General Issues
SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Intimate Labors. Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care. Ed. by Eileen Boris and Rhacel Salazar Parreñas. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Cal.) 2010. xiv, 340 pp. £61.47; $70.00. (Paper: $24.95; E-book $24.95.)
The eighteen contributions to this volume, based on a conference held in Santa Barbara, California in 2007, examine various forms of paid and unpaid care work, domestic work and sex work, occupations that are usually studied separately but all involve bodily or emotional closeness or personal familiarity. The authors use the term “intimate labour” to describe this kind of work, arguing that this category of analysis is useful for understanding gender, racial, class and other power relations in the context of global economic transformations. See also Marina de Regt's review in this volume, pp. 539–542.
Linke und Nation. Klassische Texte zu einer brisanten Frage. Hrsg. Stefan Bollinger. Promedia, Wien 2009. 192 pp. € 12.90; S.fr. 23.50.
Although the left takes pride in being internationalist, it has always struggled with the question of whether and how to support national liberation movements. On various occasions it was taken by surprise when national slogans united workers and oppressors against other nationalists. With this collection of texts by Karl Marx, August Bebel, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci, Mao Zedong, Otto Bauer, Karl Radek, and other ideologists of the left, the editor aims to present significant examples of theoretical texts dealing with the topical issues of nation and nationalism.
Raskin, Jonah. The Mythology of Imperialism. A Revolutionary Critique of British Literature and Society in the Modern Age. Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, and Joyce Cary. Foreword by Bruce Robbins. Monthly Review Press, New York 2009. 320 pp. $19.95.
This critique of five well-known British writers was first published in 1971. In this book, which is grounded in Marxist and Maoist ideas, the author developed a model for a revolutionary anti-imperialist criticism. In his introduction to this new edition, the author claims that through its influence on Edward Said, the book helped launch the field of postcolonial studies.
Tosel, André. Le marxisme du 20e siècle. Avant-propos de Vincent Charbonnier. [Mille marxismes.] Éditions Syllepse, Paris 2009. 302 pp. € 24.00.
This volume on twentieth-century Marxism brings together eleven essays that were originally published elsewhere between 1996 and 2007. In the first essay Professor Tosel examines the work of György Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Antonio Gramsci, and Louis Althusser, philosophers who all, according to the author, maintained complex views on Soviet communism. In another essay he focuses on the development of French and Italian versions of Marxism from 1968 to the present. Six chapters are entirely devoted to Gramsci. One chapter is about Henri Lefebvre and another examines the relationship between Marxism and French philosophy of science. The closing chapter is about Gérard Granel.
HISTORY
Au sommet de l'Empire. Les élites européennes dans les colonies (XVIe–XXe siècle). [At the Top of the Empire. European Elites in the Colonies (16th–20th Century).] Sous la dir. de Claire Laux, François-Joseph Ruggiu et Pierre Singaravélou. [Enjeux internationaux, no 5.] Peter Lang, Bruxelles [etc.] 2009. 326 pp. € 42.90.
The aim of this volume, based on a conference held at the University of Bordeaux III, is to shed light on the origins, education, and mobility of colonial elites, their way of life, and their relationships with metropolitan and indigenous societies. It contains three chapters on the roles of the elites in the development of empire in the Portuguese colonies, the Belgian Congo, and Siberia; five chapters on elites in Anglo-American colonies, colonial Quebec, Indonesia, and India; one chapter on the north African colonial elite; one on Italian society in east Africa, and one on German elites and the colonial empires. The volume opens with a historiographic and a methodological chapter.
Bronstein, Jamie L. John Francis Bray. Transatlantic Radical. Merlin Press, Pontypool 2009. 141 pp. £14.95.
This is a biography of John Francis Bray (1809–1897), an American by birth who became a printer and a writer in England and participated in the Chartist movement in that country. From 1842 onwards he lived in America as a farmer. Involved in the American labour movement, he supported the Socialistic Labor Party and joined the Knights of Labor. He helped shape the new Populist Party of the 1890s. This book, which draws on Bray's diaries, manuscripts, and other primary sources, includes forty pages of excerpts from Bray's best-known work, the manifesto Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy.
Edward Phelan and the ILO. Life and views of an international social actor. Ed. by International Labour Office. ILO, Geneva 2009. xii, 325 pp. ill. S.fr. 50.
Edward J. Phelan (1888–1967) was an important member of a small group of people who mapped out the design of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and one of the principal authors of the ILO Constitution. He was the ILO's fourth Director-General in 1941 until his retirement in 1948. This book comprises an extensive selection of passages from Phelan's memoirs, as well as three articles he wrote for the Irish review Studies in the 1950s. The book opens with a biographical essay by Emmet O'Connor and concludes with a selected bibliography of Phelan's writings and the history of the ILO.
Erinnerungen nach der Wende. Oral history und (post)sozialistische Gesellschaften. [Remembering after the Fall of Communism. Oral History and (Post-) Socialist Societies.] Hrsg. Julia Obertreis [und] Anke Stephan. Klartext, Essen 2009. 401 pp. € 39.95.
Based on interviews, this volume explores how people experienced “real socialism” in east-central, eastern and south-east Europe. The twenty-seven contributions in German and English are presented under five thematic headings: regime changes, identity construction, and current disputes about the past; the legacy of the emancipation “from above”: female experience and gender roles in socialism and post socialism; competing images of history: public and private remembering, regional and national identities; victims and perpetrators; experiences with repressive systems; and everyday life under socialism. The volume opens with three essays on methodological issues. The appendix includes information on oral history centres in eastern Europe.
European Mobility. Internal, International, and Transatlantic Moves in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Ed. by Annemarie Steidl, Josef Ehmer [and] Stanley Nadel. [Transkulturelle Perspektiven, Band 8.] V&R unipress, Göttingen 2009. 251 pp. € 31.90.
Transnational migration within Europe and overseas from the late eighteenth century to World War I is the subject of this volume, which is based on a conference held in Salzburg in December 2003. The thirteen essays, organized in three sections, cover international migrations within Europe, international migration from Europe to North America and relations between internal, international, and transatlantic migration, offering a variety of perspectives on the multiplicity of different patterns of migration and the relationships that linked local, continental, and transatlantic migrations.
Felici, Isabelle. Poésie d'un rebel. Poète, anarchiste, émigré (1876–1953). Atelier de création libertaire, Lyon 2009. 183 pp. € 14.00.
This is a study of the poetry of Gigi Damiani, an Italian anarchist journalist and friend of Errico Malatesta. He spent many years in exile, mainly in cities with a significant presence of Italian immigrants, such as São Paulo, Marseilles, Paris, Brussels, and Tunis. By examining his poetry, Professor Felici aims to shed light not only on Daminani's life but also on anarchist cultural practices, including militant poetry, which was featured in newspapers and figured prominently at festivals and political meetings.
Floud, Roderick, Robert W. Fogel, Bernard Harris [a.o.]. The Changing Body. Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700. [New Approaches to Economic and Social History.] National Bureau of Economic Research; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2011. xxvi, 431 pp. $90.00. (Paper: $32.99.)
In this introduction to the field of anthropometric history, the authors present the theory of “technophysio evolution”, consider tools to investigate the interaction of biological, demographic and economic variables from fragmentary data and survey the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, nutrition and disease in Europe and the United States since 1700. They believe that changes in the size, shape and capability of the human body both reflect and illuminate economic and demographic change over the last three centuries. See also Hans de Beer's review in this volume, pp. 535–537.
