General Issues
SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Aricó, José. Marx and Latin America. Transl. by David Broder. Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2014. [Historical Materialism Book Series, Vol 57.] lii, 152 pp. € 149.00; $193.00.
This volume features an essay by José Aricó (1931–1991), a translation of Marx y America Latina (2010), in which he considers why Latin America was apparently “excluded” from Marx's thought. Aricó concludes that Marx's hostility towards Simón Bolívar's Bonapartism and authoritarianism coloured his attitude towards Latin America and his misinterpretation of Latin-American realities. The collection also includes seven appendices of comments by Aricó on Marx and Rosa Luxemburg, Hegel, the Spanish revolution, and other topics; as well as an essay by Horacio Crespo about Aricó's Latin American Marxism.
Gat, Azar. Nations. The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism. Azar Gat with Alexander Yakobson. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2013. vi, 441 pp. £55.00; $80.00. (Paper: £18.99; $27.99.)
In this study of the historical origins of nationalism, Professor Gat offers an interpretation that opposes current theories viewing nations and nationalism as typically modern and “invented” phenomena, placing the roots of ethnicity and nationalism in human nature and evolution from aboriginal conditions onward. He argues that ethnicity and nationalism have liberating and altruistic roles, despite their explosive nature. The last chapter, which is on normative and constitutional aspects of state, national identity and ethnicity, was written by Alex Yakobson.
Karatani, Kojin. The Structure of World History. From Modes of Production to Modes of Exchange. Transl. by Michael K. Bourdaghs. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2014. xxi, 352 pp. £62.00. (Paper: £17.99.)
In Marxism the history of social formations was studied until recently from the perspective of modes of production, according to Professor Karatani. In this book he re-reads Marx's version of world history, shifting the focus of critique from modes of production to modes of exchange and discussing these modes, including those of nomadic tribes; gift exchange systems in fixed-settlement societies; the emergence of the state and the exchange of obedience for protection; the commodity exchanges that characterize capitalism; and a possible future mode of exchange based on the return of gift exchange.
Pesante, Maria Luisa. Come servi. Figure del lavoro salariato dal diritto naturale all'economia politica. [Storia/Studi e ricerche.] FrancoAngeli, Milano 2013. 362 pp. € 44.00.
Professor Pesante examines in this book how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century theorists such as Hugo Grotius, Thomas Rutherforth, William Blackstone, William Petty, Samuel von Pufendorf, and Pierre de Boisguilbert viewed waged labour to trace how the concept of labour as a commodity arose in natural law theories and the emerging discipline of political economy and became central to many modern economic theories. See also Andrea Caracausi's review in this volume, pp. 508–510.
Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Transl. by Arthur Goldhammer. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) [etc.] 2014. viii, 685 pp. $39.95; £29.95; € 35.00.
In this book, a translation of Le Capital au XXIe siècle (Paris, 2013), Professor Piketty analyses a large collection of data over three centuries and from twenty countries to answer questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth. His central argument is that the main driver of inequality – the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth – today threatens to instigate extreme, dangerous inequalities. Details concerning historical sources, bibliographic references, statistical methods etc. can be accessed at http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/capital21c.
Saunier, Pierre-Yves. Transnational History. [Theory and History.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2013. ix, 193 pp. £55.00.
Professor Saunier sets out to explain in this introduction what transnational history is, and how a transnational approach may be applied to historical study. Using many examples, he demonstrates the diversity of transnational history, surveys key concepts, methods, and theories, and notes differences between transnational history and subdisciplines, such as global history and comparative history.
Shantz, Jeff [and] Dana M. Williams. Anarchy and Society. Reflections on Anarchist Sociology. [Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Vol. 55.] Leiden [etc.], Brill 2013. xiv, 209 pp. € 99.00; $128.00.
Arguing that sociology and anarchism share many common interests (community, solidarity, feminism, criminology, and social inequality and domination), Dr Shantz and Dr Williams explore in this book how the discipline of sociology and the philosophy of anarchism are compatible, looking, for example, for sociological characteristics in the works of anarchist thinkers such as Kropotkin, Proudhon, Landauer, Goldman, and Ward; discussing sociologists (e.g. Ferdinand Tönnies) who have offered sociological ideas that are compelling to anarchists; and exploring epistemological problems while researching the anarchist movement.
HISTORY
Bethencourt, Francisco. Racisms. From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2013. xiv, 444 pp. $39.50; £27.95.
Analysing primary printed and visual sources and focusing on the Western world, Professor Bethencourt in this book examines different forms of racism, particularly against New Christians and Moriscos in Iberia, black slaves and freedmen in colonial and postcolonial environments, Native Americans, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and Jews in modern Europe. He argues that racism in the West is not a single, continuous tradition but is relational and changes over time, that racism existed before theories of race did, and that it must be viewed within the context of social hierarchies and local conditions.
Biderman, Bob. A People's History of Coffee and Cafés. Black Apollo Press, [Cambridge] 2013. 256 pp. Ill. £21.41; $26.05. (Paper: £11.01; $15.44; Kindle: £3.66; $7.20.)
In this book, intended for a general readership, Mr Biderman, a journalist and novelist, tells the story of coffee, from its botanical origins and use in the Sufi community of Yemen, to the role of the internet in attracting and educating coffee consumers. He also discusses the spread of coffee and coffee houses in the Middle East and Europe, as well as the roles of the British and the Dutch East India Companies in the coffee trade. A small bibliography, images, maps, and other materials may be accessed at the accompanying website: www.blackapollopress.com/coffee.html.
European Solidarity with Chile 1970s–1980s. Eds Kim Christiaens, Idesbald Goddeeris, Magaly Rodríguez García. [Studies in Political Transition, Vol. 3.] Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2014. 358 pp. Ill. € 61.95.
The overthrow of the government of Salvador Allende on 11 September 1973, the onset of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, and the massive repression by his regime mobilized a large number of social movements against Pinochet and in support of his opponents. The thirteen contributions to this volume examine the impact of the Chilean crisis in various western and eastern European countries, addressing the question of why Chile mobilized more people than other Latin American countries with repressive regimes. One article is about international labour solidarity campaigns, another about solidarity practices in the Soviet Union.
Pas, Niek. Les Pays-Bas et la guerre d'Algérie. Essay trad. du néerl. par Annette Eskenazi. Barzakh, Alger 2013. 230 pp. Ill. No price.
