General Issues
SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Anthropologies of Class. Power, Practice and Inequality. Ed. by James G. Carrier and Don Kalb. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015. xiii, 232 pp. £60.00; $95.00.
This volume supports the relevance of class perspectives and class language in anthropology and explores the nature of a broadly formulated approach to class, revealing how ideas of class are presently used by anthropologists. The eleven contributions, from a broad geographical spectrum, are both theoretical essays and case studies. The contributors situate class within the context of the current economic crisis, integrating elements from the present in discussions of an earlier agenda. They describe the forms that class takes, as well as the ways it affects individuals and societies.
Eckhardt, Wolfgang. The First Socialist Schism. Bakunin vs. Marx in the International Working Men’s Association. Transl. by Robert M. Homsi et al., PM Press, Oakland, CA; thoughtcrime ink, Edmonton 2015. 603 pp. $38.95. (Paper: $15.99.)
This study is a comprehensive chronological account of the rift within the International Workingmen’s Association (the “First International”, 1864–1877) between the advocates of working-class political parties (Marx and his followers) and the anti-authoritarian revolutionary socialists (Bakunin and other anarchists). In addition to focusing on the roles of Marx and Bakunin, many other contributions to this debate are examined. The author has based this work on numerous archives and libraries that were previously unnoticed. He also provides a detailed account of the International’s Congress of The Hague (September 1872), including the background, sequence of events and international reactions.
Global Conceptual History. A Reader. Ed. by Margrit Pernau and Dominic Sachsenmaier. Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. Ill. xvi, 376 pp. £28.99.
The collection of essays in this volume combines conceptual history – the history of words and languages – with global history, showing how the two disciplines benefit from a combined approach. The first part of the book presents three foundational texts for conceptual history, giving readers a grasp of the origins of the discipline. The second part focuses on critiques of the approach, while the third part provides examples of conceptual history in practice, via case studies of historical research encompassing a global scope. Finally, the book’s concluding essay examines the current state and the future potential of conceptual history.
Kinna, Ruth. Kropotkin. Reviewing the Classical Anarchist Tradition. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2016. v, 266 pp. £70.00.
In this book, the author provides a new interpretation of Kropotkin in the anarchist ideas and movement. By discussing Kropotkin within the context of the history of ideas and political philosophy, Professor Kinna demonstrates that models of classical anarchism, new anarchism and post-anarchism have limited explanatory power for understanding his ideas. Each chapter situates his thought in the context of late-nineteenth century debates and shows how he helped shape anarchism as politically distinctive. As a whole, this analysis highlights his important contribution to the history of socialist ideas and sheds new light on the nature of anarchist ideology.
HISTORY
Banaji, Jairus. Exploring the Economy of Late Antiquity. Selected Essays. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015. xix, 253 pp. Ill. £64.99.
Defending the sophistication of ancient economic behaviour and the sheer scale and resilience of the late antique economy against oversimplified catastrophism are the main themes in this collection of essays. In ten successive chapters, Professor Banaji discusses the scale of the late Roman gold currency, the economic nature of the aristocracy, the importance of trade, relations between the state and the ruling class and the problem of continuity into the early Middle Ages. Based on a wide range of sources, the author concludes that at least the intellectual and elite circles in Late Antiquity figured in a cosmopolitan society.
The Construction of a Global World, 1400–1800 CE. Part 1: Foundations. Ed. by Jerry H. Bentley, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. [The Cambridge World History, vol. 6.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015. xx, 509 pp. Ill. Maps. £100.00; $170.00.
The Construction of a Global World, 1400–1800 CE. Part 2: Patterns of Change. Ed. by Jerry H. Bentley, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. [The Cambridge World History, vol. 6.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015. xx, 492 pp. Ill. £100.00; $170.00.
The series provides an overview of the field of world history in seven volumes in nine parts. Volume 6 traces the increase in biological, commercial and cultural exchanges over the period and explores regional and transregional political, cultural and intellectual developments. The first part focuses on global matrices that made this increasingly interdependent world possible, including the environment, technology and disease; crossroads and macro-regions, such as the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia; and large-scale political formations, such as Russia, the Islamic Empires and the Iberian Empires. The second part examines global and regional migrations and encounters and the economic, social, cultural and institutional structures that shaped and were shaped by trade networks, law, commodity flows, production processes and religious systems.
Ewen, Shane. What is Urban History? [What is History?] Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2016. vii, 173 pp. £45.00; € 60.51. (Paper £14.99; € 20.16.)
This short introduction shows how urban history draws upon a wide variety of methodologies and sources and has figured integrally in the rise of interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to history since the second half of the twentieth century. Dr Ewen has structured the book thematically to cover the main historiographical debates. The scope is limited to modern cities and omits explicit treatment of economic history. Discussion of several historic, fast-growing cities across the world demonstrates the importance of history of urban life in the present and future alike.
Gentilcore, David. Food and Health in Early Modern Europe. Diet, Medicine and Society, 1450–1800. Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. x, 249 pp. £17.99.
Long before the discovery of nutrition by laboratory science, medical authorities offered detailed advice to concerned members of the public. What experts considered healthy to eat and why changed over time and was subject to a range of conditioning factors, such as rank and occupation, nation and region. Professor Gentilcore explores this relationship between food and medicine in Europe over more than three centuries. In the first chapters, he examines the changing nature of the diet genre in the context of broader medical trends, followed by a series of thematic chapters relating dietary advice to changes in food perceptions and practices.
Kaplan, Steven L. The Stakes of Regulation. Perspectives on ‘Bread, Politics and Political Economy’ Forty Years Later. [Anthem Other Canon Economics.] Anthem, London 2015. xl, 427 pp. £80.00; $130.00.
Bread, Politics and Political Economy was originally published in 1976 and was defended as a doctoral dissertation at Yale University. Forty years later, Professor Kaplan is republishing this book. The Stakes of Regulation is the companion volume to a new edition of this study. Kaplan remains faithful to his original premises: the subsistence question is at the core of eighteenth-century history, and the issues joined by the struggle over liberalization surface in present-day historiography, throughout the tension between liberty and equality and the debate over the necessity, legitimacy and character of regulation.