Grenzenüberschreitende Arbeitergeschichte. Konzepte und Erkundungen. [Labour History Beyond Borders. Concepts and Explorations.] Hrsg. von Marcel van der Linden, unter Mitarbeit von Eva Himmelstoß, im Auftrag der International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH). [ITH-Tagungsberichte, Band 44.] Akademische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2010. 273 pp. € 25.00.
The eleven contributions to this volume, based on the 45th International Conference of Labour and Social History (Linz, September 2009), examine the global historical and contemporary development of the working class. The authors explore the development of the global textile industry since 1650; the connections between labour migration and the integration of rural and agricultural regions into the capitalist world economy; the relation between religion and working-class formation and consciousness in north-west Europe; and social crisis and the spread of evangelical fundamentalism in Latin America. The volume opens with an introduction to the concept of labour history by Marcel van der Linden.
Koenen, Gerd. Was war der Kommunismus? [FRIAS Rote Reihe, Band 2.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010. 143 pp. € 12.90.
In this book the author addresses the question of what communism was. He considers communist movements and the rise of communist states, their original dynamics, as well as their ultimate disintegration, examines why and how communism, despite its failings, continued to exert its influence and attempts to assess its role in history, particularly in the light of post-communist developments and the current crisis of capitalism.
Religious Anarchism. New Perspectives. Ed. by Alexandre J.M.E. Christoyannopoulos, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2009. xxii, 345 pp. £44.99; $67.99.
Most of the twelve contributions to this volume were presented at a conference held in Loughborough, UK, in September 2008. The first four chapters focus on Christian anarchist “pioneers”, namely the English monk Pelagius (c.360–420 AD), the seventeenth-century preacher Abiezer Coppe, the Hungarian Nazarenes, and Dutch Christian anarchists before World War I. In the following chapters the authors trace anarchist tendencies in various religious traditions, including Wu Nengzi's Daoism, Kenneth Rexroth's Zen Buddhism, Christian Dalit religious practices, and various currents of Islam.
Skirda, Alexandre. La traite des Slaves. L'esclavage des Blancs du VIIIe au XVIIIe siècle. Les Éditions de Paris 2010. pp. 230. Maps. € 17.00.
This is a history of Slavic slavery from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries, which, according to the author, involved hundreds of thousands of people from central and eastern Europe taken prisoner by Frankish or Scandinavian slave hunters to be sold to Saracen Spain, the Byzantine Empire, and to the Islamic Mediterranean and central Asia. He describes the mechanisms of enslavement, the trade routes and markets, the living conditions of slaves, and their “value”.
Trade Unionism since 1945. Towards a Global History. Volume 1: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ed. by Craig Phelan. [Trade Unions Past, Present and Future.] Peter Lang, Oxford [etc.] 2009. xv, 451 pp. € 48.00.
Trade Unionism since 1945. Towards a Global History. Volume II: The Americas, Asia and Australia. Ed. by Craig Phelan. [Trade Unions Past, Present and Future.] Peter Lang, Oxford [etc.] 2009. xiv, 350 pp. € 42.00.
The aim of this two-volume collection of twenty-six introductory overviews of trade-union development since the end of World War II is to illuminate contemporary trade-union problems and assess future prospects. Each chapter outlines trade-union development in a specific country from 1945 to the present. The western Europe section covers Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. The section on eastern Europe covers Hungary, Poland, and the Ukraine; the one on Africa and the Middle East covers Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Israel. The Asian section covers China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Singapore; the section on the Americas, Canada, the United States, Argentina, and Brazil.
Tully, John. The Devil's Milk. A Social History of Rubber. Monthly Review Press, New York 2011. 480 pp. Ills. $24.95.
In this book Dr Tully deals with various aspects of natural and synthetic rubber, which, according to the author, has been crucial in shaping the modern world. He addresses linguistic issues, rubber extraction methods, and the many practical uses of rubber, for example in early meso-american civilizations and the European industrial revolution. The author is mainly concerned, however, with the social aspects of rubber production. He gives detailed accounts of the endless, worldwide exploitation, suffering, and struggles of those working on rubber plantations and in rubber industries. See also William Gervase Clarence-Smith's review in this volume, pp. 542–544.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Explorations in Comparative History. Ed. by Benjamin Z. Kedar. The Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem 2009. ix, 242 pp. Ill. $59.90. (Paper: $34.90.)
This volume contains articles that deal with the historiography and problems of comparative history, as well as studies that demonstrate the potential of symmetrical, asymmetrical, parallel, and cross comparisons. It opens with a historiographic survey by the editor covering the late nineteenth century to the present. The subsequent contributions include an article by Jürgen Kocka on the ethical implications of comparative history, a comparative study by Michael Confino of serfdom in Russia and slavery in the American South, and an article by Peter Baldwin about globalization and the welfare state.
Liebscher, Daniela. Freude und Arbeit. Zur internationalen Freizeit- und Sozialpolitik des faschistischen Italien und des NS-Regimes. [Italien in der Moderne, Band 16.] SH Verlag, Köln 2009. 693 pp. € 49.80.
This study of the political management of working-class leisure activities in National Socialist Germany and fascist Italy during the interwar period focuses on the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND, the Italian response to the socialist proposals in the International Labour Organization), on the Nazi leisure organization “Kraft durch Freude” (founded in 1933 and a direct imitation of the OND) and on the subsequent competition between the two organizations in the international debate about social policy. In this study, an edited version of a dissertation (Tübingen 2004), Dr Liebscher aims to contribute to the history of social politics as a “sphere of competing internationalisms”.
Vries, Peer. Zur politischen Ökonomie des Tees. Was uns Tee über die englische und chinesische Wirtschaft der Frühen Neuzeit sagen kann. [Stabwechsel, Band 1.] Böhlau Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2009. 161 pp. € 14.90.
Why did the industrial revolution happen first in England and not, for example, in China, the most developed great power in Asia? To answer this question, Professor Vries focuses on the tea trade between early modern England and China in this comparative economic analysis of the two states and their strengths and weaknesses, written from a global economic history perspective. The book is based on his inaugural lecture delivered in April 2008 as Professor of International Economic History with special regard to Global History at the University of Vienna.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Upchurch, Martin, Graham Taylor, and Andrew Mathers. The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe. The Search for Alternatives. [Contemporary Employment Relations.] Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2009. xvii, 226 pp. £55.00.
This book explores the current crisis of social democracy in western Europe and its impact on the strategic orientations of trade unions. Analysing the postwar experience of Sweden, Germany, Britain, and France, as well as European initiatives such as the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the authors seek to define a model of social democratic trade unionism, test its strengths and limitations, and record evidence of its decline and replacement with alternatives. They intend to explain, for example, how the traditional party–union relationship has been threatened by social democracy's accommodation to neo-liberal restructuring and public service reform.
Continents and Countries
AFRICA
South Africa
Berger, Iris. South Africa in World History. [The New Oxford World History.] Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2009. xii, 190 pp. Ill. Maps. £12.99; $19.95.
This synthetic overview covers South African history from the first Stone Age foragers, the arrival of the Dutch, the introduction of slavery, the British conquest, and the imposition of apartheid to the Soweto uprising and the emergence of a new society headed by Nelson Mandela. The author discusses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the HIV/Aids epidemic, and highlights parallels between the United States and South Africa. Professor Berger has sought to explore how South Africans of different racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds have both clashed and cooperated throughout the country's past and to integrate the experiences of women in the narrative.
AMERICA
Ameringer, Charles D. The Socialist Impulse. Latin America in the Twentieth Century. University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2009. 332 pp. £53.50.