Dr Pas analyses in this book how the Algerian war (1954–1962) influenced Dutch intellectuals, militants, politicians, and citizens. Using newspaper articles, archival documents, photos and interviews, he looks at diplomatic relations between France and the Netherlands, coverage of the war in the media and the substantial humanitarian actions organized in the Netherlands – especially the successful campaign Sauvez un enfant, a fundraising effort for children of Algerian refugees in Morocco.
Ragona, Gianfranco. Anarchismo. Le idee e il movimento. [Politica.] Editori Laterza, Roma 2013. 163 pp. € 12.00.
In this short introduction Mr Ragona presents a history of anarchist ideas and movements in Europe and the United States from the origins of anarchism to the present-day anti-globalization movements. In the first chapter the author characterizes anarchism and discusses the ideas of Etienne de la Boëtie, in whose writings he finds anarchist elements, as well as those of “classical” anarchist thinkers. The book includes an index of names and a bibliography.
Schmidt, Michael. Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism. AK Press, Oakland [etc.] 2013. 160 pp. Ill Maps. $12.00; £8.95.
Challenging the “North Atlanticist” bias in traditional anarchist historiography and including the early anarcho- and revolutionary-syndicalist trade unions of Cuba, Mexico, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay in the 1870s and 1880s in his survey of revolutionary anarchism, Mr Schmidt describes five “waves” of anarchist militancy, explaining the central features of each, traces the industrial and social foundations of anarchism/syndicalism, and highlights the influence of anarchism in Asia, eastern Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The sexual history of the global South. Sexual politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Ed. by Saskia Wieringa and Horacio Sívori. Zed Books, London [etc.] 2013. ix, 275 pp. £19.99; $35.95.
Twelve scholars from the global South explore the gap between sexuality studies and post-colonial cultural critique in case studies focusing on, inter alia, the rise of sex and sexuality studies in post-1978 China; sexual morality in Cuba (1902–1959); the colonial government's control of venereal disease in Tanzania (1920–1960); gay and lesbian activism in Argentina (1983–1990); “lesbian” existence in Arab cultures; gender and sexuality at a Brazilian women's prison; and the premarital sexual adventures of young women in Zimbabwe. See also Peter Drucker's review in this volume, pp. 518–521.
Strum, Daniel. The Sugar Trade. Brazil, Portugal, and the Netherlands (1595–1630). Versal Editores, Rio de Janeiro; Stanford University Press, Stanford (Calif.) 2013. 537 pp. Ill. $100.00.
This lavishly illustrated, large, heavy book (13x11x2 inches) offers a panoramic view of the sugar trade encompassing Amsterdam, Porto, Pernambuco, and Bahia between 1595 and 1630, its golden age. Professor Strum examines the economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions of the trade, discussing the geo-political context, sugar production and the dissemination of sugar consumption; navigation, maritime transport, and risks and measures to counter risks; financial aspects and techniques; business strategies; and institutions of governance that merchants exploited to streamline their transactions.
Tendler, Joseph. Opponents of the Annales School. [Studies in Modern History.] Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2013. xiv, 266 pp. £52.50.
This book about the historiographical school that emerged around the French journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale examines the Annales, Annales historians, and their influence through a confrontation with scholars who opposed Annales historians’ methods. The first part is about the origins and increasing influence of the Annales from 1900 to 1970 and the movement's critics in France. In the second and third parts Dr Tendler focuses on opponents of the Annales school in Germany, Italy, Britain, and the United States. In the coda he examines the interaction of Annales and its critics after 1970, discussing, for example, the gender issue.
The Third World in the Global 1960s. Ed. by Samantha Christiansen and Zachary A. Scarlett. [Protest, Culture and Society, Vol. 7.] Berghahn, New York [etc.] 2013. ix, 223 pp. Ill. $75.00; £47.00. (E-book: $75.00; £47.00.)
While the Third World inspired activists in Europe and the United States, it has been largely overlooked in scholarship on the 1960s, according to this volume, which offers a sample of the Third World experience in that decade, highlighting features and presenting new paradigms that are not discussed in most studies of Western protest movements. The twelve chapters include four contributions on the idea of the Third World (e.g. in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Naxalite movement) and eight case studies of protest movements in Brazil, Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United States (Black Power).
Walvin, James. Crossings. Africa, the Americas, and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Reaktion Books, London 2013. 256 pp. Ill. £20.00.
Professor Walvin sets out to explain the rise and fall of the Atlantic slave trade, emphasizing the role and agency of the Africans themselves in the history of enslavement and freedom. Drawing largely on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, he examines slavery in the United States and the Portuguese, French, and British colonies, addressing, for example, how slave ship crews and slave drivers at the plantations, greatly outnumbered by the Africans, managed to control the slaves, and why the Atlantic slave trade, officially abolished by Britain (in 1807) and America (in 1808), continued so long afterwards.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Industrial Policy in Europe after 1945. Wealth, Power and Economic Development in the Cold War. Ed. by Christian Grabas and Alexander Nützenadel. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke 2014. xiii, 388 pp. £60.00.
This volume about European industrial policies during the Cold War explores historical legacies, political implications, and economic outcomes of state intervention in the industrial sector within a comparative framework. The book contains nine case studies, focusing on Britain, France, West Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, the GDR, Hungary, and the Soviet Union; an essay about European industrial policies in the postwar boom; another about the Marshall Plan; a study of the European Economic Community debates; and two others about the relationship between the EEC and African, Caribbean, and Pacific nations.
Nehring, Holger. Politics of Security. British and West German Protest Movements and the Early Cold War, 1945–1970. [Oxford Historical Monographs.] Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2013. xiv, 342 pp. Ill. £65.00; $110.00.
This comparative study focuses on peace movements in Britain and West Germany from 1945 to the early 1970s, specifically the protests against nuclear weapons. Tracing how activists from different backgrounds came to join the peace movements and emphasizing the importance of World War II memories, Dr Nehring sets out to demonstrate how especially activists in the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the West German Kampagne Kampf dem Atomtod and Easter Marches of Nuclear Weapons Opponents (modelled on the British example) challenged, developed, and appropriated languages and practices of security.
Stanziani, Alessandro. Bondage. Labor and Rights in Eurasia from the Sixteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries. [International Studies in Social History, Vol. 24.] Berghahn, New York [etc.] 2014. $95.00; £60.00.
Professor Stanziani in this book compares labour and labour institutions in Russia with those in Europe, central Asia, and the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Examining Russian and European ideas about serfdom and wage earners, comparing labour control in Russia and Britain, studying slavery and bondage in Russia and inner Asia, and comparing Russian serfdom to American slavery, for example, Professor Stanziani questions common views of free and unfree labour, arguing inter alia that unfree labour and forms of coercion were compatible with market development. See also Peter Kolchin's review in this volume, pp. 510–513.