Medicine, Trade and Empire. Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563) in Context. Ed. by Palmira Fontes da Costa. Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2015. xxii, 279 pp. Ill. £75.00.
Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies, originally printed in Goa in 1563, was one of the first books to instrumentalize the close relationship between medicine, trade, and empire in the early modern period. Four hundred and fifty years later this was commemorated with a conference in Lisbon. In the contributions to this edited volume, scholars in the history of science and medicine discuss the author, the book, and the influences that both had from divergent perspectives. Together, the chapters demonstrate the intricacy of elements involved in producing, appropriating and disseminating medical knowledge in the increasingly globalized sixteenth century.
Stevenson, Brenda E. What is Slavery? [What is History?] Polity, Cambridge 2015. viii, 246 pp. Ill. £45.00; € 56.30 (Paper: £14.99; € 18.80. E-book: £13.99; € 16.99.)
Slavery is one of the most common institutions in history. This book chronicles the history of slavery, focusing on the experience of enslaved black people in the United States from the early colonial period to the end of the Civil War. Professor Stevenson considers the impact of the presence of Africans on different aspects of society, through the lives of the slaves and the institutions that shaped them. This book draws largely on the published work of generations of slavery scholars and attempts in chronologically and topically-based chapters to provide a synthesis of the slavery experience in the United States.
COMPARATIVE HISTORY
Building the Atlantic Empires. Unfree Labor and Imperial States in the Political Economy of Capitalism, ca. 1500–1914. Ed. by John Donoghue [and] Evelyn P. Jennings. [Studies in Global Social History, vol. 20.] Brill, Leiden [etc.] 2016. xiv, 215 pp. € 99.00; $128.00.
This collection of seven essays explores the relationship between the rise of capitalist economic development, Western European expansion in the Atlantic basin and state mobilization of unfree labour from the sixteenth till the twentieth centuries. The Western European states, of which involvement in unfree labour has remained unclear in previous research, are now seen as key operators in capitalist expansion, imposing diverse forms of bondage on infrastructural, plantation and military labour. This collection pays particular attention to the many layers of personnel, authority, jurisdiction and funding that constituted the metropolitan, imperial and colonial branches of administration.
Censer, Jack R. Debating Modern Revolution. The Evolution of Revolutionary Ideas. [Debates in World History.] Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. ix, 204 pp. Ill. £14.99.
Professor Censer explores the idea of revolution in its many forms, focusing on its evolution from the American and French revolutions in the eighteenth century to the Arab Spring movements in 2010–2011. Equated with democracy and legal equality at first and redefined according to its modern meaning, revolution has become a means for founding nations and changing the social order. It has been labelled as both conservative and reactionary. In this concise introduction, Censer charts the development of these competing ideas and definitions in four chronological sections, each one featuring a debate between protagonists representing various forms of revolution and counter-revolution.
A Century of Transnationalism. Immigrants and Their Homeland Connections. Ed. by Nancy L. Green and Roger Waldinger. [Studies of World Migrations.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL [etc.] 2016. $95.00. (Paper: € 30.00.)
Migrants, in leaving home for a new life abroad, inevitably link their places of origin and destination. This collection of nine articles brings together historians and sociologists, focusing on the United States and Europe as sites of immigration and on countries from China to India as places of origin. The contributors chose the transnational perspective to shed light on the cross-border activities of migrants and states over the past century. Contributors examine both the extension of states across borders to connect with their emigrants and that of emigrants to connect with their place of origin.
Daly, Jonathan. Historians Debate the Rise of the West. Routledge, London [etc.] 2015. 190 pp. Maps. £95.00; $150.00. (Paper: £26.99; $44.95.)
In this volume, Professor Daly represents the views of a wide range of scholars to explain the ascendency of the West. The book is divided into five chapters, discussing different schools of thought about why the West became the preeminent global leader. Within each chapter, Daly refers to various prominent academics and synthesizes their arguments. The first chapter focuses on internal attributes leading to eventual dominance, while chapters two to four analyse external factors, such as geography, colonialism, and the role of capitalism and demographic factors. Chapter five is the dialectical counterpart and centres on why China did not become dominant in the world.
Desertion in the Early Modern World. A Comparative History. Ed. by Matthias van Rossum and Jeannette Kamp. Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. x, 213 pp. Ill. Maps. £65.00; $112.00. (Paper: £19.99; $29.95; E-book: £19.99; $25.99.)
The aim of this volume is to study the dynamics and impact of desertion from a global and comparative perspective to trace and compare acts and patterns of desertion across empires, economic systems, regions and types of workers. The first two chapters provide the theoretical framework to the six chapters containing historical case studies of European, Atlantic, and Asian contexts. The authors show that mobility and desertion can be seen as figuring within the strategies of workers to raise their standard of living. The experiences of the deserters shed light on the worlds they fled, as well as on their hopes and visions for the future.
Domestic Tensions, National Anxieties. Global Perspectives on Marriage, Crisis, and Nation. Ed. by Kristin Celello and Hanan Kholoussy. Oxford University Press, New York [etc.] 2016. xiv, 279 pp. $99.00; £64.00. (Paper: $29.95; £19.99.)
Rumours that marriage is in crisis have been heard around the globe since the late nineteenth century. This study aims to elucidate the interconnected relationships between marriage, crisis, and the nation, as marriage can be seen as a vehicle for critiquing broader socio-economic and political changes. The modern state can also be significant in producing and promoting certain kinds of marriages and families. Each chapter analyses a specific time and place, when marriage crisis dominated the public discourse. This collection contains essays on the United States, Burma, India, Brazil, Russia, Zanzibar, France, China, Nigeria, Iran, Japan, and Egypt.
Everyday Life in Mass Dictatorship. Collusion and Evasion. Ed. by Alf Lüdtke. [Mass Dictatorship in the Twentieth Century.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2016. xii, 260 pp. € 84.79. E-book: € 66.99.