The impulse to establish a socialist form of government, common in Latin American countries during the twentieth century, was, Professor Ameringer argues, above all a reaction to the positivist theory of development that prevailed in Latin America during the second half of the nineteenth century. Dedicated leaders viewed socialism as a way of overcoming poverty, oppression, ignorance, racism, underdevelopment, and foreign domination. In this book the author analyses the various socialist movements and governments that evolved in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Cuba, concluding that none has stood the test of time.
Evans, William MacKee. Open Wound. The Long View of Race in America. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. xi, 330 pp. $34.95.
In this history of racism in North America from the colonial period to the present, Professor Evans sets out to explain the origins of American racial institutions and ideas, and how and why they have changed. He aims to demonstrate that the attitude of American whites toward Africans derived from a new type of slavery that appeared in the Atlantic world of the 1500 s, and that this market-driven, colour-defined slavery was the beginning of American racism.
Langley, Lester D. Simón Bolívar. Venezuelan Rebel, American Revolutionary. [Latin American Silhouettes.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 2009. xxv, 139 pp. £18.65.
In this biography of Venezuelan Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), Professor Langley aims to give general readers an account of the life and career of one of Latin America's most famous historical figures, his role in the Spanish-American wars of independence, and an explanation as to why Bolívar was a key figure in the Americas in the revolutionary era from 1775 to 1825. He emphasizes Bolívar's controversial style of warfare and how it was regarded by contemporary north American officials. He also aims to explain Bolívar's relevance in Venezuelan and American history, and why the cult of Bolívar has persisted into the twenty-first century.
Die Moderne in Lateinamerika. Zentren und Peripherien des Wandels. Hans Werner Tobler zum 65. Geburtstag. Hrsg. Stephan Scheuzger [und] Peter Fleer. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 2009. 446 pp. € 68.00.
This Festschrift for Professor Hans Werner Tobler, in recognition of his sixty-fifth birthday, contains fourteen articles that examine Latin American political, economic, and social development issues from the perspective of modernity. The volume's themes include dependencia and globalization, mestization, slavery and modernity, elites and modernization, women's movements, peasants, and neoliberal social policy models. One article is devoted to Francisco de Saavedra y Sangrois and another to José Yves Limantour. Seven articles deal with Latin America as a whole, while five are about Mexico, and onecovers Nicaragua.
Brazil
Brazil under Lula. Economy, Politics, and Society under the Worker-President. Ed. by Joseph L. Love and Werner Baer. Palgrave Macmillan, New York [etc.] 2009. xvi, 326 pp. £55.00.
Based on a conference held in Illinois in 2007, this collection assesses the first term (2002–2006) performance of Brazil's Lula da Silva, the former trade-union leader and the first working-class president in Latin American history. The sixteen contributions cover Lula's style of governance; the type of economic and social policies he adopted; their impact on regional inequalities; the administration's treatment of agriculture and the environment; Lula's foreign policy; and the place of Lula government's in the country's long-term development. Most of the papers included highlight continuities with the policies of Lula's predecessor, Cardoso.
Dicionário do movimento operário Rio de Janeiro do século XIX aos anos 1920. Militantes e organizações. Coord. Claudio H.de M. Batalha. [História do povo brasileiro]. Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo, São Paulo 2009. 304 pp. R$42.00.
This dictionary, the first in a planned series of dictionaries of the Brazilian labour movement, features labour activists and labour organizations of the city of Rio de Janeiro from 1830 to the 1920s. It contains 839 entries providing biographical information, not only on labour activists but also on politicians, physicians, lawyers, journalists, and servicemen active on the side of the workers. The 397 labour organizations are listed separately in entries that range from a few lines to several paragraphs.
Graham, Richard. Feeding the City. From Street Market to Liberal Reform in Salvador, Brazil, 1780–1860. University of Texas Press, Austin 2010. xv, 334 pp. £16.99.
Around 1800, Salvador, on the east coast of Bahia province, was a major city. Its inhabitants are the subjects of this book, particularly the people who distributed and sold food, from the street vendors and grocers, the captains and sailors aboard the ships delivering food to the city, the stevedores, porters and slaughterers, to the most prosperous traders. Professor Graham argues that food traders, black and white, male and female, slave and free, Brazilian, Portuguese, and African, formed the city's most dynamic social component. See also Gabriel Aladrén's review in this volume, pp. 546–548.
Chile
Milanich, Nara B. Children of Fate. Childhood, Class, and the State in Chile, 1850-1930. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2009. xv, 355 pp. Ill. £70.00
Exploring both working-class and elite family histories in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Chile, Professor Milanich in this study focuses on children. Drawing on judicial sources and a cache of documents found in the closet of a Santiago orphanage, she examines themes such as kinship, illegitimacy, child abandonment, and paternity investigation to demonstrate how the study of children may elucidate the social organization of gender and class, liberalism, law, and state power in modern Latin America.
Cuba
Taylor, Henry Louis. Inside El Barrio. A Bottom-up View of Neighborhood Life in Castro's Cuba. Kumarian Press, Sterling 2009. xviii, 217 pp. Ill. £56.77.
Using a multi-methodological approach that incorporates ethnographic fieldwork, historiography, spatial analysis (geographic information system), oral interviews, and survey research, Professor Taylor in this study explores Havana neighbourhoods and residential development between 1989 and 2006 to examine the outlook of ordinary Cubans, especially Afro-Cubans and mulattos. He intends to demonstrate the importance of neighbourhoods not only in shaping everyday life and culture but also in sustaining Fidel's regime in a period when other regimes in other socialist countries were collapsing.
Weinreb, Amelia Rosenberg. Cuba in the Shadow of Change. Daily Life in the Twilight of the Revolution. [Contemporary Cuba.] University Press of Florida, Gainesville [etc.] 2009. 254 pp. Ill. $69.95.
Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Cuba, this book examines the changes that have affected citizens and consumers during the final years of the Fidel Castro era and since Raúl Castro became president, focusing on the growing but little-researched new Cuban middle class, a “shadow public” of dissatisfied citizen-consumers. The author argues that these Cubans have been ignored in scholarly literature mainly because purposeful obscurity, rather than activism, has been their best strategy for coping with the challenges posed by the social and economic transformations taking place in Cuba in an era of late socialism.
Dominican Republic
Wells, Allen. Tropical Zion. General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa. [American Encounters/Global Interactions.] Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2009. xxxi, 447 pp. Ill. £69.00. (Paper: £17.99.)
In the early 1940s Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany founded the agricultural settlement of Sosúa in the Dominican Republic, then ruled by General Trujillo. In this book Professor Wells, the son of a Sosúa settler, explores why Trujillo was willing to admit these refugees, when so few nations would accept people fleeing fascism. He argues that Trujillo, seeking to “whiten” the Dominican populace, welcomed Jewish immigrants for opportunistic reasons. The Sosúa colony was sanctioned by the Roosevelt administration, which, unwilling to admit Jewish refugees in significant numbers, encouraged Latin American countries to do so.
Mexico
Barmeyer, Niels. Developing Zapatista Autonomy. Conflict and NGO Involvement in Rebel Chiapas. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque [etc.] 2009. xxvi, 281 pp. Ill. $29.95.
This book, which derives from a dissertation (University of Manchester, 2004), provides an analysis of the autonomy project in Chiapas, Mexico, since the Zapatista uprising in 1994. Based on anthropological fieldwork, as well as on his experiences as a human rights activist, Dr Barmeyer aims to show how the indigenous communities that make up the base of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) have achieved autonomous control of key social processes, such as law enforcement, education, healthcare and production, in spite of opposition from the state but with support from NGOs and solidarity groups.
United States of America
The American Civil Rights Movement. A documentary history. Ed. by Robert P. Green Jr. and Harold E. Cheatham. [Documents in Modern History.] Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2009. xvi, 224 pp. Ill. £14.99.