Technology, Skills and the Pre-Modern Economy in the East and the West. Essays dedicated to the memory of S.R. Epstein. Ed. by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden. [Global Economics History Series, Vol. 10.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2013. xi, 353 pp. Ill. € 119.00; $154.00.
Engaging with the debate about the “great divergence” between Asia and Europe, the eleven contributors to this volume (based on a conference held at the London School of Economics in June 2008) investigate how technological skills and knowledge were reproduced and disseminated in Asia, Russia, and Europe in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution. The collection includes regional surveys, as well as comparative studies of brick-making, constructing religious buildings, guilds and apprenticeship in the ceramics industries, machine-making, book production, and shipbuilding. See also Joel Mokyr's review in this volume, pp. 505–508.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Travail et genre dans le monde. L’état des savoirs. Sous la dir. de Margaret Maruani. La Découverte, Paris 2013. 463 pp. € 29.50.
This volume surveys the ways in which work has changed for men and women worldwide (except Australia and New Zealand) since 1980. The eleven chapters in the first section deal with concepts and issues such as women and paid work in history; feminism and labour; diversity and discrimination; and the intersections with class and ethnicity. The second section features contributions surveying developments in work, education, and gender in various regions. The third section, which is about persistent inequality, includes chapters about women and poverty, the informal sector, and remuneration. The fourth section, which is about contemporary debates, includes chapters on crises, technology, and migration.
Continents and Countries
AFRICA
Ethiopia
Zewde, Bahru. The Quest for Socialist Utopia. The Ethiopian Student Movement c.1960–1974. [Eastern African Series.] James Curry, Woodbridge [etc.] 2014. xvi, 299 pp. Ill. £50.00.
In this book about the Ethiopian student movement from the 1960s to the end of the reign of Emperor Haile Sellassie in 1974, Professor Bahru Zewde, a former student activist, draws on interviews as well as on written sources to describe the politicization and radicalization of the movement, the demonstrations against the imperial regime, and the growing influence of Marxism-Leninism. He also examines how oppression of nationalities and of women became a major concern in the student movement in the 1970s. See also Andreas Admasie's review in this volume, pp. 534–537.
Nigeria
Matera, Marc, Misty L. Bastian [and] Susan Kingsley Kent. The Women's War of 1929. Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2012. xiii, 278 pp. Ill. £58.00.
In 1929 a series of demonstrations and other protests involving tens of thousands of Igbo- and Ibibio-speaking women took place throughout south-eastern Nigeria. This so-called Women's War, in the course of which more than fifty women were killed by British troops, marked a historical climax in West African resistance to colonialism, according to this book. The authors analyse the actions and mindsets of both the women and the British officers and colonial officials, aiming to explain how gender operated within their respective worldviews.
South Africa
The Cambridge Companion to Nelson Mandela. Ed. by Rita Barnard. Cambridge University Press, New York 2014. xxxi, 317 pp. Ill. $75.00; £50.00. (Paper: $27.99; £17.99.)
Nelson Mandela has become a symbol of his people's demand for liberation from racial injustice. The fourteen historians, social scientists, cultural and literary theorists, and other contributors to this book consider various aspects of Nelson Mandela and his legacy, for example the meanings and uses of his image, his relation to “tradition” and “modernity”, and the oscillation between Africanist and non-racial positions in South Africa. The volume includes a chronology and additional reading suggestions.
AMERICA
Histories of Race and Racism. The Andes and Mesoamerica from Colonial Times to the Present. Ed. by Laura Gotkowitz. Duke University Press, Durham 2011. vii, 400 pp. £69.00. (Paper: £16.99.)
Comparing the interplay of race and racism with class, gender, nationality, and regionalism in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru and considering such themes as labour, education, social movements, and the role of the state, eighteen anthropologists, historians, and sociologists examine in this volume (based in part on a conference held in 2002 at the University of Iowa) the experiences and representations of Andean and Mesoamerican indigenous peoples from the early colonial era to the present. See also Paulo Drinot's review in this volume, pp. 515–518.
More of a Man. Diaries of a Scottish Craftsman in Mid-Nineteenth-Century North America. Ed. by Andrew C. Holman and Robert B. Kristofferson. University of Toronto Press, Toronto [etc.] 2013. xx, 458 pp. Ill. $75.00. (Paper: $35.00; E-book: $35.00.)
Andrew McIlwraith (1831–1891) was a Scottish journeyman who migrated to North America. He became a draughtsman, patternmaker, book-keeper, and foundry owner in Canada and New York City. This volume features his diaries covering the years 1857–1862 and documenting McIlwraith's trajectory from immigrant newcomer to a respected townsman and from wage worker to entrepreneur. In the introduction Professors Holman and Kristofferson provide a historical context for McIlwraith's life, biographies of individuals mentioned in the diaries, and an account of what happened to McIlwraith after the diaries end.
Putnam, Lara. Radical Moves. Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2013. xiii, 322 pp. Ill. Maps. $69.95.
After emancipation, hundreds of thousands of African-descended men and women migrated from the British Caribbean to seek opportunities abroad, e.g. in the goldfields of Venezuela, the cane fields of Cuba, canal construction in Panama, and the streets of Brooklyn. Focusing mainly on the 1920s and 1930s and drawing largely on interwar newspapers, Professor Putnam in this book offers a history of Caribbean migration, anti-immigration policies, the Caribbean and transatlantic black press, and black popular culture (e.g. music and dance created by Caribbean migrants), also tracing the origins of black internationalist and anti-colonial movements.
Walsh, John Patrick. Free and French in the Caribbean. Toussaint Louverture, Aimé Césaire, and Narratives of Loyal Opposition. [Blacks in the Diaspora.] Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 2013. x, 193 pp. $75.00. (E-book: $22.99.)
Professor Walsh in this book studies the writings of leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture (c.1743–1803), and those of the Martinique-born poet and dramatist Aimé Césaire (1913–2008), aiming to reveal how they viewed two significant events in the decolonization of the French Caribbean (the revolution that freed the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1803 and the departmentalization of Martinique and other French colonies in 1946), and to examine how both writers conceived and narrated the relationship between autonomy and assimilation.
Argentina
Argentina since the 2001 Crisis. Recovering the Past, Reclaiming the Future. Ed. by Cara Levey, Daniel Ozarow, and Christopher Wylde. [Studies of the Americas.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2014. xvii, 248 pp. £62.50.