Mass dictatorship is seen as the (self-) mobilization of the masses, in contrast to tyrannies, which imposed power from above. Contributors to this book explore the ideals and practices of ordinary people, as they became active participants in daily practice in dictatorial regimes in the twentieth century. The essays stress the interplay between power and the people. The two aspects appearing in all contributions are collusion and evasion of both violence and traces of a better quality of life. The first part focuses on the classical cases of Stalinism, fascism, Nazism, and Japanese imperialism, while the second part concentrates on postwar communist regimes and dictatorships in postcolonial states.
Scripting Revolution. A Historical Approach to the Comparative Study of Revolutions. Ed. by Keith Michael Baker and Dan Edelstein. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA 2015. ix, 438 pp. $29.95.
The eighteen essays collected in this volume are intended to provide a model for comparative study of revolutions. The contributors, who include David Armitage, Gareth Stedman Jones, Ian D. Thatcher, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, argue that all revolutions have the notion of a revolutionary script, a literary or dramatic framing of actions, and examine the legitimacy of these comparisons by exploring whether all modern revolutions follow such a pattern or script. This revolutionary script, generated by the American and French Revolutions, was rewritten by Marx and revised by Lenin and Mao. Later revolutions in Cuba and Iran improvised further, and this script has once again surfaced in the capitals of the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab uprisings. See also Jeremy D. Popkin’s review in this volume, pp. 149–151.
The Vernacularization of Labour Politics. Ed. by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Rana P. Behal. Tulika Books, New Delhi, India 2016. vi, 347 pp. Rs 950.
This edited volume brings together thirteen essays from the Tenth International Conference on Labour History (New Delhi, 2014). Contributions, mostly about India, but also about Brazil, Ghana, and China, investigate the consequences of the marginalization of trade unions in favour of a vernacular discourse in surrogate voluntary organizations, serving objectives ranging from environmental concerns to women’s liberation from social oppression. Replacing the traditional trade unions might lead to other forms of patron-client relationships that would culminate in populist leadership. The de-ideologization seems to imply the loss of a universalist agenda and diminution of the influence of labour in national and international politics.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
A European Youth Revolt. European Perspectives on Youth Protest and Social Movements in the 1980s. Ed. by Knud Andresen and Bart van der Steen. [Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements.] Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke; Ruhr Universität Bochum, Bochum 2016. xviii, 277 pp. € 90.94. (E-book: € 69.99.)
This collection of essays, based on a conference at the International Institute of Social History in 2014, offers a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective on youth, youth revolts, riots, and social movements in the 1980s. In the first chapter, Dr Andresen and Dr Van der Steen introduce the central concepts and debates. The next sixteen studies cover cases in different countries in both Eastern and Western Europe. The authors focus not only on political movements, such as squatting, the anti-nuclear and the autonomist movements, but also on subcultures, such as punk, as well as on interactions between them.
Rescuing the Vulnerable. Poverty, Welfare and Social Ties in Modern Europe. Ed. by Beate Althammer, Lutz Raphael and Tamara Stazic-Wendt. [International Studies in Social History, vol. 27.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2016. ix, 427 pp. $140.00; £87.50.
Focusing on the specific vulnerabilities of abandoned children, the homeless poor and those out of work, this volume explores the relationship of weak social ties to poverty and examines how ideas about this relationship informed welfare policies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The fourteen case studies cover several countries in Europe and present the perspectives of reformers, welfare institutions, and the poor themselves. They are grouped in four sections: part one deals with children without family, part two addresses vagrants and homeless people, part three focuses on the unemployed, and in the last section letters and petitions are analysed from impoverished individuals describing their plight and requesting support.
Continents and Countries
AFRICA
Angola
Ball, Jeremy. Angola’s Colossal Lie. Forced Labor on a Sugar Plantation. [African History, vol. 4.] Brill, Leiden 2015. xvi, 199 pp. € 49.00; $63.00.
This study is about Cassequel, a large agro-industrial sugar plantation founded in 1913, nationalized by the Angolan government in 1976 and closed in 1991. Professor Ball investigates the system of forced labour: how it operated, how it is remembered by former contratados and its impact on the development of Cassequel. Independence from Portugal in 1962 led to improved working conditions, but nationalization led to the departure of skilled employees. Workers’ demands for higher salaries and declining harvests led the company to close in 1991. Based on archival material and interviews with former forced labourers, as well as with former Portuguese administrators, Ball describes the transition to independence and nationalization of the plantation from multiple perspectives. See also Filipa Ribeiro da Silva’s review in this volume, pp. 151–154.
Cleveland, Todd. Diamonds in the Rough. Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines of Colonial Angola, 1917–1975. Ohio University Press [etc.], Athens, OH 2015. xv, 289 pp. Ill. $32.95.
The lives of African labourers in Angola’s diamond mines from the commencement of operations in 1917 to the colony’s independence in 1975 are explored in this study. Owned by the Diamond Company of Angola (Diamang), which held exclusive mining and labour concessions, the company’s mines were remarkably stable. Professor Cleveland attributes this unparalleled level of quietude to three factors: the strong social and occupational commitment among African workers; the extreme isolation of the mining installations; and efforts by Diamang to attract and retain labourers by offering decent accommodations and recreational activities, as well as the presence of women and children. See also Filipa Ribeiro da Silva’s review in this volume, pp. 151–154.
Niger
Rossi, Benedetta. From Slavery to Aid. Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800–2000. [African Studies Series.] Cambridge University Press, New York 2015. xxxiv, 364 pp. Ill. Maps. $103.00; £67.00.
Over the past two centuries, a succession of political regimes in Ader (part of the Nigerien Sahel) devised different ways of coping with the challenges posed by the desert. These regimes attempted not only to regulate the relations between people and the land, but also brought about inequalities in the ability of different groups to control natural resources, labour and movement. Dr Rossi compares successive forms of government: the pre-colonial hierarchies, the French administration and the developmentalist bureaucracies in the colonial and the independent eras. Against the background of constant ecological settings, this exposes the consequences of successive political systems for different groups and individuals.