The aim of this anthology documenting the history of the American Civil Rights Movement is to address the shortcomings of “capsule histories” of the movement, i.e. histories that neglect to describe the range of organizations and individuals that were involved in the movement (or that hindered its accomplishments), or fail to promote a more balanced view of its history. The editors have included excerpts from over 100 letters, laws, government documents, speeches, press articles, and published personal narratives. Most documents reflect three areas of activity within the movement (c.1954–1968): social activism, court battles, and civil rights legislation.
Dean, Jodi. Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies. Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2009. x, 217 pp. £58.00.
One of the questions raised in this book about contemporary political culture in the United States is why the expansion and intensification of communication networks coincided with stunting left political ideals and waning progressive political struggle. Professor Dean employs the concept of “communicative capitalism”: a constellation of consumerism, privileging the self over group interests and embracing the language of victimization. She argues, for example, that communicative capitalism is enabled and exacerbated by networked communications media, which reduce political energies to registering opinions and conveying sentiments.
Early, Steve. Embedded with Organized Labor. Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home. Monthly Review Press, New York 2009. 288 pp. $17.95.
In this volume the author, a journalist and a labour organizer, republishes thirty-seven essays he originally wrote for various periodicals between 1980 and 2007. Combining two genres, “literary journalism” and “participatory” journalism, he addresses the following themes: the work of “68-ers” who became labour activists after having being radicalized in the anti-war, feminist, or black power movements; the intersection of race, class, and gender in American labour; the AFL-CIO after 1995 under its new leadership; the state of American labour law; union responses to immigration, trade deregulation, and corporate globalization; and the split at the top of organized US labour in 2005.
Foot Soldiers for Democracy. The Men, Women, and Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. Ed. by Horace Huntley and John W. MacKerley. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. xxxi, 222 pp. Ill. $75.00. (Paper: $25.00.)
Drawn from the archives of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, this volume brings together twenty-nine oral histories from ordinary men and women of varying ages and occupations (including teachers, students, domestic workers, war veterans and a Black Panther leader) who participated in the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, but have remained nameless and faceless in most accounts. Their stories offer testimony as to how policing was carried out, how economic terrorism was used against activists, how experiences with the movement differed depending on gender, and how youth participation was fundamental to the cause.
Ford, Lacy K. Deliver Us from Evil. The Slavery Question in the Old South. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2009. viii, 673 pp. € 34.95.
This is a study of white attitudes and policies toward slavery in the early national and Jacksonian South. One of the issues raised was whether slavery could coexist with the new nation's republican ideals. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, Professor Ford intends to recapture the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners, and to demonstrate that the slavery debates in the tobacco-growing upper South were quite different from those in the cotton-growing lower South.
Ganz, Marshall. Why David Sometimes Wins. Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2009. xvii, 344 pp. Ill. £19.99.
Since the 1900s large-scale agricultural enterprises in California relied on cheap, unorganized and powerless migrant labour. In 1965, however, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the United Farm Workers (UFW) joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle, transforming it into the farm workers’ movement, La Causa. In this book about Cesar Chavez and the UFW, Dr Ganz, who participated in the farm worker movement, sets out to explain the farm workers’ ultimate success in 1966.
Greenberg, Cheryl Lynn. To Ask for an Equal Chance. African Americans in the Great Depression. [African American History Series.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 2009. xii, 186 pp. Ill. £19.95.
In this book Professor Greenberg explores African-American experiences during the Great Depression and the intertwined challenges posed by race and class. She examines the inferior living conditions among African Americans before Wall Street collapsed in 1929, explains how black workers, many of them urban newcomers and lacking industrial skills, were hit particularly hard by unemployment, and why African Americans benefited less than their white neighbours from federal programmes like Roosevelt's New Deal. The author argues, however, that the New Deal helped increase political involvement and mobilization in black communities. The book includes a selection of relevant documents.
Marks, Carole C. Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, [etc.] 2009. x, 206 pp. Ill. $35.00.
In this book Professor Marks examines the common roots and motivations of three women raised in early nineteenth-century Maryland. Patty Cannon was part of a gang that kidnapped free blacks and sold them back into slavery, Anna Ella Carroll a politically active slaveholder, and Harriet Tubman an abolitionist and women's suffragist. Though they never actually met, and their backgrounds and beliefs differed radically, these women's lives, argues the author, converged through their active experiences of the conflict over slavery in Maryland, the uncertainties of economic transformation, and the growing dispute about gender relations in America.
Sandine, Al. The Taming of the American Crowd. From Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees. Monthly Review Press, New York 2009. 272 pp. $18.95.
In this book the author aims to explain how the crowd as an agent of change – often but not always for the better – has been replaced by the passive crowd as object of control and regulation. He discusses how crowds have contributed to America's history and examines dangerous forms of crowds, such as lynch mobs and anti-immigrant riots, how crowds may serve the interests of non-participants, crowd control in American history, and the transformation of crowd space since World War II, arguing that crowds remain a vital source of shelter and democratic leverage.
Shalhope, Robert E. The Baltimore Bank Riot. Political Upheaval in Antebellum Maryland. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. x, 196 pp. $50.00.
In August 1835 Baltimore experienced a particularly violent and destructive riot fuelled by public anger over frauds associated with the closing of the Bank of Maryland. In this study Professor Shalhope examines the causes and consequences of the Baltimore bank riot and relates it to the emergent political culture of antebellum Maryland and the nation at large. He also aims to provide insights into similar riots of the 1830s, as well as into the banking practices characteristic of the early nineteenth century.
Taillon, Paul Michel. Good, Reliable, White Men. Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877-1917. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. xi, 266 pp. Ill. $75.00. (Paper: $25.00.)
This is a study of the American independent railroad brotherhoods from the period of their formation in the 1860s and 1870s to the consolidation of their power before World War I. Paying special attention to the brotherhoods’ cultural perceptions, especially regarding gender and race, and to their relationships with the state, Dr Taillon aims to demonstrate how these brotherhoods, among the first unions to organize nationally, employed “responsible trade unionism” to their advantage and played leading roles in the national labour movement and US politics.
Taylor, Gregory S. The History of the North Carolina Communist Party. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2009. 258 pp. $39.95
In the 1920s North Carolina experienced serious labour conflicts. From 1929 to 1956 the North Carolina Communist Party, the first organization of its kind in a southern state, carried out a liberal agenda for reform, unionizing tobacco and textile industries, seeking judicial and prison reforms, and opposing segregation. Using oral histories and archival sources including Comintern documents, Professor Taylor in this book examines the party's objectives and actions from the 1920s to the 1960s. He argues, for example, that party members did not see themselves as enemies of the nation but rather as defenders of true American values.
Washington, Margaret. Sojourner Truth's America. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. xx, 478 pp. Ill. $34.95.
Born into slavery among the Hudson Valley Dutch in Ulster County, New York, Isabella was sold several times before she fled in 1826, one year before slavery was abolished in New York. She worked as a domestic, preached and joined a religious commune. After experiencing an epiphany, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began travelling the United States as a spokeswoman for equality by promoting Christianity, abolitionism, and women's rights. In this biography Professor Washington examines Sojourner Truth's world within the context of African-American slavery and nineteenth-century American progressivism.
White, C. Todd. Pre-Gay L.A. A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. xvii, 258 pp. £75.00. (Paper: £25.00.)
This book explores the history of the American movement for homosexual rights, which originated in Los Angeles in the late 1940s and exists to this day. Based on interviews and archival research, the author provides a detailed history of four related organizations, including ONE Incorporated and the Homosexual Information Center (HIC), in which he participated. In the evolution of the movement Professor White perceives patterns of organizational change that are both interesting in their own right and offer insight as to the causes of fission and fusion politics in other voluntary organizations.