This volume, based on an interdisciplinary conference held in December 2011 at the Institute for the Study of the Americas in London, aims to reveal the effects and legacies of the social, economic and political crisis in Argentina in 2001–2002. The collection contains three chapters examining the economic aspects of the crisis, four articles focusing on the social movements and instances of mass mobilization in these years, and three essays exploring cultural and media responses to the crisis.
Bolivia
Ari, Waskar. Earth Politics. Religion, Decolonization, and Bolivia's Indigenous Intellectuals. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2014. xiii, 262 pp. Ill. £60.00. (Paper: £16.99.)
The Bolivian Alcaldes Mayores Particulares (AMP) was a movement claiming rights for indigenous education and reclaiming indigenous lands from hacienda owners. Through the lives of four indigenous activists and drawing on interviews (conducted in the 1980s) and archives of indigenous families, Professor Waskar narrates the history of AMP indigenous activism in the context of Bolivia's political and social history from the 1920s to the early 1970s, a period characterized by “internal colonialism” and racial systems.
García Linera, Álvaro. Plebeian Power. Collective Action and Indigenous, Working-Class and Popular Identities in Bolivia. Selection and intr. by Pablo Stefanoni. Transl. by Shana Yael Shubs, Ruth Felder, Carlos Velásquez Carrillo [a.o.]. [Historical Materialism Book Series, Vol. 55.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2014. vi, 345 pp. € 109.00; $141.00.
This volume, a translation of La potencia plebeya: Acción colectiva e identidades indígenas, obreras y populares en Bolivia (Buenos Aires, 2008), is a collection of texts written by the Bolivian vice-president (from 2005) and sociologist García Linera. The selection of writings, which include essays on The Communist Manifesto; citizenship and democracy; the labour movement; the indigenous movement; social movements and forms of political autonomy in Bolivia; indigenous-plebeian uprisings in Bolivia; and Indianism and Marxism reflect the theoretical and political evolution of the author, starting with his efforts to combine Marxism and Indianism.
Brazil
Rubin, Jeffrey W. and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin. Sustaining Activism. A Brazilian Women's Movement and a Father–Daughter Collaboration. Duke University Press, Durham 2013. xii, 184 pp. Ill. £60.00. (Paper: £14.99.)
Shortly after the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1986, a group of politicized teenagers, activist nuns, and middle-aged farm women in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul formed the Movement of Rural Women Workers (MMTR) to secure economic rights for agricultural women workers. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 1997 and 2008 and highlighting their own experiences as researchers, Professor Rubin and his daughter present in this book a detailed account of the MMTR and the effort to sustain the movement in the years after the initial victories.
Terra, Paulo Cruz. Cidadania e Trabalhadores. Cocheiros e carroceiros no Rio de Janeiro (1870–1906). Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 2013. 305 pp. Ill. R$59.00.
Between 1870 and 1906 transport workers in Rio de Janeiro, organized in two militant unions (the Sociedade União Beneficente e Protetora dos Cocheiros criada and the Sociedade de Resistência dos Cocheiros, Carroceiros e Classes Anexas), staged twenty-two strikes. This book (based on a dissertation, Universidade Federal Fluminense, 2012) focuses on the labour conditions, protests, and trade unionism of the coachmen and carters of Rio de Janeiro in a period marked by radical changes (the abolition of slavery, modernization, industrialization, and massive immigration).
Canada
The Dawn of Canada's Century. Hidden Histories. Ed. by Gordon Darroch. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal [etc.] 2014. xxi, 498 pp. $67.00.
Based on the Canadian 1911 national sample of census manuscript records created by the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI), this collection aims to shed new light on the social history of early twentieth-century Canada. The sixteen chapters include an introduction of the CCRI, an essay about census-taking practices, and articles on topics such as identity and language, the socio-demography of aboriginal populations, national labour market dynamics, earnings distributions, social mobility and gender, and immigration experiences.
Guatemala
Weld, Kirsten. Paper Cadavers. The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala. [American Encounters/Global Interactions.] Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2014. xvi, 335 pp. $26.95.
In 2005 the archives of the Guatemalan National Police were discovered in a former detention and torture centre that contained information on systematic human rights violations during the civil war in Guatemala (1960–1996). The sudden reappearance of the police archive, the existence of which had been denied after the civil war ended, revived a national debate about history, memory, and justice. In this book Professor Weld provides a detailed account of the discovery and complicated rescue of the vast archive and analyses how the reappearance of the once secret police documents impacted the unstable Guatemalan political scene.
Mexico
Dictablanda. Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968. Ed. by Paul Gillingham and Benjamin T. Smith. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2014. xviii, 444 pp. $99.95; £65.00. (Paper: $28.95; £18.99.)
Offering a new understanding of the modern Mexican state, the sixteen social historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists contributing to this book examine various themes in Mexican history between 1938 and 1968, a “golden age” characterized by economic growth, political stability, and a partially fulfilled discourse of social justice. The volume, which is based on an international conference held at Michigan State University in 2009, also includes an article about coalminers’ organizing, another about a female peasant leader, and a contribution about tax reforms and protest movements.
Pensado, Jaime M. Rebel Mexico. Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Calif.) 2013. xvi, 337 pp. Ill. $65.00; £56.00. (E-book: $65.00.)
In 1968 hundreds of Mexican student activists, whose actions threatened to spoil Mexico's hosting of the 1968 Olympic Games, were killed or arrested by government authorities. In this book about the rise, growth, and consequences of Mexico's “student problem” during the long 1960s (1956–1971), Professor Pensado describes student politics and youth culture during this period, as well as the reactions by school authorities, government officials, politicians, and the print media, aiming to shed light on issues of state formation and hegemony and help explain the longevity of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
United States of America
Bayor, Ronald H. Encountering Ellis Island. How European Immigrants Entered America. [How Things Worked.] Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2014. 168 pp. Ill. £15.00.
During the peak immigration years of 1892–1924 Ellis Island, opened with the goal of placing immigration under the control of the federal government, was the port of entry for the vast majority of European immigrants arriving in the United States. Using firsthand accounts from and interviews with immigrants, doctors, inspectors, aid workers, and interpreters, Professor Bayor in this book gives voice to both immigrants and people working on the island to illustrate the immigration process in practice.
Horne, Gerald. The Counter-Revolution of 1776. Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America. New York University Press, New York [etc.] 2014. xiv, 348 pp. $39.00; £55.00.