AMERICA
Brazil
Fontes, Paulo. Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo. Foreword by Barbara Weinstein. Translated from the Portuguese by Ned Sublette. Duke University Press, Durham, NC [etc.] 2016. xiv, 280 pp. Maps. $94.95. (Paper: $25.95.)
This study is a revised and modified version of the book Um Nordeste em São Paulo. Trabalhadores migrantes em São Miguel Paulista (1945–66), published in 2008. In the detailed social history of São Paulo’s urban and industrial expansion, Professor Fontes focuses on migrants who settled in São Miguel Paulista, which grew from 7,000 residents in the 1940s to over 140,000 two decades later. This suburb drew a large influx of Brazilians from the northeast. In addition to the economic conditions that prompted their migration, the author explores the shared experiences that produced a particular nordestino identity among the migrants. Ongoing struggles to secure the most basic urban services from the municipal administration bonded them still more cohesively. The book is based on print sources, combined with oral histories.
Canada
Unfree Labour? Struggles of Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada. Ed. by Aziz Choudry and Adrian A. Smith. PM Press, Oakland, CA 2016. 224 pp. $20.00.
This book explores recent developments in labour migration to Canada and considers how public politics of temporary and guest worker programmes function in the global context of work and capitalist restructuring. Contributors are engaged both as scholars and as activists with the issues emerging from the influx of temporary workers and Canada’s racialization of economic inequality for coloured workers. The eleven contributions examine how migrant and immigrant workers are organized in Canada, and how migrant workers and labour organizations have launched initiatives with political and economic impacts. These include both court challenges to secure legal rights to unionize and grassroots alternatives to traditional forms of unionization through workers’ centres.
United States of America
Baptist, Edward E. The Half Has Never Been Told. Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Basic Books, New York 2014. xxvii, 498 pp. Ill. Maps. $35.00.
Slavery was neither inefficient, nor a counterpoint to capitalism, but was inextricably interwoven in the evolution and modernization of the United States in the first eight decades after America’s independence, asserts professor Baptist in this book. Until the Civil War slaves were seen as the most solid investment, making slave ownership ever more profitable. Consequently, the United States dominated the world market for cotton and became a wealthy nation with global influence. Baptist tells his story chronologically, with many details about the violence of slavery. His sources include slave narratives, plantation records, words of politicians and entrepreneurs. He forces readers to reckon with this violence at the root of American supremacy.
Bégin, Camille. Taste of the Nation. The New Deal Search for America’s Food. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL [etc.] 2016. xi, 223 pp. $95.00. (Paper: $25.00.)
During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers’ Project (1935–1942) launched a book series titled America Eats. Light and entertaining, these works served as a general introduction on the American cookery in the different regions of the nation. In this book, Dr Bégin analyses the publications and records of the FWP, discovering how taste and food can be seen as a symbolic, cultural, affective, and economic currency that allows eaters to identify and differentiate along race, class, gender, and ethnic lines. She also illustrates how nostalgia, prescriptive gender ideals, and racial stereotypes shaped the ways the FWP framed regional food cultures as “American”.
Clark-Pujara, Christy. Dark Work. The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. [Early American Places.] New York University Press, New York 2016. 205 pp. $40.00.
Rhode Island is the smallest state of the North, yet figured prominently in the business of slavery. In the eighteenth century, Rhode Island merchants dominated the American slave trade and provided the West Indies with basic necessities. In the nineteenth century, when other Northern states were slowly dismantling slavery, Rhode Island continued to profit from the manufacture of slave clothing. In this book, Professor Clark-Pujara investigates how the business of slavery shaped the establishment and growth of lifelong inheritable bondage, and how it affected the process of emancipation and black freedom.
Collomp, Catherine. Résister au nazisme. Le Jewish Labor Committee, New York, 1934–1945. 310 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) was founded in New York in 1934, to oppose Nazism and anti-Semitism. The organization established an international political solidarity network, initially intended for union leaders and socialists from Central Europe. The JLC assisted in bringing them to the United States and provided shelter. During World War II, the JLC rescued many activists, teaming up with the network of Varian Fry in Marseille. From unpublished archives Professor Collomp also discovered that the JLC supported several socialist resistance movements financially, mainly in France. After the war, they were involved in hosting displaced Jewish immigrants in the United States.
Fischer, Nick. Spider Web. The Birth of American Anticommunism. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL [etc.] 2016. xviii, 345 pp. Ill. $95.00. (Paper: $32.00.)
In this study, Dr Fischer elaborates on right-wing activities during the interwar period. He introduces the term Spider Web, often used to denote “the communists”, to describe the interwar anti-communist movement. Since 1919, the anti-communists opposed trade unions, radical political parties, civil liberties groups, feminists, and aliens, who were considered part of the Bolshevik and anti-Christian world. This rationalization enabled them to justify their extreme actions. Fischer details how anti-communist myths and propaganda influenced mainstream politics in America, and how efforts by the right paved the way for McCarthyism in the 1950s.
Golash-Boza, Tanya Maria. Deported. Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism. [Latina/O Sociology Series.] New York University Press, New York 2015. xiii, 299 pp. Ill. £22.99; $28.00.
The United States has deported about four million people since 1997. Most deportees are male, black, or Latino, and many were detained through the criminal justice system. Professor Golash-Boza introduces the concept neoliberal cycle: outsourcing tasks creates a need for unskilled jobs, which attract immigrants seeking new opportunities, but also led to deindustrialization, decline in urban communities and, consequently, to heavy policing. She argues that mass deportation is the outcome of this neoliberal cycle. To support this argument, she has recorded the narratives of 147 deportees and presented their stories in the context of global capitalism, neoliberalism, and racialized social control.
Hardesty, Jared Ross. Unfreedom. Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston. [Early American Places.] New York University Press, New York [etc.] 2016. xvi, 225 pp. Ill. $40.00.