Witwer, David. Shadow of the Racketeer. Scandal in Organized Labor. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2009. vii, 322 pp. Ill. $80.00. (Paper: $30.00.)
This book is about union corruption in the 1930s United States and the campaign against it by journalist Westbrook Pegler, who exposed the connections between organized crime and labour leaders George Scalise and William Bioff. The author describes in great detail how Pegler and his publisher Roy W. Howard shaped the news coverage of this scandal to obscure corrupt ties between employers and organized crime, while emphasizing the perceived menace of union leaders. The history of this scandal, Professor Witwer argues, helps explain the long-term decline of organized labour in the United States.
Venezuela
Tinker Salas, Miguel. The Enduring Legacy. Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela. [American Encounters/Global Interactions.] Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2009. xvi, 324 pp. £15.99.
Oil has played a major role in Venezuela's economy since the first oil well was discovered in 1922, transforming the social, cultural, and political landscapes. Professor Tinker Salas traces the rise of the oil industry, paying special attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He aims to reveal how class ambitions together with the interests of North American and British petroleum companies influenced ideas of citizenship among many Venezuelans. Middle-class Venezuelans, for example, embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would bring economic development and break the power of the landed elites.
ASIA
China
Labour Migration and Social Development in Contemporary China. Ed. by Rachel Murphy. [Comparative development and policy in Asia series.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2009. xii, 204 pp. £85.00.
In the eight chapters of this volume about social and economic aspects of labour migration in China the authors address the following issues: the role of labour migration in poverty alleviation; migrant remittances and the distribution of economic benefits and costs; China's internal passport system (hukou) and social security for migrant workers; the provision of schools for migrants’ children; reproductive and sexual health services; housing conditions; the mobilization of women workers’ social networks to improve labour protection; and the role of NGOs in providing social services for migrants.
Li, Huaiyin. Village China under Socialism and Reform. A Micro-History, 1948–2008. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Cal.) [etc.] 2009. xv, 402 pp. Ill. £52.63.
This is a micro-level analysis of rural life in Qin village of Jiangsu province after the communist revolution. Drawing on original documents from local agricultural collectives, newly accessible government archives and oral narratives of villagers, Professor Li provides a detailed account of villagers’ involvement in political campaigns since the 1950s; agricultural production under the collective system; family farming and non-agricultural economy during the reform era; and everyday life in the family and community. He challenges the view that recent developments in rural China represent a radical break with pre-reform socio-political practices and production patterns.
AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
New Zealand
Weir, Robert E. Knights Down Under. The Knights of Labour in New Zealand. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2009. xxvi, 272 pp. Ill. £44.99.
In this book Dr Weir explores how North American ideals of working-class reform embodied in the Knights of Labour (KOL) found their way to New Zealand in the late 1880s and 1890s. Though starting to decline in North America at the time, in its new context, the author argues, the organization promoted a wave of social and economic changes that made New Zealand a role model for other Western reformers. Among the reforms the KOL helped enact were women's suffrage, mandatory arbitration of labour disputes, and old-age pensions.
EUROPE
Food & Everyday Life in the Postsocialist World. Ed. by Melissa L. Caldwell. Foreword by Marion Nestle. Afterword by Elizabeth Cullen Dunn. Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 2009. xiv, 231 pp. $65.00. (Paper: $24.95.)
In this volume food is a starting point for exploring the nature and consequences of globalization in the post-socialist societies of the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe. In seven chapters the authors, all of them anthropologists or sociologists, examine Bulgarian practices of home-jarring vegetables and fruits vs purchasing canned food; a paprika powder scandal in Hungary and the unintended consequences of the EU standardization; informal dairy markets in Lithuania; public food spaces in Russia; sausage industries in Lithuania; the emergence of a new culinary arts culture in Russia; and women's drinking practices in Russia.
Czechoslovakia
Die samtene Revolution. Vorgeschichte, Verlauf, Akteure. Hrsg. Niklas Perzi, Beata Blehova, [und] Peter Bachmaier. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2009. 330 pp. € 52.80.
This volume is the result of a conference held in Waidhofen an der Thaya, Austria, in 2004 to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia. It comprises twenty-one contributions by historians, political scientists, and journalists, as well as prominent figures from both the Communist Party and the opposition. In addition to analyses of the events of 1989 and comparisons with the 1968 Prague Spring and the end of the GDR communist regime, the collection includes articles on pre-1989 Soviet and Czech economic reform ideas, and the way party officials reflected on the communist downfall.
Eire – Ireland
Douglas, R.M. Architects of the Resurrection. Ailtirí na hAisérghe and the fascist ‘new order’ in Ireland. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2009. x, 322 pp. Ill. £19.99.
Aiming to shed new light not only on politics in wartime Ireland but also on the rise of fascism as a global phenomenon, Professor Douglas describes in this book the rise and fall of the Ailtirí na hAisérghe (“Architects of the Resurrection”), a little-researched political movement founded in 1942 with the intention of replacing the young Irish democracy with a one-party totalitarian state. Ailtirí na hAisérghe was no mere Nazi imitator, according to the author. Rather, it aimed at a fusion between totalitarianism and Christianity that would make Ireland a “missionary-ideological state” wielding global influence in the postwar era.
France
Bouneau, Christine. Socialisme et jeunesse en France 1879–1969. Acteurs, discours, moments et lieux. Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine, Pessac 2009. 662 pp. € 35.00.
Using relatively unknown texts by Jean Jaurès, Paul Faure, Léon Blum, Léo Lagrange, Guy Mollet, Pierre Mauroy and other socialists, Professor Bouneau examines what in some cases are parallel and in others intersecting histories of French socialism, youth, and youth movements. She begins her study in the 1880s, when socialism arose, the first socialist youth and student groups came into being, and youth came to be “invented” as a concept. Her book concludes with May 1968. Whereas Jean Jaurès believed that the future of socialism depended on the younger generations, she argues, relations between socialism and its youth and students are often complex.
Frobert, Ludovic. Les canuts ou la démocratie turbulente. Lyon, 1831–1834. Tallandier, Paris 2009. 224 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
Between 1831 and 1835 the silk weavers of Lyon (canuts) published their own newspaper (L'Echo de la fabrique) as a forum for discussing conditions in their trade, and how they might preserve their autonomy, artisanal mode of production, and independent workshops in a period when industrial development seemed to demand specialization, concentration, and hierarchization. In this book the author analyses their debates and how they made use of contemporary social theories and political ideologies.
Georges Pompidou et Mai 1968. Dir. Bernard Lachaise et Sabrina Tricaud. [Collection George Pompidou. Études, No. 4.] Peter Lang, Bruxelles [etc.] 2009. 203 pp. £27.00; $45.95; € 30.50.
During the events of May 1968, Georges Pompidou, prime minister under General de Gaulle, was, according to some, “the statesman who, nearly on his own, kept his head on all fronts”. This volume, based on a conference held in Paris in March 2008, comprises academic essays and contributions by contemporary witnesses and close collaborators of Georges Pompidou that discuss the personality of the future French president and how he handled the political and social crisis. The work also sheds light on his relationship with De Gaulle and the way “May ’68” and its aftermath contributed toward shaping his “national destiny”.
Girault, Jacques. Bordeaux et la Commune 1870–1871. Mouvement ouvrier et idéologie républicaine au moment de la Commune de Paris. Fanlac, Périgueux 2009. 389 pp. Ill. € 24.00.