In this book about the role of slavery and the slave trade in the events leading up to the American Revolution, Professor Horne aims to demonstrate that slave rebellions in the Caribbean, rising anti-slavery sentiment in Britain, and fear of a London-imposed abolition throughout the colonies incited the European colonists to revolt against British rule in North America. He concludes that the American Revolution was in large part a conservative movement of European settlers to preserve their liberty to enslave others.
Interconnections. Gender and Race in American History. Ed. by Carol Faulkner and Alison M. Parker. [Gender and Race in American History, Vol. 3.] Rochester University Press, Rochester, NY 2012. vi, 292 pp. Ill. £50.00. (Paper; £19.99.)
The eight chapters in this volume about racial and gender identity in American history include a contribution about a free woman of colour in Antebellum New Orleans, another on the connection between abolitionists and women's rights activists, and an article about an African-American settler in Indian territory. One study juxtaposes the mob lynching of black men with unpunished sexual assaults on black women, while in another several NAACP Jury Service cases are discussed. One essay reflects on the work of the African-American feminist educator Anna Julia Cooper (1858–1964).
McKillen, Elizabeth. Making the World Safe for Workers. Labor, the Left, and Wilsonian Internationalism. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2013. xii, 299 pp. Ill. $55.00.
In this book about American working-class responses to Woodrow Wilson's internationalism Professor McKillen traces how the leaders of the AFL cooperated with the president to win domestic and international labour support for his foreign policies in the contexts of the Mexican Revolution, the European revolutions, World War I, the Versailles Peace Conference, and the founding of the ILO. She also describes the opposition to the policies of Wilson and the AFL among a shifting array of American, transnational, and international labour, socialist, and diaspora leftist groups. See also Melvin Dubofsky's review in this volume, pp. 529–531.
Vinel, Jean-Christian. The Employee. A Political History. [Politics and Culture in Modern America.] University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2013. 293 pp. $47.50; £31.00. (E-book: $47.50; £31.00.)
This book is about the legal definition of “employee” as opposed to “worker” in American labour legislation, a distinction that determines whether a worker has collective bargaining rights. Tracing the history of the term “employee”, Professor Vinel aims to demonstrate in this cultural and political history of American business and law that the legal definition of “employee” has always been politically contested. In doing so, he also sheds light on the business struggle against the New Deal and on contemporary struggles for economic democracy and political power in the workplace.
Wu, Judy Tzu-Chun. Radicals on the Road. Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism during the Vietnam Era. [The United States in the World.] Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2013. 346 pp. Ill. $79.95. (Paper: $26.95.)
This book is about international journeys made by people of varying backgrounds who all believed that the United States war in Vietnam was immoral and unjustified. Professor Wu describes the peace missions of Robert S. Browne, an African-American economist stationed in south-east Asia from 1955 to 1961 and an early critic of American policy; the United States People's Anti-Imperialist Delegation, which, led by Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver, toured North Korea, North Vietnam, and socialist China in 1970; and the Indochinese Women's Conferences held in Canada in 1971.
ASIA
China
Perry, Elizabeth J. Anyuan. Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition. [Asia: Local Studies /Global Themes.] University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2012. xv, 392 pp. Ill. Maps. £24.95.
The Chinese coal mining town of Anyuan in the 1920s was a place where Mao and other early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party mobilized an influential labour movement, a springboard for organizing peasant associations, a recruiting ground for Red Army soldiers, and a symbol of the Chinese revolutionary tradition. Through a case study of Anyuan, Professor Perry aims to explain the distinctive trajectory of the Chinese communist revolution and to explore how Chinese citizens today view the revolutionary tradition.
India
Besky, Sarah. The Darjeeling Distinction. Labor and Justice on Fair-Trade Tea Plantations in India. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2014. xx, 233 pp. Ill. Maps. $29.95.
In the Darjeeling district of the Indian state of West Bengal, transnational movements for ethical trade converge with a colonially derived system of tea production and a postcolonial discourse about economic and social rights. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2012, Professor Besky in this book narrates the lives of tea workers in Darjeeling, exploring how notions of fairness, value, and justice shifted with the rise of fair-trade practices and postcolonial separatist politics (the Gorkhaland movement) in the region.
Iran
Hegland, Mary Elaine. Days of Revolution. Political Unrest in an Iranian Village. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 2014. xiii, 316 pp. Ill. $95.00. (Paper: $27.95; E-book: $27.95.)
While conducting anthropological fieldwork about agricultural credit systems in an Iranian village, Professor Hegland witnessed the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In this book she offers an insider's view of how ordinary Iranian people experienced the Revolution and its aftermath, arguing that growing inequality, lack of development and employment opportunities, and government corruption, rather than Shi'a religious ideology, fuelled the revolutionary movement. In the concluding chapter the author, returning to the village decades later, examines the lasting effects of the Revolution on the local political factions and on individuals.
Israel
Russell, Raymond, Robert Hanneman, and Shlomo Getz. The Renewal of the Kibbutz. From Reform to Transformation. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick [etc.] 2013. xii, 179 pp. £40.00.
Kibbutzim, the collective rural settlements that first appeared in Jewish Palestine in 1910, became known for their democratic and communal structures and practices and were viewed as instances of direct democracy or labour-managed firms. After 1985, however, many kibbutzim responded to changes in Israel's economic policies by introducing reforms – at first moderate, but more radical by the end of the 1990s, including paying salaries based on the market value of a member's work. Drawing on organizational theories, this book examines these changes, investigating, for example, which kibbutzim were most receptive to reform.
Turkey
Turkey in the Cold War. Ideology and Culture. Ed. by Cangül Örnek and Çağdaş Üngör. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2013. xii, 223 pp. £55.00.
Rather than concentrating on high-level politics (diplomacy, military strategy, etc.), the nine chapters in this volume about Turkey's Cold War experiences explore the ideological, social, and cultural dimensions of local manifestations of the Cold War struggle, for example the use of religion by the Turkish state; the Chinese Cultural Revolution in Turkish public opinion; Nâzim Hikmet's 1951 visit to Bulgaria (where a considerable Turkish minority lived); ideology and identity in Turkish literature; the reception of American literature; Turkish sports diplomacy; and American aid and assistance.
EUROPE
Bartha, Eszter. Alienating Labour. Workers on the Road from Socialism to Capitalism in East Germany and Hungary. Berghahn, New York [etc.] 2013. 362 pp. Ill. $95.00; £60.00.
