex social relationships across the urban network and between town and countryside.

Eastern Europe

Labor in State-Socialist Europe, 1945–1989. Contributions to a History of Work. Ed. by Marsha Siefert. [Work and Labor. Transdisciplinary Studies for the 21st Century, Vol. 1.] Central European University Press, Budapest [etc.] 2020. xv, 466 pp. $105.00; € 90.00; £85.00.

Labour regimes under communism in East-Central Europe were complex, shifting, and ambiguous. This collection of sixteen essays offers new conceptual and empirical ways to understand their history from the end of World War II to 1989. The authors reconsider the history of state socialism by re-examining the policies and problems of communist regimes and recovering the voices of the workers who built them while exploring the often contentious relationship between politics and labour policy, dealing with diverse topics, including worker safety and risks, labour rights and protests, working women's politics and professions, migrant workers and social welfare, attempts to control worker behaviour and stem unemployment, and cases of incomplete, compromised, or even abandoned processes of proletarianization.

Outside the “Comfort Zone”. Performances and Discourses of Privacy in Late Socialist Europe. Ed. by Tatiana Klepikova and Lukas Raabe. [Rethinking the Cold War, Vol. 5.] De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Boston 2020. vii, 388 pp. € 86.95. (E-book; € 86.95.)

This volume offers explorations of diversified performances and discourses of privacy by various actors embedded in the culturally, economically, and politically specific constructions of late socialism in individual states of the Warsaw Pact. While the experience of socialism varied across the Bloc, some reactions to socialism and some adverse responses by socialist regimes to these reactions appeared in all states. The thirteen contributions to this volume document paradigms of the construction and transformation of the private spheres that overcame the national borders of individual states and left an imprint across the Eastern Bloc, thereby contributing to rethinking Cold War rhetoric in regard to these states.

France

Margot, Beal. Des champs aux cuisines. Histoires de la domesticité en Rhône et Loire, 1848–1940. [Sociétés, espaces, temps.] ENS Éditions, Lyon 2019. 235 pp. € 28.00. (Open Access.)

This book on paid domestic service in mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century France focuses on the Rhône and Loire region. Based on a PhD thesis, the author examines, through a feminist lens, how the state and the employer class alike devised the “domestic worker” category as a preferred means of exploiting women and the working classes and discusses the wages and working and living conditions of and the degree of freedom available to domestic workers, in comparison with other manual workers and farmers. Using legal, administrative, and private sources, Dr Beal looks beyond the obedient and helpless female domestic worker by describing the lives of domestic workers and analysing the exploitation to which they were subjected.

Boulouque, Sylvain. Julien Le Pen. Un lutteur syndicaliste et libertaire. Atelier de Création Libertaire, Lyon 2020. 371 pp. € 18.00.

This collection of texts, congress speeches, and press articles illustrates the history of an important part of the libertarian movement. Julien Le Pen (1878–1945) belonged to a generation that became militant around World War I. Joining the union split from the General Confederation of Labour in 1921 and founding the CGT-Unitaire the following year, he pursued a minority route in the libertarian movement. As the most representative of his trade unionist group, Le Pen conveyed a message at the crossroads of two contradictory political social cultures: reformists among revolutionaries and revolutionaries among reformists, highlighting the diversity of trade union cultures.

Michel, Louise. Mémoires 1886. Ed. établie, présentée et annotée par Claude Rétat. [Collection folio histoire, no. 4.] Gallimard, Paris 2021. 576 pp. € 9.70. (E-book: € 9.49.)

Louise Michel (1830–1905), a heroine of the Paris Commune (1871), wrote her memoirs in 1886. We discover her to be a funny teenager, feminist teacher, licensed revolutionary deported to New Caledonia, anarchist fighter, and passionate about art and science. This is the first scholarly edition of the memoirs, presented by Claude Rétat. In addition to the text, this edition offers an impression of the early works of Louise Michel, the text of the interrogations in 1871, a selection of unpublished letters and poems, as well as of articles published in Révolution sociale (1881) and in newspapers now difficult to access, the press kit of Mémoires in 1886 and some tributes paid to Louise Michel.