In this study of the labour movement and republican ideology in Bordeaux at the time of the Paris Commune Professor Girault discusses balances of power not only between the republicans and their opponents but also those within the republican ranks between moderate and radical elements, including members of the First International. These different currents can be traced in the contemporary press, of which Paul Lafargue was a well-known member. This is a revised edition of La Commune et Bordeaux, published by Éditions sociales in 1971 (see IRSH, 16 (1971), p. 99).
Girault, Jacques. Pour une école laïque du peuple! Instituteurs militants de l'entre-deux-guerres en France. Publié avec le soutien du Centre Henri Aigueperse (UNSA-Éducation) et de l'Institut de recherches de la Fédération syndicale unitaire. Éditions Publisud, Paris 2009, 492 pp. € 39.90.
This volume, based largely on two surveys conducted in 1969 and during the 1970s, records the experiences of unionized primary school teachers in the 1930s. It deals with the circumstances of the 624 respondents, the teaching profession, teachers’ trade unions, their social life and non-teaching activities (e.g. participation in freethinking and freemasonry), their political involvement and attitudes (for example regarding the Spanish Civil War, the Munich accords and the USSR), and their experiences in World War II. In the epilogue teachers evaluate the activities and ideology of the Syndicat national des instituteurs.
Nouvel, Maguelone. Frédéric Le Play. Une réforme sociale sous le Second Empire. [Collection Économies et Sociétés Contemporaines.] Economica, Paris 2009. 265 pp. € 36.00.
Based on a Ph.D thesis (Université de Montpellier III, 2006), this is a study of the life and work of Frédéric Le Play during the years of the Second Empire. Long forgotten or remembered only as a “reactionary”, Le Play is now seen as an early sociologist with significant ideas on social reform. Using unknown correspondence, the author reconstructs the impact of writings such as Les Ouvriers européens, in which he was among the first to use ethnographic methods, and his various networks, such as the Société d'Economie sociale, which perpetuated his influence even after he was no longer in vogue.
Pech, Rémy. Jaurès paysan. Éditions Privat, Toulouse 2009. 236 pp. € 19.00.
Jean Jaurès (1859–1914), spokesman of the working classes and unifier of French socialism, described himself as a paysan cultivé. He grew up in the rural département of Tarn, where he campaigned for the defence of the peasants. In this book Professor Pech focuses on Jaurès' rural background, arguing that, in addition to being an important part of his personal life, it influenced his understanding of contemporary problems.
Rebérioux, Madeleine. Vive la République! Ed. par Gilles Candar et Vincent Duclert. Postface de Michelle Perrot. Demopolis, Paris 2009. 283 pp. € 21.00.
This volume reprints twelve previously published articles by Madeleine Rebérioux (1920–2005), a historian specializing in the French Third Republic, the French labour movement, and the work of Jean Jaurès. She reflects on human rights in the French Republic, the formation of associations, the right to petition, women and citizenship, secularization, the Ligue des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen, workers and citizenship, the fighters of the Paris Commune, Jean Jaurès, the historiography of the Dreyfus Affair, and (with Georges Haupt) the Second International and colonialism.
Teugels, Patrick. P.C.F. L’écartèlement idéologique. Editions Tribord, Bruxelles 2009. 303 pp. € 18.00.
This book focuses on the history of the French communist party in the period between 1968, when the PCF “disapproved” of the Soviet Union invasion of Czechoslovakia, and 1979, when the PCF supported the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The author sets out to explain the Party's apparent about-face and sheds light on the internal socio-political mechanisms within the PCF. He argues that militant communists were torn between two loyalties: the Soviet Union and the interests of the people, and that this led to the party's loss of influence and its political decline.
Vovelle, Michel. Les Sans-culottes marseillais. Le mouvement sectionnaire du jacobinisme au fédéralisme (1791–1793). [Temps de l'histoire.] Publications de l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence 2009. 235 pp. Maps. € 24.00.
This is a long-awaited quantitative analysis of class, class struggle, and neighbourhood democracy in Marseilles from 1791 to 1793. Professor Vovelle, who is considered a leading historian of the French Revolution, has used a rich collection of minutes from district meetings held in revolutionary Marseilles to sketch profiles of thousands of marseillais sans-culottes appearing on the meetings attendance lists, and shed light on the city's social, demographic, and occupational structure during the period that it served as a centre of the Federalist Revolt.
Walton, Charles. Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution. The Culture of Calumny and the Problem of Free Speech. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2009. ix, 334 pp. Ill. $49.95.
In 1789 French revolutionaries proclaimed freedom of speech and abolished censorship. Four years later, however, the revolutionary government set out to control public opinion. In this study Professor Walton examines the reasons for this reversal in freedom of expression, tracing its origins to the Old Regime. He aims to show how relentless calumny and struggles to impose legal and moral limits on free speech radicalized politics, leading to repression during the Terror of 1793–1794. In doing so, he offers a new explanation for the origins of this phase of the French Revolution.
Germany
Glaser, Günther. Armee gegen das Volk? Zeitgenössische Studie mit Dokumenten zur Einsatzplanung des Militärs im Innern der DDR (1949–1965/66). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2009. 152 pp. Ill. € 27.90.
In this volume Dr Glaser explores how the possible internal use of military power in conflict and tension situations might have affected SED and GDR government policy. Using documents from the Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR (SAPMO) in the Federal Archives and the Military Archives of the Federal Archives, he examines the GDR leadership's intentions and the influence of the Soviet Union in this area. Many relevant documents are reproduced in the second and largest section of the volume.
Krause, Karl Christian Friedrich. Ausgewählte Schriften. Band II: Philosophisch-freimaurerische Schriften 1808–1832. Hrsg. und eingel. von Johannes Seidel, Enrique M. Ureña, Erich Fuchs [u.a.]. Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstadt 2009. xxx, 312 pp. € 198.00.
This is the second of six planned volumes by the thinker of “panentheism” and the source of inspiration of krausismo, the closest thing to a philosophy of nineteenth-century Spanish liberalism. While the first volume contained Krause's Entwurf des Systems der Philosophie (1804), the second consists of a selection of his writings on freemasonry, which Krause took as the model for his Menschheitsbund. The editors complement excerpts from Die drei ältesten Kunsturkunden with the unpublished manuscript “Frohkunde an die Menschheit”. All texts are clearly related to Das Urbild der Menschheit (1811), usually considered Krause's major work, which is scheduled to appear in a future volume.
Krautz, Stefanie. Lesbisches Engagement in Ost-Berlin 1978–1989. [Wissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Tectum Verlag. Reihe Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 5.] Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2008. 123 pp. € 24.90.
Under GDR socialism women were above all expected to marry and produce progeny for society. State and party leaders left little room for alternative lifestyles. Using Joan Scott's concept of “sexually based reality”, the author first analyses the normative image of women in the GDR. In the second part of her book, she examines the emergence of lesbian interest groups between 1978 and 1989, focusing on three East Berlin groups: the Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe – Lesben in der Kirche, the Sonntags-Club Berlin, and the working group “Courage” that was affiliated with the Verband der Freidenker.
Lenger, Friedrich. Sozialwissenschaft um 1900. Studien zu Werner Sombart und einigen seiner Zeitgenossen. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2009. 179 pp. € 32.50.
This volume brings together ten previously published articles on the life and work of the German economist and sociologist Werner Sombart (1863–1941). They deal with various aspects of his work and his views, including some controversial ones. In the opening chapter Professor Lenger examines Sombart's career in the context of the political developments of his time. In the following essays he investigates the influence of and the relationship with prominent contemporaries and fellow social scientists and historians, including Max Weber, Gustav Schmoller, and Karl Bücher.