Using case studies of two large factories, Rába in Győr, Hungary, and Carl Zeiss Jena in East Germany, Professor Bartha examines in this book how the communist regimes of the two countries between the reform years of the 1960s and 1989 sought to win over the working class by promising rising levels of consumption. In doing so, she aims to offer new insights into the nature and politics of both “welfare dictatorships” and the causes of their collapse. See also Goran Musić's review in this volume, pp. 532–534.
Austria
Die österreichische Zuckerindustrie und Ihre Geschichte(n) 1750–2013. Hrsg. Werner Kohl [und] Susanna Steiger-Moser. Böhlau Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2014. 484 pp. Ill. Maps. € 39.00.
This richly illustrated volume deals with various aspects of Austrian sugar production. In addition to histories of individual Austrian sugar factories and producers, including the sugar operations of the imperial family, the forty-four chapters (varying in length from two to more than sixty pages) include articles about the emergence of beet sugar in the early nineteenth century; the invention of lump sugar; social and labour-historical aspects of Austrian sugar production; and brief chapters on general historical, technical, and physiological aspects. The volume opens with a chronology of the Austrian sugar industry.
Belgium
Weber, Donald. Vivre et travailler dans l'industrie du transport en Belgique. 1913–2013. Amsab, Gent 2013. 239 pp. € 24.95.
Published in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Belgian Transport Workers’ Union UBOT/FGTB, this richly illustrated volume documents how the life and work of bargemen, mariners, and fishermen, dockworkers and crane drivers, truckers, lorry drivers, and bus and cab drivers has changed over time. The volume sheds light not only on the working conditions of these transport workers but also on their culture, protests, their family life, and the roles of women and children in the transport sector.
France
Frobert, Ludovic [et] George Sheridan. Le Solitaire du ravin. Pierre Charnier (1795–1857) canut lyonnais et prud'homme tisseur. ENS Éditions, Lyon 2014. 376 pp. € 24.00.
Pierre Charnier (1795–1857), a Lyon silk weaver (a canut), helped establish the first mutual benefit society of the weavers and represented them in the Labour Court from 1832 to 1857. He wrote for the labour newspaper L’Écho de la fabrique, under the pseudonym “le Solitaire du ravin”. Using Charnier's rich collection of papers, Professors Frobert and Sheridan examine Charnier's views and ideas during a period marked by weavers’ revolts. The book includes a historical overview of the Lyon silk industry and a glossary of technical terms.
Green, Nancy L. The Other Americans in Paris. Businessmen, Countesses, Wayward Youth, 1880–1941. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 2014. 326 pp. Ill. $40.00; £28.00.
Professor Green, a historian of migration and labour, in this book focuses on American businessmen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers’ representatives who came to live in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. Though less well known than the American artists, writers, and musicians of the Left Bank, according to Professor Green, they were far more numerous. In this book she explores the politics of citizenship, the business relationships and the love lives of these other Americans in Paris, arguing that elite migration is a part of migration tout court.
Lyons, Amelia H. The Civilizing Mission in the Metropole. Algerian Families and the French Welfare State during Decolonization. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Calif.) 2013. xiii, 324 pp. Ill. $65.00. (E-book: $65.00.)
From the late 1940s until 1962, when Algeria gained independence, French government agencies and private charitable associations together provided special complementary social services (family social services, education, housing projects) to over 300,000 Algerian migrants living in Paris. In this book Professor Lyons demonstrates how social policy for Algerian Muslims combined compassion with coercion, service with surveillance, and material benefits with paternalism, concluding that this special welfare programme brought together two characteristic French social engineering projects: the civilizing mission and the welfare state.
Germany
Abendroth, Wolfgang. Gesammelte Schriften. Band 3. 1957–1963. Hrsg. und eingel. von Michael Buckmiller. Offizin, Hannover 2013. 614 pp. € 26.80.
This is the third volume in a series projected to encompass eight volumes comprising a complete collection of the writings by the German political scientist and constitutional lawyer Wolfgang Abendroth (1906–1985) (see IRSH, 56 (2011), p. 183). The present volume contains Abendroth's writings from the period 1956–1963, covering themes such as law and government in a reunified Germany, the banning of the KPD, social democracy, Austro-Marxism, German rearmament and nuclear arms, the right to strike, the New Left, emergency laws, and the German constitution.
Eddie, S.A. Freedom's Price. Serfdom, Subjection, and Reform in Prussia, 1648–1848. Oxford University Press, New York [etc.] 2013. xx, 356. Maps. $110.00: £65.00.
This is a detailed history of serfdom and the manorial economy in Prussia, from the end of the “Second Serfdom” after the end of the Thirty Years War (1648) to the peasant emancipation between 1807 and 1821 and beyond. Reinterpreting wide-ranging archival sources concerning the agrarian reforms of 1807–1816 and various other materials, Dr Eddie counters the view that the “serf” economy embodied peasant exploitation, arguing that for much of the period Prussian “subject” peasants in fact fared better than their “free” neighbours.
Frölich, Paul. Im radikalen Lager. Politische Autobiographie 1890–1921. BasisDruck, Berlin 2013. 415 pp. Ill. € 29.80.
Paul Frölich (1884–1953) was a founding member of the German Communist Party, from which he was expelled in 1928. He was involved in the Munich Council Republic of 1919 and the so-called communist März Aktion of 1921. His political memoirs, written in 1938 for the International Institute of Social History but hitherto unpublished, now appear for the first time in the original German. This edition includes an introduction and notes to Frölich's text and an index of persons. See also Ralf Hoffrogge's review in this volume, pp. 526–529.
Kukowski, Martin [und] Rudolf Boch. Kriegswirtschaft und Arbeitseinsatz bei der Auto Union AG Chemnitz im Zweiten Weltkrieg. [Beiträge zur Unternehmensgeschichte, Band 34.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2014. 518 pp. Ill. € 75.00.
During World War II, the automobile manufacturer Auto Union AG, Chemnitz, produced almost everything from infantry ammunition to tanks and aircraft engines, employing forced labourers and, eventually, concentration camp prisoners. In this detailed study of the Auto Union, the authors focus especially on the company's management, examining its discretionary power. They conclude that the Nazi state hardly interfered, and that the management acted mainly on its own initiative.
Der Staat der Klassengesellschaft. Rechts- und Sozialstaatlichkeit bei Wolfgang Abendroth. Hrsg. Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Joachim Perels, [und] Thilo Scholle. [Staatsverständnisse, Band 51.] Nomos, Baden-Baden 2012. 275 pp. € 29.00.