Germany

Bonnell, Andrew. Red Banners, Books and Beer Mugs. The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863–1914. [Historical Materialism Book Series, Vol. 220.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2020. viii, 225 pp. € 135.00; $163.00. (E-book: € 135.00; $163.00.)

The German Social Democratic Party was the world's first million-strong political party and was the driving force pushing for the democratization of Imperial Germany before World War I. In this book, the themes around which the party organized its mainly working-class membership are examined and the experiences and outlook of rank-and-file party members as well as the party's press and publications analysed. Key themes include: the Lassalle cult and leadership, nationalism, and internationalism, attitudes to work, the politics of subsistence, the effects of military service, reading and diffusion of Marx's ideas, cultural organizations and socialism and republicanism under the Imperial German state. Before 1914, the party succeeded in simultaneously addressing workers’ everyday concerns and offering the prospect of a better future.

Hellwege, Philip. From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care. Professional Guilds and the Origins of Modern Social Security Law in Germany. [Comparative Studies in the History of Insurance Law/ Studien zur vergleichenden Geschichte des Versicherungsrechts, Vol. 8.] Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2020. 348 pp. € 109.90. (E-book: € 98.90.)

German literature on the history of insurance stresses the importance of professional guilds in shaping insurance and insurance law. Similarly, scholars researching the genesis of Germany's social security argue that guilds served as predecessors of social security. In this analysis of the support offered by professional guilds from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, Professor Hellwege concludes that modern literature is generally correct in the premise that German social security is rooted in guild welfare. Medieval guild support, however, underwent phases of transformation in the early modern period and in the nineteenth century before it was apt as a model for Bismarck's social security legislation.

Langelüddecke, Ines. Alter Adel – Neues Land? Die Erben der Gutsbesitzer und ihre umstrittene Rückkehr ins postsozialistische Brandenburg. Wallstein, Göttingen 2020. 379 pp. € 41.10.

In the Brandenburg manor villages, aristocratic families who returned from the West after 1990 had to find a modus vivendi with the socialist village population from whom they had been separated for over forty years since the expropriation in 1945. In Gutsdorf, specific problems and dynamics that had been occurring all over eastern Germany became visible as if held under a magnifying glass. Ines Langelüddecke examines the difficulties after the return of the nobles, redefining the positions and dealing with social changes for both the nobles and the villagers. In addition, the author contributes to understanding the conflict situation of the present, with differences and contradictions between East and West persisting more than thirty years after 1989/1990.

Safley, Thomas Max. Family Firms and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe. The Business, Bankruptcy and Resilience of the Höchstetters of Augsburg. [Routledge Explorations in Economic History.] Routledge, Abingdon [etc.] 2020. xii, 287 pp. Maps. £96.00. (E-book: £29.59.)

This study follows the fortunes of the Höchstetter family, merchant–manufacturers and financiers of Augsburg, Germany, in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries and sheds light on the economic and social history of failure and resilience in early modern Europe. Carefully tracing the chronology of the family's rise, fall, and transformation, Professor Safley moves from the micro to the macro-level, making comparisons with other contemporary mercantile families to reach conclusions and suggest insights into issues such as social mobility, capitalist organization, business techniques, market practices, and economic institutions. The result is a microhistory that offers macro-conclusions about the lived experience of early capitalism and capitalistic practices.

Selgert, Felix. Macht und Kontrolle im Unternehmen. Die politische Ökonomie des Aktionärsschutzes im Deutschen Reich, 1870–1945. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Bd. 240.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2020. 352 pp. € 65.00.

Between 1870 and 1937, the corporate control system in the German Empire changed fundamentally. While the authorities emphasized protection of shareholders and minority shareholders, shareholders forfeited their co-decision rights in the 1920s and were compensated with stricter disclosure regulations. At the same time, the stock corporation transitioned from a business run by the owner to a large, management-run firm. Examining the political and social negotiation process that led to these results, Dr Selgert demonstrates that the outcome of the negotiations between political decision-makers was influenced by conditions such as financial and economic crises, as well as by coalitions of advocates.

Great Britain

Griffin, Emma. Bread Winner. An Intimate History of the Victorian Economy. Yale University Press, New Haven (CT) [etc.] 2020. xi, 389 pp. Ill. £20.00.