In this dissertation, based on meticulous research in colonial archives, Dr Hardesty examines the lived experience of slaves in eighteenth-century Boston. Instead of relying on the traditional dichotomy of slavery and freedom, Hardesty argues we should understand slavery in Boston as part of a continuum of unfreedom. In this context, African slavery coexisted with many other forms of oppression, including Native American slavery, indentured servitude, apprenticeship, and pauper apprenticeship. In this society, enslaved Bostonians were more concerned with their everyday treatment and honour than with emancipation, as they strived for autonomy and protection of their families and communities and demanded a place in society.
Ruef, Martin. Between Slavery and Capitalism. The Legacy of Emancipation in the American South. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2014. xvii, 285 pp. Ill. Maps. £24.95.
In this book about the economic and social transition from slavery to wage labour in the postbellum, American South Professor Ruef focuses on the uncertainty that individuals, communities, and organizations (former slaves, Freedmen’s Bureau agents, planters, merchants, and politicians) faced when dealing with issues such as compensation for black workers in the emerging free labour market, social stratification and status, agricultural tenure and trade. He also aims to explain how the legacy of emancipation continues to affect present-day political discourse and race and class relations. See also Charles Post’s review in this volume, pp. 154–156.
Swindall, Lindsay R. The Path to the Greater, Truer, Freer World. Southern Civil Rights and Anticolonialism, 1937–1955. [New Perspectives on the History of the South.] University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL [etc.] 2014. xii, 238 pp. $69.00.
By examining the history of the Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Council on African Affairs, Professor Swindall discovered that these organizations were established as part of the early civil rights movement. They shared a global perspective influenced by the Communist Party of the United States, as well as Pan-African consciousness. Both organizations were founded in 1937 and struggled against racial injustice, such as disenfranchisement, segregation, labour exploitation, and colonialism. They were dismantled in the Cold War period, influenced by the Red Scare that ended the existence of many leftist organizations.
ASIA
Asian Expansions. The Historical Experiences of Polity Expansion in Asia. Ed. by Geoff Wade. Routledge, London [etc.] 2015. xi, 259 pp. Maps. £90.00.
This volume aims to explore the historical experiences of polity expansion in East and Southeast Asia, to illuminate Asian pasts and to demonstrate how important Asian expansions have been in bringing about the world today. Asian polities have been concerned with territorial control and expansion over time, whether for political or strategic advantage, trade purposes, defence needs, agricultural expansion, or increased income through taxation. The examples presented in this volume highlight the connections between Asian polity expansion and centralized political structures and thus further a broader understanding of Asian political practice in both past and present.
Ethnic Subnationalist Insurgencies in South Asia. Identities, Interests and Challenges to State Authority. Ed. by Jugdep S. Chima. [Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, vol. 95.] Routledge, London [etc.], 2015. xvii, 197 pp. £90.00.
The departing colonial powers largely defined the borders between the various countries in South Asia and determined their composition of ethnic groups. This edited volume attempts to answer the question why ethnic subnationalist insurgencies in the region occur at particular points in time. An international group of contributors covers insurgencies in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The authors discern reappearing patterns of conflict escalation and de-escalation, arguing that identity is a necessary factor for insurgency, but that ethnic mobilization and insurgency come about only when is activated by tension emerging from political competition between ethnic and central state elites.
Histories of Medicine and Healing in the Indian Ocean World. The Medieval and Early Modern Period. Volume One. Ed. by Anna Winterbottom and Facil Tesfaye. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2016. viii, 282 pp. Ill. € 69.99.
Histories of Medicine and Healing in the Indian Ocean World. The Modern Period. Volume Two. Ed. by Anna Winterbottom and Facil Tesfaye. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2016. viii, 282 pp. Ill. € 69.99.
This collection of fourteen essays addresses the topics of disease, medicine, and healing, from the ninth century to the modern period, within the geographical and conceptual space constituting the Indian Ocean World. Originating from a conference held in Montreal in April 2013, the contributions are interdisciplinary, drawn from medical history, archaeology, anthropology, area studies, and science. While many of the papers focused on a specific region, participants teamed up to situate local healing practices in a regional context. The editors conclude that the Indian Ocean has been the site of multiple interconnected medical interactions that may be perceived in the context of environmental factors connecting the region.
Reid, Anthony. A History of Southeast Asia. Critical Crossroads. Wiley, Chichester 2015. xxv, 450 pp. Ill. Maps. £60.00; € 75.00. (Paper: £24.99; € 31.30; E-book: £15.26; € 19.57.)
In twenty chronological chapters, Professor Reid offers a comprehensive history of Southeast Asia, from our earliest knowledge to the present day, by focusing on environmental, religious, social, cultural, demographic, health, and intellectual changes in the region’s complex and nuanced society. The topics include the distinctive gender pattern, seventeenth-century impoverishment of the region relative to European society and Southeast Asian peasantization during the high colonial era. Concluding chapters focus on the transformative events in the twentieth century: Pacific Wars, the aftermath of decolonization, the Cold War, and the region’s emergence from poverty.
The ILO from Geneva to the Pacific Rim. West Meets East. Ed. by Jill M. Jensen and Nelson Lichtenstein. [International Labour Organisation (ILO) Century Series.] Palgrave McMillan and ILO, Basingstoke 2016. xiii, 318 pp. $100.00.
This volume brings together twelve essays that explore the role of the ILO, from 1919 to the present, in the nations bordering the Pacific. The book contains four sections. The first section is about the racially and imperially conditioned encounter between Anglo-European labour reformers and awakening Asian nationalism. The second part offers new perspectives on how the ILO shifted the focus on economic development and enhanced labour productivity. The extent to which human rights and women’s equality have advanced the ILO agenda is examined in section three. In the final chapters, three authors explore the roots of a set of contemporary issues facing the ILO in East Asia.