This volume about the legal theory of the German political scientist and constitutional lawyer Wolfgang Abendroth (1906–1985) contains a biographical sketch of Abendroth, an examination of Abendroth's relation to “real socialism”, a reflection on the absence of a feminist perspective in his work, and seven articles addressing various aspects of Abendroth's work, including the significance of class for his ideas, his position in 1950s debates about the welfare state, his understanding of democracy, and his ideas about the role of trade unions. Three articles explore how his ideas may be used in interpreting contemporary issues.
Tschernitschek, Marc. Der Todesschütze Benno Ohnesorgs. Karl-Heinz Kurras, die Westberliner Polizei und die Stasi. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2013. 147 pp. Ill. € 19.95.
On 2 June 1967 the West Berlin police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras shot student Benno Ohnesorg during a protest demonstration against the state visit by the Shah of Persia. Claiming self-defence, Kurras was acquitted for lack of evidence. In 2009 Kurras was identified as an informant of the East German secret police (Stasi). This is a historical reconstruction of the events of 2 June, which were a major cause of the 1968 student revolt and the RAF terror, as well as an investigation into the Berlin police, and Kurras's life, career, and trial.
Great Britain
Hall, Valerie G. Women at Work, 1860–1939. How Different Industries Shaped Women's Experiences. [Regions and Regionalism in History, Vol. 16.] The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2013. ix, 202 pp. Ill. Maps. £60.00.
Drawing on interviews (conducted by herself and others), as well as on local archival records, newspapers, and official documents, Professor Hall in this book describes the lives and work of three groups of Northumberland women between 1860 and 1939: the wives of coalminers, fishermen's wives, and women agricultural labourers. Her aim is to show how divergent the experiences of working-class women could be, for example in terms of autonomy and independence, and how these differences were shaped by the dominant industries in their particular areas. See also Elizabeth Roberts's review in this volume, pp. 521–523.
McIvor, Arthur. Working Lives. Work in Britain since 1945. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2013. xiii, 339 pp. £60.00. (Paper: £19.99.)
Focusing on the personal narratives of workers, and examining how they perceive work identities and the meaning of work, using autobiographies and personal testimonies, as well as primary and secondary source material, and covering themes such as employment patterns, the meaning of work, gender, racial discrimination, health, disability, trade unionism, and unemployment, Professor McIvor shows in this book how, why, and to what degree working lives in Britain have been transformed over the last sixty years.
Pettigrew, William A. Freedom's Debt. The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672–1752. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill [etc.] 2013. 262 pp. Ill. $45.00.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was a corporation provided in 1672 with a monopoly over all English trade with Africa, including the slave trade to the American colonies. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 independent slave traders challenged the RAC monopoly by asserting their rights to trade freely in enslaved Africans. In this book Dr Pettigrew studies the history of the RAC until its demise in 1752, analysing the political debates between the RAC and the independent slave traders, and arguing that the opening of the slave trade led to its intensification.
Ryley, Peter. Making Another World Possible. Anarchism, Anti-Capitalism and Ecology in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Britain. Bloomsbury, New York [etc.] 2013. xxviii, 233 pp. £60.00.
Examining the ideas of Peter Kropotkin, English individualists (e.g. Herbert Spencer), individualist anarchists, communist anarchists, Christian anarchists, and activists clustered around the Freedom Group, as well as the ecological anarchism of Elisée Reclus and Patrick Geddes, Professor Ryley in this book (based on a dissertation, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2006) aims to illuminate the distinct nature of British anarchism and its place in the radical milieu of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. See also Constance Bantman's review in this volume, pp. 524–526.
Seabrook, Jeremy. Pauperland. Poverty and the Poor in Britain. London, Hurst & Company 2013. x, 235 pp. £20.00.
Why did the proportion of poor people increase, as the wealth of Britain grew? How did poverty cease to be a “natural” condition and become a cause for shame? These are some of the questions Mr Seabrook addresses in this book, which is not an academic study but rather a reflection on poverty and poor people. Drawing largely on contemporary writings and analysing, for example, synonyms for “poverty” in English and the etymology of “work”, he traces the mutations of poverty over time, historical attitudes toward the poor, and the lives of the impoverished themselves from the Middle Ages to the present.
Simonelli, David. Working Class Heroes. Rock Music and British Society in the 1960s and 1970s. Lexington Books, Lanham [etc.] 2012. xxi, 301 pp. $37.99; £22.95. (E-book: $37.99; £22.95.)
Professor Simonelli in this book explores the influence of rock and roll on British society in the 1960s and 1970s. Discussing rock musicians such as the Beatles, the Who, and the Kinks, sub-genres in rock music, Mods and other sub-cultures, and themes such as pop art, psychedelia, “Swinging London”, and the commercial side of rock, this book is mainly about the images that surrounded rock music in journalism, fashion, television, film, and other commercial and media ventures. The first chapter is about society, culture and music in Britain before 1963, the last one about Punk.
The Socialist Way. Social Democracy in Contemporary Britain. Ed. by Roy Hattersley and Kevin Hickson. I.B. Tauris, London [etc.] 2013. ix, 225 pp. £14.99.
Aiming to provide new directions for electoral success for the British Labour Party, the twenty-five contributors to this book (politicians, academics, and journalists) address various issues in the areas of economic, social, and foreign policy, for example Keynesian social democracy, environmental policy, “responsible capitalism”, children, health and social care, central state activity, and a social-democratic approach to the issue of national identity.
Ward, Stephanie. Unemployment and the state in Britain. The means test and protest in 1930s south Wales and north-east England. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2013. viii, 292 pp. Maps. £65.00.
During the depression of the 1930s, the use of a household means test for the long-term unemployed was often debated. Through a comparative case study of south Wales and the north-east of England, this book, based on a dissertation (Aberystwyth University, 2008), explores the impact of the controversial means test by examining the administration, effects, and response to the means test, the relationship between the unemployed and the government (particularly councillors and MPs and their unemployed constituents), and the nature of some of the largest protests of the interwar period.
Italy
Bernardi, Emanuele, Fabrizio Nunnari, [e] Luigi Scoppola Iacopini. Storia della Confederazione italiana agricoltori. Rappresentanza, politiche e unità contadina dal secondo dopoguerra ad oggi. Società editrice Il Mulino, Milano 2014. 276 pp. Ill. € 24.00.