Nineteenth-century Britain experienced remarkable economic growth and a rise in real wages. But not everyone shared in the nation's wealth. Unable to earn sufficient income themselves, working-class women were reliant on the “breadwinner wage” of their husbands. When income failed or was denied or squandered by errant men, families could be plunged into desperate poverty from which there was no escape. Professor Griffin unlocks the homes of Victorian England to examine the lives and finances of the people who lived there. Drawing on over 600 working-class autobiographies, including more than 200 written by women, this book tells the story of how ordinary families made ends meet in the Victorian era.

Hindmarch-Watson, Katie. Serving a Wired World. London's Telecommunications Workers and the Making of an Information Capital. University of California Press, Oakland (CA) 2020. xi, 270 pp. Ill. $29.95; £25.00. (E-book: $29.95; £25.00.)

In the public imagination, Silicon Valley embodies the vanguard of social networks and globally interconnected lives. This situation mirrors an earlier generation of labourers in the London workforce that launched and shaped the massive telecommunications systems at the turn of the twentieth century. As Professor Hindmarch-Watson shows, the administrators and engineers who crafted these telecommunications systems formed networks according to conventional gender perceptions and social hierarchies, modelling the networks between master and servant. Despite attempts to render telegraphists and telephone operators invisible, these workers were aware of their crucial role in modern life, and they posed creative challenges to their marginalized status, from organizing labour strikes to participating in deviant sexual exchanges.

Kenway, Emily. The Truth about Modern Slavery. Pluto Press, London 2021. ix, 215 pp. £75.00. (Paper: £14.99; E-book: £7.99.)

“Modern slavery” is a broad concept that refers to situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave an exploitative situation. Emily Kenway disagrees partly with this definition and reveals how, in her opinion, modern slavery has been created as a political tool by those in power, as the British Conservative Party called it one of the great human rights issues of our time while ignoring the exploitation of those at the bottom of the economic pile. She argues that anti-slavery action acts as a moral cloak, hiding the harms the hostile environment inflicts on migrants and legitimizing exploitation of the poorest workers by major brands.

Trafford, James. Empire at Home. Internal Colonies and the End of Britain. Pluto Press, London 2021. xiv, 204 pp. £75.00. (Paper, E-book: £19.99.)

Modern Britain has been forged through the redeployment of structures that facilitated and legitimized slavery, exploitation, and extermination. This “empire at home” is inseparable from the strategies of neocolonial extraction and oppression of subjects abroad. In this book, Dr Trafford develops the notion of internal colonies, arguing that methods and structures used in colonial rule are re-deployed internally in contemporary Britain to recreate and solidify imperial power relations. Based on examples including housing segregation, targeted surveillance, and counter-insurgency techniques used in the fight against terrorism, he reveals Britain's internal colonialism to be a reactive mechanism to retain British sovereignty.

Yerby, George. The Economic Causes of the English Civil War. Freedom of Trade and the English Revolution. [Routledge Research in Early Modern History.] Routledge, New York [etc.] 2020. ix, 420 pp. Ill. £96.00. (E-book: £29.59.)

This book presents the economic basis of revolutionary change in sixteenth- and early-seventeenth century England, tracing a transformation in the agrarian economy and the decisive scale on which this took place to show how the new forms of occupation and practice on the land related to changes in commercial activity. An integrated, self-regulating national market generated new imperatives, particularly the demand for freedom of trade. This took political force, and new associations emerged, such as a merchant-gentry alliance, seeking to establish freedom of trade and representative control of public finance through parliament. These ambitions led to the first revolutionary measures of the Long Parliament in early 1641, establishing automatic parliaments and the normative force of freedom of trade.

Italy

Carnevale, Francesco. L'epopea dell'amianto. Una mortale pandemia di lunga durata. [Biblioteca di medicina & storia, 19.] Edizioni Polistampa, Florence 2020. 472 pp. Ill. € 28.00.

Parallel to the social advantages and economic interests of asbestos for some groups was the damage to health, long undervalued and concealed. Using testimonies from workers and their families, doctors and epidemiologists, sociologists and psychologists, writers, artists, and historians, Professor Carnevale focuses on the various phases of the asbestos epic, lasting more than a century up to the current one, even after the ban. Attempts by industry, politicians, institutions, technicians, mass social movements, and, in particular, by trade unions and workers to adequately manage the problem have proved ineffective.

