General Issues
Social Theory and Social Science
Crook, Paul. Darwin’s Coat-Tails. Essays on Social Darwinism. Peter Lang, New York [etc.] 2007. xiv, 340 pp. € 61.50.
Professor Crook has brought together in this volume eighteen essays (all but three previously published between 1981 and 2002) that deal with the concept, origins, political usage and historical context of Social Darwinism, as it developed between 1859 and World War II. Focusing primarily on the British context, the author examines how Darwin’s theory evolved into the concept of Social Darwinism, explores a number of leading thinkers, and deals with the concept’s influence on debates on war and imperialism, and on issues of race, eugenics, and genetics. See also Leo Lucassen’s Survey article in this volume, pp. 265–296.
Barbalet, Jack. Weber, Passion and Profits. ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. 264 pp. Ill. £52.00; $92.00.
In this new interpretation of one of the best-known texts of classical sociology, Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Professor Barbalet argues that the work is as much about the political situation and perspectives of Germany in Weber’s day as it is about the cultural origins of capitalism. Comparing Weber’s analysis of capitalism with writings by Adam Smith and Thorstein Veblen, he discerns important continuities between the three but also between Weber’s previous work and The Protestant Ethic. See also the review essay by Sara Farris in this volume, pp. 297–306.
Crossley, PamelaKyle. What is Global History? Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. 139 pp. £45.00. (Paper: £12.99.)
This textbook aims to give a concise introduction to large-scale historical analysis that is defined as global or world history. Professor Crossley first places the ways global history has been written in the context of a global historiography of 2,000 years, and then introduces the basic theories and methods that have defined global history by arranging them in general categories of analytical thought and narrative construction: divergence and convergence, contagion, and systems. In the concluding chapter, she discusses where global history is today, and which directions it might take.
Dufoix, Stéphane. Diasporas. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2008. xxii, 136 pp. £32.95.
This is the English edition of Les Diasporas (2003), a volume in the well-known French series of encyclopaedic introductions, Que sais-je?. Dr Dufoix offers a synthetic overview of the origins and development of the diaspora concept, exploring how the notion of diaspora has recently become a common designation for quite diverse migratory phenomena, and how this relates to debates on nationalism and globalization. Unlike the original French edition, this edition comprises fifteen pages of endnotes, in addition to the bibliography, as well as some new findings from the author’s most recent research on the history of the global usages of the word “diaspora”.
Ghosh, Peter. A Historian Reads Max Weber. Essays on the Protestant Ethic. [Kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien, Band 1.] Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008. xii, 302 pp. € 58.00.
Dr Ghosh has brought together in this volume a collection of eight essays written, and all but two previously published, in the course of preparing a new English translation and edition of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The central proposition in these essays is that a genuine historical understanding and interpretation of this central work in Weber’s oeuvre hitherto has remained underdeveloped, and that The Protestant Ethic is not to be regarded as a curious interlude, isolated from Weber’s main body of work and thought, but should be understood as pivotal to his intellectual development. See also the review essay by Sara Farris in this volume, pp. 297–306.
Kern, Thomas. Soziale Bewegungen. Ursachen, Wirkungen, Mechanismen. [Hagener Studientexte zur Soziologie.] VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008. 218 pp. € 24.90.
This textbook aims to give an overview of the topical debates within the field of social movement studies. Central issues addressed include the origins of social movements; conditions for them to function successfully; mechanisms of mobilization; the role played by social movements in the modernization process; and the opportunities that social movements offer individuals to recognize and realize their interests and needs.
May, Todd. The Political Thought of Jacques Rancière. Creating Equality. Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh 2008. 196 pp. £18.99.
In this analysis of the political philosophical work of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, Professor May focuses on Rancière’s central idea that truly democratic politics can emerge only from the presupposition of equality. Examining and subsequently building upon this presupposition, the author aims to show how Rancière’s political philosophy challenges traditional political philosophy as being passive, and how in the current political context, his philosophy opens up perspectives for those looking for ways to think about and engage in progressive political action.
Maynes, MaryJo, JenniferL. Pierce, and BarbaraLaslett. Telling Stories. The Use of Personal Narratives in the Social Sciences and History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2008. ix, 186 pp. $55.00; £27.95. (Paper: $19.95; £9.95.)
Co-authored by one historian and two sociologists, this study features a cross-disciplinary examination of analyses of personal narratives, which may provide insight into the relationship between the individual and the social, both in historical and in social science research. The authors aim to show, through analyses of a broad variety of personal narratives, comprising autobiographies, oral histories, life history interviews, and memoirs, how such accounts can be important tools for understanding the connection between the individual and the social and between individual agency, historically and socially embedded processes of self-construction, and culturally specific narrative forms.