The Confederazione italiana agricoltori comprises farmers, tenant farmers, share-croppers, and farm workers. Founded in 1977 as the Confederazione italiana coltivatori (Confcoltivatori), it was a fusion of several farmers’ and farm labourers’ unions, including the Alleanza nazionale dei contadini and sections of the CGIL-affiliated Federmezzadri and the Unione coltivatori italiani. Based on primary sources and situated in the context of the political and social history of Italy since World War II, this work reveals the detailed history, origins and relations of the Confederazione with political parties, trade unions, and other agricultural associations.
Ceci, Giovanni Mario. Il terrorismo italiano. Storia di un dibattito. [Studi storici Carocci, 199.] Carocci editore, Roma 2013. 342 pp. € 35.00.
This is an analysis of the debate about Italian terrorism rather than a study of the events of the 1970s and 1980s. Dr Ceci closely examines the debate among Italian and foreign (mainly anglophone) scholars about the nature, causes, and origins of Italian terrorism and its significance in Italian history. The first part of the book is about the early contemporary analyses (1977–1984); the second covers the years 1984–2012. The topics include connections with 1968 and extra-parliamentary opposition, international ties and possible similarities between recent – religiously-motivated – terrorism and that of the 1970s and 1980s.
Luxembourg
Wagener, Renée. “Méi Sozialismus!”. Lydie Schmit und die LSAP 1970–1988. Eine politische Biografie. Fondation Lydie Schmit, Luxembourg 2013. 288 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
Lydie Schmit (1939–1988) was a historian, teacher, and prominent Luxembourg socialist politician. She was president of the Luxembourg Labour Party LSAP (1974–1980), general secretary of the “Femmes Socialistes”, president of the Socialist International Women, and a member of the European Parliament. Based on interviews as well as written sources, this biography of Lydia Schmit is also a history of the LSAP which during the 1970s and 1980s radicalized from a reformist party into a party strongly influenced by the ideas of the student movement.
The Netherlands
Lucassen, Leo [und] Jan Lucassen. Gewinner und Verlierer. Fünf Jahrhunderte Immigration – eine nüchterne Bilanz. Aus dem Niederl. von Marlene Müller-Haas. [Niederlande-Studien, Band 56.] Waxmann, Münster [etc.] 2014. 206 pp. Ill. € 29.90.
The Netherlands has a long history of immigration. In recent debates about migration and integration, opponents of immigration and multiculturalism in the Netherlands have argued that the country is now flooded by migrants, mainly Muslims, who, unlike the refugees and economic immigrants of the past, are uneducated, show little initiative, and will try to impose their own intolerant values and standards on Dutch society. In this book (originally published in Dutch in 2011) Professors Leo and Jan Lucassen test these opinions against the facts, presenting a balanced assessment of 500 years of Dutch immigration history.
Portugal
Coates, Timothy J. Convict Labor in the Portuguese Empire, 1740–1932. Redefining the Empire with Forced Labor and New Imperialism. [European Expansion and Indigenous Response, Vol. 13.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2014. xxvi, 205 pp. Ill. € 99.00; $128.00.
In this book about forced convict labour in the Portuguese empire from 1740 to 1932, Professor Coates focuses on convicts who were sent to Africa, examining their numbers, backgrounds, and work. The book opens with introductory descriptions of various important individuals (including penal reformers and a convict) and a discussion of the origins of exile as punishment and the use of colonial Brazil as such a site. The book concludes with a comparison of the Portuguese, French, and British penal systems. See also Christian De Vito's review in this volume, pp. 513–515.
Milhazes, José. Cunhal, Brejnev e o 25 de Abril. Como a União Soviética não quis a revolução socialista em Portugal. D.Quixote, Alfragide 2013. 205 pp. Ill. € 14.90.
In this book about the influence of the Soviet Union on the Portuguese Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974) the Moscow-based Portuguese historian and journalist Dr Milhazes studies Russian archival sources and newspapers and Russian and Portuguese blogs to examine the roles of communist leader Álvaro Cunhal and the Portuguese Communist Party in the political complexities immediately after the Revolution, and to determine whether Moscow conspired to stage a communist revolution in Portugal. The book includes a list of key figures and reproductions of some Russian documents.
Russia – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Utopian Reality. Reconstructing Culture in Revolutionary Russia and Beyond. Ed. by Christina Lodder, Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva. [Russian History and Culture, Vol. 14.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2013. xxii, 271 pp. € 96.00; $133.00.
Based in part on two conferences held in London in May and November 2011, this richly illustrated volume explores the visual and cultural aspects of Russian notions of utopia and dystopia along with their social, artistic, literary, and ideological ramifications. The fourteen chapters include contributions on androgynous imagery in Russian art of the pre and post- revolutionary period; the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution on Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (De Stijl); militarism in children's periodicals of the early Soviet Union; exhibitions of Malevich's works under Stalin; the modernist architectural utopia under Stalin; and socialist realism.
Spain
Groves, Tamar. Teachers and the Struggle for Democracy in Spain, 1970–1985. Transl. by Ben Engel. [Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements.] Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2013. xiii, 267 pp. £55.00.
This study, based largely on private archives and interviews, is about the role of union activism by teachers in Spain's transition to democracy from the 1970s to the 1980s. In addition to analysing national aspects of the teachers’ movement, Professor Groves examines grass-roots initiatives in Madrid and Salamanca, highlighting the locally rooted nature of social activism and emphasizing the importance of civil-society – as opposed to elite – activism in the transition to democracy.
Sánchez Escobar, Fernando M. Con el último aliento. Las declaraciones de pobreza en los Hospitales General y de la Pasión de Madrid (1767–1808). Bubok Publishing [n.p.] 2012. 184 pp. € 22.00.
Declarations of poverty were notarized documents containing a person's last will concerning his or her possessions and burial. Those studied in this master's thesis (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2010) were drawn up before the scribes of the Hospital General and the Hospital de Pasión of Madrid between 1767 and 1808. After discussing the history of these and similar legal documents and ways to use them as historical sources, the author analyses c.6,000 declarations to shed light on the social conditions of ordinary men and women living in Madrid at the end of the eighteenth century.
Ukraine
Veidlinger, Jeffrey. In the Shadow of the Shtetl. Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine. Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 2013. xxxiv, 385 pp. Ill. £23.99.
Based mainly on ninety-five full life-story interviews conducted during the 2000s with men and women born between 1900 and 1930 and now residing in the small towns of Vinnytsya Province in Ukraine, this volume records the experiences of some of the last Jewish residents of eastern European shtetls. The elderly Yiddish speakers recall their memories of Jewish life in the prewar shtetl, tell their stories of survival during the Holocaust, and relate their experiences living as Jews under Communism. The book features short biographies of seventy-four of the interviewees.