Arabia
Reilly, Benjamin. Slavery, Agriculture, and Malaria in the Arabian Peninsula. [Ohio University Press Series in Ecology and History.] Ohio University Press, Athens, OH 2015. x, 211 pp. Ill. Maps. $75.00. (Paper: $28.95.)
In this study, Professor Reilly examines the large-scale employment of people of African ancestry as slaves in agricultural oases within the Arabian Peninsula. The author argues that the prevalence of malaria within oases and drainage basins, which rendered agricultural lands extremely unhealthy for Arabs, who lacked genetic or acquired resistance to malarial fever, is the key to this system. The author has found evidence in archives, interviews, and DNA studies of large communities of African agricultural slave labourers living in colonies. They worked as sharecroppers for nomadic tribesmen, who, fearing malaria, visited the palm groves only to retrieve part of the harvest.
India
Anderson, Clare, Madhumita Mazumdar and Pandya Vishvajit. New Histories of the Andaman Islands. Landscape, Place and Identity in the Bay of Bengal, 1790–2012. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2016. xviii, 324 pp. Ill. £64.99; $99.99.
Three professors of history, sociology, and anthropology, respectively, examine the history of the Andaman Islands since 1790, when the British first attempted to colonize these islands. They explore a series of relationships: between the Andaman communities, between the Islands and mainland India, and with the Empire. By using the concepts ‘landscape’ and ‘space’ as tools within all three disciplines, the authors depict the impact of human intervention in the making of the Islands. This results in a comprehensive history of the Islands, as well as a firm notion of how history is used in developing nation, community and identity.
Caru, Vanessa. Des toits sur la grève. Le logement des travailleurs et la question sociale à Bombay (1850–1950). Armand Colin/Recherches, Paris 2013. 411 pp. Ill. € 42.50.
This study provides a historical perspective on the gradual appropriation of space in Mumbai. At the turn of the twentieth century, housing the poor in Bombay became a major political issue. Describing the response from the colonial government to social unrest, when the workforce tried to curb constructing buildings to house the workforce by organizing strikes, the author explains that the interest of the authorities and their early intervention were conducive to new fields of negotiation and confrontation with the workers and to specific control measures, such as forming tenants’ unions for the working classes. See also Camille Buat’s review in this volume, pp. 156–158.
Indonesia
Breman, Jan. Mobilizing Labour for the Global Coffee Market. Profits from an Unfree Work Regime in Colonial Java. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2015. 404 pp. Ill. € 99.00. (E-book: € 98.99.)
Coffee has been grown on Java for the commercial market since the early eighteenth century. This book, based on rich archival sources, features a detailed chronological analysis of the mechanisms of dispossession and colonial control in Java, describing how unfree labour was mobilized for the global coffee market. Adopting the perspective of the victims of colonial policies, Professor Breman reveals how the resistance was never able to undo the compulsory cultivation of specific crops, as the Dutch East Indian Company wielded sovereign decision-making authority regarding who lived where, what they farmed, and how much was paid.
Iran
Ghamari-Tabrizi, Behrooz. Foucault in Iran. Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment. [Muslim International.] University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN [etc.] 2016. xiii, 257 pp. Ill. $94.50; $27.00.
This study centres on the significance of Foucault’s writings on the Iranian Revolution and the profound impression it made on his lectures. In five chapters, Professor Ghamari-Tabrizi elaborates on the content of Foucault’s essays about the Iranian Revolution, his willingness to observe the revolution without a commitment to the temporal map of universal history, and how the Revolution affected his philosophical ideas. After introducing the events of 1978, Foucault’s presence in Iran and his writings on the Revolution, the author discusses misinterpretation of Foucault’s work by critics. In the final chapter, the author examines how the Revolution transformed Foucault’s ideas.
EUROPE
Belgium
Delbroek, Bart. In de put. De arbeidsmarkt voor mijnwerkers in Belgisch-Limburg, 1900–1966. [Maaslandse Monografieën, 79.] Hilversum, Verloren 2016. 246 pp. Ill. € 25.00.
The transition from agrarian to industrial society in the Belgian region of the Kempen proceeded rapidly, upon the discovery of coal in 1901. In this dissertation, the author explores the rise of the labour market in private enterprises. In six chapters, Dr Delbroek analyses the long-term labour market development, considering both supply and demand. Focused on everyday reality, his research shows how recruitment of miners was organized, how employers tried to attract miners when the labour market was tight, and how workers coped with the job opportunities and working conditions offered.
Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia
Kučera, Rudolf. Rationed Life. Science, Everyday Life and Working-Class Politics in the Bohemian Lands, 1914–1918. Berghahn, New York [etc.] 2016. Ill. vii, 196 pp. $90.00; £56.00.
This study reconstructs the experience of the Bohemian working class during World War I, through explorations of four basic spheres: food, work, gender, and protest. In the four chapters on these topics, the author aims to depict not only workers’ lives in the Bohemian lands during wartime, but also their interactions with scientific and state authorities. The main argument in this book, freely based on Weber’s classic thesis, is that the notion of a “rationed life” (a fully rationalized and organized modern world), ruled Czech workers’ lives and helped constitute the wartime working class.
Germany
Ahland, Frank. Bürger und Gewerkschafter Ludwig Rosenberg 1903 bis 1977. Eine Biografie. Klartext, Essen 2016. 514 pp. Ill. € 39.95.
This biography of Ludwig Rosenberg illustrates the life and work of this member of the executive committee of the German Trade Union Confederation, on which he served for twenty years, including seven as chairman, and expands knowledge about the trade union elite in the Federal Republic of Germany. Rosenberg contributed to the rapid integration of the German confederation in the international trade union movement and the new conception of trade union programs. In seven chronological chapters and an extensive appendix on sources and literature, Dr Ahland examines in depth the internal organizational structures of trade unions in the 1950s and 60s.
Annäherungen an Robert Havemann. Biographische Studien und Dokumente. Hrsg. Bernd Florath. [Analysen und Dokumente, Band 43.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016. 668 pp. Ill. € 50.00. (E-book: € 39.99.)