Reimann, Aribert. Dieter Kunzelmann. Avantgardist, Protestler, Radikaler. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 188.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009. 392 pp. € 29.90.
Dieter Kunzelmann (b.1939), one of the most controversial figures in the German protest movements of the 1960s, was involved in various avant-garde movements before he joined a Fatah training camp in Jordan. He later renounced terrorism and served in the Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus in the 1980s. In 2005 information was disclosed that associated him with planning the terrorist attack on the Jüdische Gemeindehaus in Berlin in 1969. In this biography the author aims to offer a new perspective on the rise of a subversive counterculture from avant-garde art and ironic provocation to international terrorism.
Schumann, Dirk. Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, 1918–1933. Fight for the Streets and Fear of Civil War. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. [Studies in German History, Volume 10.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2009. 346 pp. Ill. £45.00.
In this book, which is based on a case study of Saxony, where the communist uprising of March 1921 took place, Professor Schumann provides an analysis of political violence in Weimar Germany and the political culture from which it derived. He aims to refute claims that the Bolshevik revolution was the primary cause of political violence, and that the experience of World War I so “brutalized” society that German political life after 1918 was doomed from the outset. He argues instead that the Weimar Republic was a state in severe crisis, but that alternatives to the Nazi takeover were available.
Great Britain
Bohstedt, John. The Politics of Provisions. Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, c.1550–1850. Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2010. Maps. 312 pp. £65.00.
In this study Professor Bohstedt examines food riots that occurred in England between 1550 and 1855. Drawing on magistrates’ reports, newspaper accounts, and court records, as well as on secondary literature, he has analysed clusters of riots and seeks to explain the rise and fall of what he calls the “politics of provisions”: common people's collective actions to avert hunger and their rulers’ responses. See also Steven King's review in this volume, pp. 537–539.
Chatham Dockyard, 1815–1865. The Industrial Transformation. Ed. by Philip MacDougall. Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2009. xvii, 410 pp. €65.00.
By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the seven home dockyards of the British Royal Navy employed nearly 16,000 men. From 1815 to 1865 the composition of this workforce changed, with metal-working replacing wood-working, as dockyards harnessed the use of steam and made the transition from constructing ships of timber to those of iron. Concentrating on Chatham, Dr MacDougall, the editor of this source publication, presents a selection of documents, aiming to provide insight into developing social processes, such as the systems of recruitment, training, and supervision of large-scale workforces pioneered in the dockyards.
Griffiths, Elizabeth (and) Mark Overton. Farming to Halves. The Hidden History of Sharefarming in England from Medieval to Modern Times. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2009. ix, 263 pp. £55.00.
“Farming to halves” is the English version of share-farming (or métayage, as it is known in France), a system of letting land that is common in Europe and the New World but was thought not to have existed in England. Forms of share-farming did exist in England from the Middle Ages to the present day at different levels of society and throughout the country, but it was never institutionalized, remained largely informal, and rarely appears in documents. This book traces the history of share-farming in England. The authors argue that its findings will affect common understandings of English rural communities, the development of English agriculture, and relationships between landlords and tenants and among farmers in general.
Griffiths, Robert. Killing No Murder. South Wales and the Great Railway Strike of 1911. Manifesto, Croydon 2009. 126 pp. £12.95.
During the Great Railway Strike of 1911, strategically important railway crossings in the Welsh town of Llanelli were the scene of confrontations between pickets and the military. When soldiers opened fire on crowds, two men were killed and others wounded. In the eruption of violence that followed, four more were killed. In this book, a translated and extended edition of the original Welsh version published in 1986 as Streic! Streic! Streic!, the author, a TUC tutor who has held various positions in the trade-union movement, gives a detailed account of these events.
Innes, Joanna. Inferior Politics. Social Problems and Social Policies in Eighteenth-Century Britain. [Past and Present Book Series.] Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2009. xviii, 364 pp. £110.00.
In this volume the author brings together seven essays, most of which published previously, that explore how social policy was shaped in eighteenth-century England. In the first three essays she outlines central and local government structures; in the fourth she surveys developments in empirical social enquiry in Britain during the eighteenth century. In the final three she presents case studies of efforts at shaping social policy, for example, abolitionist William Wilberforce's “reformation of manners” movement, and the work of the London constable William Payne. “Inferior politics” is a contemporary phrase referring to the field of activity of “inferior” officers, i.e. local authorities who were faced with poverty, vagrancy, and crime.
Lloyd, Sarah. Charity and poverty in England, c.1680–1820. Wild and visionary schemes. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2009. ix, 342 pp. Ill. £65.00.
This book explores some unusual manifestations of charity and poor relief in eighteenth-century England, covering visionary schemes and imagined prospects too complex or controversial to realize, such as proposals for vast inland colonies. By analysing the settings in which reformers, projectors, and philanthropists reacted to the poverty of others, and poor people asserted their own beliefs and experiences, the author questions the functionalism implicit in many historical enquiries. She aims to demonstrate that imagination, excitement, and experiment were as important as systematic argument in the management of poverty and proposals for its relief.
Raw, Louise. Striking a Light. The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in Labour History. Continuum, London [etc.] 2009. 278 pp. Ill. £70.00.
In this study the author offers a new interpretation of the famous London matchgirls’ strike of July 1888. Returning to the stories of the women themselves and using interviews with some of their descendants, she sets out to prove that, contrary to the commonly held view, the women themselves begin began the strike, not celebrity socialists like Annie Besant. She argues furthermore that the matchgirls greatly influenced the Dock Strike of 1889, usually regarded as the key event of “new unionism”, and the birth of the modern labour movement in Britain.
Smethurst, John B. and Peter Carter. Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Foreword by Christine Coates. Vol. 6. Including unions in Building and Construction, Agriculture, Fishing, Chemicals, Wood and Woodworking, Transport, Engineering and Metal Working, Government, Civil and Public Service, Energy and Extraction in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Shipbuilding. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2009. xvi, 696 pp. £85.00.
This final volume in a series of six, which began publication in 1980 (see IRSH, 54 (2009), p. 151) provides additional information on entries in earlier volumes and contains additional records, as well as a new section on public sector employees’ unions and, compared with previous volumes, more Irish records. Covering about 2,900 unions, the brief descriptions again comprise information on dates of establishment, membership, leadership, policy, outstanding events, sources, and location of information. At the end of the volume is a select bibliography of trade-union histories.
Wallace, Ryland. The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866-1928. [Studies in Welsh History, Vol. 23.] University of Wales Press, Cardiff 2009. xii, 338 pp. £48.00.
Wales was part of the women's suffrage movement from its beginnings in the mid 1860s until the achievement of equal voting rights in 1928. All major suffrage societies formed Welsh branch associations and committees in this period. This book, claiming to be the first comprehensive study of this movement in Wales, records the names of committed but lesser-known individuals, covering not only the sensational actions carried out by suffragettes in Wales but also the more mundane day-to-day campaigns for equal democratic rights for women and men.
Italy
Amintore Fanfani e la crisi del comunismo. Arezzo 1957: XI Congresso delle NEI. A cura di Bruna Bagnato. Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze 2009. 194 pp. Ill. € 14.00.
This book is based on a conference held in Arezzo in June 2008 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Italian historian and Christian Democratic politician, Amintore Fanfani (1908–1999). This gathering was prompted by a conference of the Nouvelles Equipes Internationales (NEI), a transnational Christian Democratic Organization, also formed in Arezzo, in 1957, when Fanfani was secretary of the Democrazia Cristiana. In addition to four chapters on Fanfani and communism, the NEI, and European integration, the book contains an eighty-page facsimile reprint of Fanfani's paper for the NEI conference, on “La crisi del comunismo e la democrazia Cristiana”.