Di Qual, Anna. Eric J. Hobsbawm tra marxismo brittannico e comunismo italiano. [Studi di storia, 14.] Edizioni Ca'Foscari, Venice 2020. 337 pp. Ill. Open Access.

Developing the biographical genre though a “translocal micro-history” approach, in this book Dr Di Qual aims to study the figure of Eric J. Hobsbawm by focusing on his elective affinity with Italy and examines how the English historian encountered this country and his repeated introductions from the 1950s until the new millennium. First, the author analyses the relationships networks Hobsbawm formed in Italy and with Italians worldwide; second, she considers the results that these interactions brought about in terms of scholarly output and political reflection while trying at the same time to capture the transformations that his political identity underwent in contact with the Italian Communist Party.

The Netherlands

Martens, Piet. Visserij in Noord-Brabant. Uitgeverij Verloren [etc.], Hilversum [etc.] 2020. 223 pp. Ill. Maps. € 25.00.

Intensive and large-scale professional fishing has taken place for centuries in the waters marking the west and north borders of the province of North Brabant. Each chapter captures a fishing technique combined with the type of fish caught. The fishermen from Moerdijk on Hollands Diep and Haringvliet, for example, invented the technique of “anchor pitting”, which required stable heavy ships to catch eel. This method was exported upstream. Dr Martens offers an overview of the history of professional fishing in North Brabant and demonstrates that although most fishermen were poor, the business has been of great importance in places such as Bergen op Zoom, Moerdijk, Geertruidenberg, and Woudrichem.

Schmidt, Ariadne. Prosecuting Women. A Comparative Perspective on Crime and Gender before the Dutch Criminal Courts, c.1600–1810. [Crime and City in History, Vol. 4.] Brill, Leiden 2020. 285 pp. Ill. € 105.00; $126.00. (E-book: € 105.00; $126.00.)

In the early modern period, women figured prominently in crime. In this book, Professor Schmidt analyses the relation between female crime and the urban context by comparing prosecution patterns in various Dutch cities. Discussing issues such as urbanization and economy, administration of justice, and the typology of prosecuted crimes, the life cycle and demographic context of early modern women in the Republic and examining the personal circumstances of criminal women, showing how women's illegal activities were linked to the socio-economic context of the locality and varied over time, the author analyses the trial records of port cities, industrial cities, and peripheral towns while highlighting the differences between them. See also Jonas Roelens's review in this volume pp. 322–324.

Wester, Rudi. Bestaat er een raarder leven dan het mijne? Jef Last 1898–1972. Prometheus, Amsterdam 2021. 565 pp. Ill. € 34.99.

Novelist, poet, essayist, sinologist, painter, journalist, translator, provo, speaker: Jef Last (1898–1972) defies classification. He roamed the globe, fought in the Spanish Civil War, and was a courageous member of the resistance. All his life he fought for freedom and justice, standing up for the underdog in society. In this biography, drawn from his unpublished memoirs, Rudi Wester provides a glimpse of his turbulent life. The book is divided into three parts: “De Tijd der Zekerheden” [Time of Certainties] is about his younger years; “De Tijd der Illusies” [Time of Illusions] describes his work and political actions; and “De Tijd der Onzekerheden” [Time of Uncertainties] demonstrates his struggle to retain his citizenship of the Netherlands and examines his literary work.

Poland

Lingelbach, Jochen. On the Edges of Whiteness. Polish Refugees in British Colonial Africa during and after the Second World War. Berghahn Books, New York, 2020. xii, 295 pp. Ill. Maps. $135.00; £99.00. (E-book: $34.95.)

From 1942 to 1950, nearly 20,000 Poles found refuge from war-torn Europe in camps within Britain's African colonies, including Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Northern and Southern Rhodesia. The presence of white refugees contradicted the conventional image of societies, where whites ruled and profited, while Africans were exploited. Dr Lingelbach tells their story, tracing the manifold complex relationships that developed among refugees, their British administrators, and their African neighbours. Intervening in key historical debates across academic disciplines, such as the exile, immigrant and colonial debate, this book also gives an accessible and memorable account of survival and dramatic cultural dislocation against the backdrop of global conflict.