This volume contains analyses and hitherto unpublished documents concerning Robert Havemann and his evolution from opposition to Nazism and faith in communism to becoming an opponent of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) regime. The first of the six parts is a chronological account of his career. The second part is about Havemann and his contemporaries and friends, while the third describes his intellectual legacy. The rise of opposition to the GDR is researched in the fourth part, and the fifth is an autobiographical document by Havemann. The book concludes with a bibliography of primary literature, articles, books and interviews.
Zum Transformationsprozess der DDR-Stahlindustrie zwischen Plan- und Marktwirtschaft. Hrsg. Manfred Rasch und Herbert Nicolaus. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2014. 180 pp. Ill. € 17.95.
In August 2012, historians and eyewitnesses were invited to a conference at the Steel Institute VDEh in Eissenhüttenstadt to discuss the transformation of the steel industry from planned economy to market economy in East Germany, during and after the reunification. This industry experienced deep cuts, caused by reduction of surplus capacities and rationalization measures. Some steel companies survived and continue to operate on the European steel market. Among the ten contributions are case studies on different factories, written by historians giving the overview, archivists studying the sources and workers providing unwritten details.
Great Britain
Adey, Peter, David J. Cox, AND Barry Godrey. Crime, Regulation and Control During the Blitz. Protecting the Population of Bombed Cities. [History of Crime, Deviance and Punishment.] Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. xii, 253 pp. Ill. £65.00; $112.00. (E-book: £64.99; $83.99.)
The City of Liverpool serves in this book as a case study to show how wartime authorities struggled to regulate the city and control crime and violations during the Blitz. The authors reveal how the various measures taken by the authorities to protect citizens from air raids were devised and implemented. These measures did not always turn out as planned, because so many networks required procedures and protocols: civil defence workers, police, rescue workers, fire fighters. Moreover, ordinary activities became criminalized through wartime regulations, in addition to acts already recognized as crimes, such as looting and theft.
Bibby, Andrew. All Our Own Work. The Co-operative Pioneers of Hebden Bridge and their Mill. Merlin, London 2015. 238 pp. Ill. £15.95.
In this richly illustrated book, Bibby reveals the history of the Nutclough Mill in the small town of Hebden Bridge. Weavers, cutters and machinists created their own, autonomous employment at the mill. In fifteen chapters, the author chronicles the business from its origin in 1870 until its takeover in 1919 and presents a lively account of the discussions about appropriate management for the mill, sharing the rewards, and the input investors should be granted. Both male and female workers at the mill contributed to the national and international co-operative movement and the movement for workers’ education.
Carré, Jacques. La prison des pauvres. L’expérience des workhouses en Angleterre. [Collection Chroniques.] Vendémiaire, Paris 2016. 537 pp. €25.00.
Professor Carré explores in this study the history of workhouses in England, from their origin in the seventeenth century to the 1930s, focusing on the experiences of the poor who were forced to live there. On the one hand, workhouses were places where the poor were subject to forced labour and bullying supervisors. On the other hand, they were publicly funded institutions for poor relief, where the poor performed manual labour in exchange for bread and shelter. The author explores community life (family house or barracks, vertical and horizontal tensions), use of the space (architecture), and the national economic significance of the forced labour.
Chase, Malcolm. The Chartists. Perspectives and Legacies. [Chartist Studies Series No. 13.] Merlin, London 2015. 251 pp. £15.99.
This collection of earlier publications and lectures by Professor Chase on this subject explores the history of Chartism – a middle-class movement in mid-nineteenth-century Britain aimed at bringing about political reform. Considering the place of Chartism within the broader framework of Victorian politics, include the topics reviewed here the Chartist Land Plan, the impact of Canada’s rebellions on Chartism, Chartism’s endurance in Wales beyond the 1839 Rising, the role of children in campaigning, and Chartism’s impact on the mid-Victorian “self-help” ethos and the workings of parliamentary democracy.
Efstathiou, Christos. E.P. Thompson. A Twentieth Century Romantic. Merlin Press, London 2015. ix, 248 pp. £25.00.
In this book, Dr Efstathiou, studies the historian and peace activist E.P. Thompson (1924–1993). He attempts to relate scholarly aspects to activist ones in Thompson’s work to show how his early political ideals affected his entire theoretical contribution. The nature of his activism is located in the socio-political context and in the aftermath of development of modern social conflicts. Thompson is remembered mainly as a social historian, because his political proposals had, in turn, become part of twentieth-century history. Thompson’s work is, according to the author, essential to understand the evolution of the British Left.
Gray, Drew D. Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1660–1914. Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2016. xi, 393 pp. Ill. £29.99.
This textbook, written primarily for undergraduates, offers an overview of the changing nature of crime and its punishment in England, from the Restoration to World War I. Charting how prosecution and punishment have changed, the author reflects on how these processes were affected by the changing English society. The book contains two sections. In the first key themes in the history of crime are examined, covering the emergence of professional policing, the transition from physical punishment to incarceration and the importance of gender and youth. The second section describes the evolution and development of the criminal justice system in England.
Letters of Seamen in the Wars with France, 1793–1815. Ed. by Helen Watt with Anne Hawkins. Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2016. xx, 668 pages. £95.00.
This compilation of 255 letters, written by ordinary seamen in the British Navy and their correspondents, offers a cumulative account of attitudes to contemporary events, wartime life at sea and mutiny from 1793 to 1815. The first section of this volume features 194 letters. The second section consists of sixty-one letters intercepted by the authorities during the mutinies of 1797 and sheds light on the extraordinary events of that year. All letters are supported by a substantial editorial apparatus and by two detailed appendices containing biographies of seamen and information on ships of which the crews joined the mutinies of 1797.
Lloyd, Paul S. Food and Identity in England, 1540–1640. Eating to Impress. [Cultures of Early Modern Europe.] Bloomsbury, London [etc.] 2015. 245 pp. € 64.99.