Antonioli, Maurizio. Sentinelle perdute. Gli anarchici, la morte, la guerra. [Cultura storica, no 34.] BFS Edizioni, Pisa 2009. 216 pp. € 18.00.
Anarchists, death and war are the guiding themes in this collection of nine essays, eight of which have been previously published elsewhere. Professor Antonioli, who specializes in the history of Italian labour and anarchism, examines the image of heroic death in the writings of Pietro Gori and others, and focuses on Garibaldist anarchists in the Turko-Greek war of 1897; Italian anarchists and the Russian Revolution of 1905; Italian anarchists and World War I; and three anarchist women (Maria Rygier, Leda Rafanelli and Nella Giacomelli) in the face of World War I.
Tomasiello, Bruno. La Banda del Matese 1876–1878. I documenti, le testimonianze, la stampa dell'epoca. Prefazione Sen. Antonio Conte. [Atti e memorie del popolo.] Galzerano Editore, Casalvelino Scalo 2009. 640 pp. € 25.00.
In April 1877 a group of anarchists, comprising Carlo Cafiero, Errico Malatesta, Pietro Cesare Ceccarelli, and Sergei Kravchinsky (also known as Stepniak), attempted an insurrection against the monarchy in the village of San Lupo, in the Matese mountains of Benevento. In this volume Bruno Tomasiello, who was born in San Lupo, presents a selection of materials documenting this famous episode in the history of Italian anarchism, for example Ceccarelli's and Malatesta's accounts of the events, various political writings by the insurgents’ fellow Internationalists, official reports, and articles from anarchist and other newspapers.
Le vene aperte del delitto Moro. Terrorismo, Pci, trame e servizi segreti. A cura di Salvatore Sechi. Mauro Pagliai Editore, Firenze 2009. 357 pp. Ill. € 23.00.
Thirty-one years after Aldo Moro's murder by the Red Brigades in 1978, the nine contributors to this volume reflect on the aftermath of this crime and some questions that remain. One author, for example, discusses whether Moro's letters written during his captivity are authentic; others examine the Brigades’ alleged connections with Czechoslovakia, the reaction of the PCI to terrorism of the left, and the question of who wrote the Red Brigades’ communications during Moro's abduction. One chapter consists of a transcript of an interview with state prosecutor Luigi Carli about the Red Brigades’ Genoese “column”.
Poland
Fleming, Michael. Communism, Nationalism and Ethnicity in Poland, 1944–50. [BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies, vol. 58.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2010. xvii, 199 pp. $145.00.
In this study Professor Fleming aims to show that nationality policy was fundamental to the consolidation of communist rule in Poland between 1944 and 1950. He analyses the international support for the programme of national homogenization in Poland, elaborates on how the Polish Workers’ Party instrumentalized social discontent resulting from Soviet Russian actions, analyses the violence against minority communities, explores the relationship between the Catholic Church and national policy, and examines two episodes in the emergence of the Cold War: the 1947–1948 “Westphalian incident”, and the arrival of Greek refugees in Poland between 1948 and 1950.
Slovakia
Duin, Pieter C. van. Central European Crossroads. Social Democracy and National Revolution in Bratislava (Pressburg), 1867–1921. [International Studies in Social History, Vol. 14.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2009. xii, 466 pp. £58.00.
In this history of the social democratic labour movement and national revolution in Slovakia's multi-ethnic capital Bratislava, the author analyses the revolutionary events of 1918–1919 in the context of the changing social, ethnic, and political relations in the Hapsburg Empire between 1867 and 1921. Based largely on Czech, German, Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovak newspapers, the study is aimed at integrating social, political ethno-cultural, and psychological aspects.
Spain
El exilio científico republicano. Ed. Josep L. Barona. Publicacions Universitat de València, València 2010. 427 pp. Ill. (Incl. CD-Rom). € 35.00.
The development of a scientific community in Spain was cut short by the military rebellion of 1936, the Civil War and the Franquist repression that followed. Scientists were imprisoned, murdered, or forced into exile. The twenty-four contributions to this volume, based on a conference organized in Valencia in November 2009, examine the Francoist suppression of Spanish scientists and trace the lives and careers of scientists who fled the country. The CD-Rom contains reproductions of the complete volumes of the journal Ciencia. Revista Hispanoamericana de ciencias puras y alicadas (1940–1975), created by the Unión de Profesores Universitarios Espanoles en el Extranjero (UPUEE). See also the review by Rena Fuks-Mansfeld in this volume, pp. 544–546.
The International Context of the Spanish Civil War. Ed. by Gaynor Johnson. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2009. xvi, 194 pp. £39.99; $59.99.
This volume addresses views of the Spanish Civil War within its international context. The nine contributors discuss the major debates surrounding the ideological and political context of the war, including in what measure it may be regarded as a “dress rehearsal” for World War II. The book is based largely on a conference held in Salford, UK in June 2006, which focused on the attitude of the democratic powers in Europe and North America to the Spanish Civil War. The editors have expanded the scope to include the views held by the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy.
Thomson, Guy. The Birth of Modern Politics in Spain. Democracy, Association and Revolution 1854-75. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2010. xii, 361 pp. £68.00.
Focusing on the rivalry between the conservative liberal General Narváez and Rafael Pérez del Alamo, a blacksmith who in July 1861 led the “Revolution of Loja” (regarded by Republican historians as Spain's first “socialist” uprising not prompted by a pronouncement by the military), the author traces the dissemination of democratic ideas and republican associations in Loja and other towns and villages of eastern Andalusia between 1854 and 1875. He also contributes to the debate on Spain's historical decline by challenging the view that Spain was backward and isolated in Europe.
Torquemada Sánchez, María Jesús. La inmigración en España durante las primeras etapas del franquismo. Dykinson, Madrid 2009. 244 pp. € 22.00.
In this book Professor Torquemada Sánchez, who teaches history of law, gives a detailed account of Spanish immigration legislation from the early 1930s to the 1960s. Covering republican legislation as well, the book offers more than the title suggests. In accordance with a law enacted in 1935, the names of foreigners applying for work permits were published in the official newspaper, Gaceta de la República. These lists, of which facsimile reproductions are included in this volume, offer a glimpse of the immigrants, their countries of origin and their occupations.
Switzerland
Skenderovic, Damir. The Radical Right in Switzerland. Continuity and Change, 1945–2000. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2009. xvii, 470 pp. £55.00.
In this study of the course of the radical right in Switzerland since the end of World War II, Professor Skenderovic examines the role of parties and individuals of the populist right, intellectuals of the New Right, as well as propagandists and militant groups of the extreme right, whom he conceptualizes as belonging to the same political family, bound together by common ideas. Challenging the commonly held assumption that Switzerland is different from other European countries, he argues that the radical right in postwar Switzerland has a long and established tradition.
Umbruch und Beständigkeit. Kontinuitäten in der Helvetischen Revolution von 1798. Hrsg. von Daniel Schläppi. Schwabe Verlag, Basel 2009. 106 pp. € 18.50.
The five chapters in this volume on the Helvetian Revolution of 1798, based on a conference in Berne in March 2007, are less about its new and radical aspects than about continuity and tradition in a period of change. In addition to a theoretical chapter by the editor, the volume features a case study in French on the canton of Vaud, where inhabitants proclaimed the République de Léman, and chapters on citizens’ petitions during the old and new regimes, institutional and personal continuity in the revolutionary administrative machinery, and how state ideology was rooted in a tradition of models of reform absolutism.