Russia – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Rüthers, Monica. Unter dem Roten Stern geboren. Sowjetische Kinder im Bild. Böhlau, Köln [etc.] 2021. 278 pp. Ill. € 45.00. (E-book: € 37.99.)

Children and childhood figured prominently in Soviet collective thought. Pictures of children acted as social cement, representing cohesion of the empire, mobilizing people to build a new society, motivating them to sacrifice and showing utopian promises. Soviet pictorial formulas drew on the cultural repertoire of European art history and Christian iconography. The representations and metaphors of Soviet childhood encompassed a broad spectrum, from the promise of collective prosperity to that of individual happiness. Professor Rüthers illustrates the nostalgic practices of remembering “Soviet childhood”, as well as their political exploitation, demonstrating the lasting effect of this symbolic politics, which shaped strong normative ideas.

Suny, Ronald Grigor. Red Flag Wounded. Stalinism and the Fate of the Soviet Experiment. Verso, London [etc.] 2020. 266 pp. £70.00. (Paper, E-book: £25.00.)

Tracking the degeneration of the Russian Revolution, this book brings together eight essays covering the controversies and debates over the fraught history of the Soviet Union from the revolution to its disintegration. Those monumental years were marked not only by violence, mass killings, and the brutal overturning of a peasant society, but also by modernization and industrialization, the victory over fascism, and the slow recovery of society after the nightmare of Stalinism. Whether analysing biographies of Stalin or the trials and errors of Gorbachev, the essays by Professor Suny bring novel insights to a history that has often been misunderstood, countering Cold War stereotypes and assumptions.

Spain

Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization. Ed. by Ivonne del Valle, Anna More, and Rachel Sarah O'Toole. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville (TN) 2020. x, 356 pp. Ill. $69.95. (Paper: $34.95).

From research sites throughout the early modern Spanish and Portuguese territories and from distinct disciplinary approaches, the eleven essays collected in this volume investigate the economic mechanisms, administrative hierarchies, and art forms that linked the early modern Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe, demonstrating that early globalization was structured through diverse networks and their mutual and conflictive interactions within overarching imperial projects. The authors explore how specific products, texts, and people bridged ideas and institutions to produce multiple centres within Iberian imperial geographies, outlining the Iberian imperial models that provided templates for future global designs and simultaneously detail the negotiated and conflictive forms of local interactions that characterized that early globalization. See also Alejandro García Montón's review in this volume, pp. 325–327.

Rappe, David. Espoirs déçus. Engagements antifranquistes et libertaires durant la «transition démocratique» espagnole. Atelier de Création Libertaire, Lyon 2020. 157 pp. Ill. € 12.00.

This study is structured around the militant “Spanish” activist Bernard Pensiot (1948–2018). In the 1970s, Pensiot led the movement for prisoners of Spain pursuing general amnesty (COPEL) and trying to reconstruct the CNT (National Confederation of Labour) through a combination of voluntarism and memory re-emergence. Rappe offers an enlightening vision of this restless fringe of a CNT, recycling practices from 1968, correlated with a certain mood for spectacle and armed struggle. From solidarity with anti-Franco Spain in 1970–1975, the movement tried to reinvent itself during the democratic transition of Spain, ending in disillusionment by the failure to restore anarchist beliefs.

Simpson, James and Carmona, Juan. Why Democracy Failed. The Agrarian Origins of the Spanish Civil War. [Cambridge Studies in Economic History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2020. xviii, 299 pp. Maps. £69.99. (Paper: £22.99; E-book: $24.00.)

In this new history of the origins of the Spanish Civil War, professors Simpson and Carmona address the hotly-debated issue of why Spain's democratic Second Republic failed. They explore the interconnections between economic growth, state capacity, rural social mobility, and the creation of mass competitive political parties. Specifically they examine how these limited the effectiveness of the new republican governments, especially their attempts to tackle economic and social problems within the agricultural sector, demonstrating how political change during the Republic had a major economic impact on the different groups in village society, and how individuals with moderate political views became disillusioned with the Second Republic and were driven towards the political extremes.