The period between the Reformation and the English Civil Wars witnessed unprecedented demographic growth and an escalation in economic and social polarization. Based on sources such as household accounts, diaries, correspondence, and cookery books, Dr Lloyd argues that this polarization and attitudes relating to “class and identity” were reflected in the changing meaning of food and food consumption practices in England. Examining the diets of various social groups, ranging from manual labourers to aristocrats, special foods, as well as festive events and gift foods, he reveals the extent to which individuals and communities identified themselves and others by what and how they ate.
Shepard, Alexandra. Accounting for Oneself. Worth, Status, and the Social Order in Early Modern England. Oxford University Press, London 2015. xv, 357 pp. £65.00.
Based on a dataset of over 13,500 witness statements in English courts, this book, covering the period between 1550 and 1728, reveals how ordinary men and women from across the social spectrum, when answering questions designed to assess their creditworthiness, assessed their positions within the social order. Exploring the relationship between wealth, occupation and social identity, Professor Shepard concludes that for the majority of the people questioned the yardstick of status was not land, but livestock and moveable goods, such as linens, tools, clothes, and furniture. See also Catherine Richardson’s review in this volume, pp. 159–161.
Taylor, Graham. Ada Salter. Pioneer of Ethical Socialism. Lawrence & Wishart, London 2016. 298 pp. £19.00.
Ada Salter was a pioneer of ethical socialism in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. This biography documents her significance for the history of socialism and feminism. Dr Taylor shows how Salter’s experiences as a Sister of the People in the London slums eventually led her to the Independent Labour Party and to the belief that achieving democracy and social justice in Britain required a grassroots alliance between the labour and the women’s movements. The author aims to give an accurate account of ethical politics and to demonstrate how great revolutions in human affairs proceed from the bottom up.
Ireland
Arrington, Lauren. Revolutionary Lives. Constance and Casimir Markievicz. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2016. xi, 294 pp. $35.00; £24.95.
Constance Markievicz (1868–1927), born into the Irish upper class, was known as a politician and Irish revolutionary nationalist. Her husband, Casimir Dunin Markievicz (1874–1932), a painter and playwright, was a Polish nobleman who joined the Russian imperial army to fight on behalf of Polish freedom in World War I. Dr Arrington offers a dual biography of these two prominent European activists and artists and depicts avant-garde culture and the rise of anti-imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on new archival material, Arrington explores the interests and concerns of Europeans invested in suffrage, socialism, and nationhood.
Sonnelitter, Karen. Charity Movements in Eighteenth-Century Ireland. Philanthropy and Improvement. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2016. xi, 205 pp. £65.00.
The philanthropic impulse to engage in charitable work and to encourage economic improvement intensified in eighteenth-century Ireland, as Irish Protestants became increasingly aware of the threat that social problems posed to their rule. One response was to establish voluntary societies to address the different problems plaguing Ireland. This book examines a number of these societies, including those concerned with promoting education, supporting hospitals, and improving agriculture and manufacturing. The author shows how these movements differed from earlier efforts in organization, method, and aims and demonstrates the connection between religiously motivated charities, Enlightenment-inspired scientific societies, and the Irish government.
Italy
Colantoni, Angela Stevani [e] Carlo Antonio Barberini. Abigaille Zanetta maestra a Milano tra guerra e fascism. Una figura di militante internazionalista. Edizioni Pantarei, Milano 2016. 252 pp. Ill. € 10.00.
This book aims to reconstruct the history of the labour movement in Milan, highlighting revolutionary and internationalist leader Abigaille Zanetta. Arriving in Milan from a small Catholic village at the beginning of the twentieth century, she became deeply involved in the struggle of the proletariat. Until her death in 1945, she fought for the proletarian cause with commitment and courage, even in the difficult years of war and fascism. The book is complemented by two appendices with writings by Angela Stevani Colantoni on political and cultural events in Milan in World War II.
The Netherlands
Oorlogen overzee. Militair optreden door compagnie en staat buiten Europa 1595–1814. Gerrit Knaap, Henk den Heijer, Michiel de Jong. [Militaire geschiedenis van Nederland.] Boom, Amsterdam 2015. 499 pp. € 45.00.
This volume in the series Military History Overseas describes Dutch military action outside Europe in the early modern period from a military perspective (as opposed to an economic one). The Dutch Republic wanted to trade in tropical products but, as they had no resources, left the battle to the monopolistic East and West Indian Companies. The three different regional contexts (Asia, Africa, and America) required different military approaches. In thematic chapters, the authors cover the deployment of sailors and soldiers, ships, weapons, settlements, and the confrontation with non-European allies and opponents. The daily lives of ordinary soldiers and sailors are discussed as well.
Russia – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
David-Fox, Michael. Crossing Borders. Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. [Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies.] University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 2015. viii, 286 pp. Ill. $28.95.
In this book, Professor David-Fox deconstructs contemporary theories of Soviet history from the revolution through the Stalin period and offers new interpretations based on a transnational perspective. The book consists of three parts, comprising seven chapters, of which some sections have been published previously. In the first part, the author analyses scholarly debates about Russian modernism and modernity, as well as the role of the intelligentsia and its relationship to the state and mass culture. The concepts, ideology, and institutions are studied in part two, while part three focuses on prominent individual intellectuals.
Yugoslavia
Unkovski-Korica, Vladimir. The Economic Struggle for Power in Tito’s Yugoslavia. From World War II to Non-Alignment. I.B. Tauris, London [etc.] 2016. x, 294 pp. £69.00; $110.00.
In this doctoral thesis, Dr Unkovski-Korica charts the key episodes of Tito’s rule – from the joint Stalin-Tito offensive in 1944, through the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, the market reforms of the 1950s and the “turn to the West”, which inspired Yugoslavia’s non-alignment policy. This book focuses on the impact of relations between the party-state and the working class, revealing how and in what measure the party-state squeezed labour to bring about development, and the ways and extent to which shop-floor resistance determined policies and impacted formation of coalitions in the ruling bureaucracy. See also Goran Musić’s review in this volume, pp. 161–164.