Münster, Arno. André Gorz ou le socialisme difficile. Lignes, Paris 2008. 123 pp. € 14.00.
This small book gives a concise overview of the life and work of the French social and political philosopher André Gorz (1923–2007). Dr Münster characterizes Gorz as one of the most important independent social theorists coming out of the French New Left movement, whose work has influenced thematic fields such as the position of the working class in modern society, the social and cultural meaning of work, workers’ autonomy and self management, alienation, and the ecological critique of capitalism.
Ein neuer Geist des Kapitalismus? Paradoxien und Ambivalenzen der Netzwerkökonomie. Hrsg. Gabriele Wagner [und] Philipp Hessinger. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008. 342 pp. € 34.90.
The twelve essays in this volume, based mostly on papers presented at a colloquium with the same title, organized in Bielefeld in December 2005, are all written with a view toward offering a counter-perspective on the influential analysis of contemporary global capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme (1999) (see IRSH, 52 (2007), p. 319). The contributors discuss various forms of social theory that have been developed since the demise of Soviet communism and critically assess various sociological analyses of contemporary capitalism, often defined as network society.
Wendling, AmyE. Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2009. x, 252 pp. £52.00.
This study aims to offer a conceptual history of the modern origin of the concept of alienation, examining how it was addressed and developed by Marx throughout his work and became a central element in Marxist traditions of thought. Professor Wendling analyses how Marx’s understanding of capitalist alienation evolved in conjunction with his research on the role of science and technology, concluding that this eventually led him to a scientific, materialist view of human nature (incompatible with his early, humanist ideas) that human activity is no different from and is interchangeable with that of machines, animals and nature itself.
History
Die 68er. Schlüsseltexte der globalen Revolte. Hrsg. Angelika Ebbinghaus. Promedia, Wien 2008. 223 pp. € 12.90; S.fr. 24.00.
This anthology brings together forty-four texts (some translated into German) that, according to the editor, are key writings on the cognitive orientation of the revolutionary generation of 1968. Dr Ebbinghaus has selected excerpts from speeches, political statements and pamphlets, essays, protocols etc. manifesting a distinctly global perspective, including specimens from Africa, Asia, Latin America, eastern and central Europe, the United States, and West Germany, France, and Italy, by a wide variety of authors, including Frantz Fanon, Zhou Enlai, André Gunder Frank, Malcolm X, Rudi Dutschke, and Antonio Negri. A geographically ordered overview of student and workers’ protests and anti-colonial movements is appended.
Alternative Exchanges. Second-hand Circulations from the Sixteenth Century to the Present. Ed. by Laurence Fontaine. [International Studies in Social History, vol. 10]. Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2008. viii, 270 pp. Ill. € 45.00.
The twelve essays in this volume, partly based on papers presented at a conference organized by the editor at the European University Institute, Italy, in October 2003, explore the changing meaning of the circulation of second-hand goods from the Renaissance to the present. Ranging from early modern second-hand markets in the Low Countries and Rome, through eighteenth-century Paris to barter markets in Argentina in 1995–2004 and international second-hand clothing trading in present-day Africa, contributors describe established markets and official entities active in these settings, such as corporations, as well as the informal circulation resulting from living strategies.
deVries, Jan. The Industrious Revolution. Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. xii, 327 pp. £45.00; $80.00. (Paper £15.99; $22.99.)
In this groundbreaking economic history study of the importance of consumer goods and consumer behaviour of households of all income levels in the long eighteenth century (1650–1850), Professor de Vries argues that new consumer aspirations, combined with new industrious behaviour, fundamentally altered the material cultures of north-western Europe and North America, creating an “industrious revolution”. This industrious revolution, he states, is the context in which the economic acceleration associated with the Industrial Revolution took shape. The historical study of consumer behaviour and its role in economic development to the present may also lead to new insights into existing consumer theory in economics.
Dowbiggin, Ian. The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, Oxford [etc.] 2008. 262 pp. Ill. £26.99.
One of the major global issues in the twenty-first century is likely to be the all-time low birth rates around the world, according to Professor Dowbiggin in this study of the twentieth-century origins and pivotal role of the sterilization movement. Drawing on, for example, the records of the EngenderHealth organization, the author aims to show how this American organization has successfully promoted family-planning programmes based on sterilization that have targeted poverty-stricken areas around the world. This has led not only to what he defines as one of the biggest policy mistakes in modern history but has created serious practical and ethical difficulties as well.
Enemies of Humanity. The Nineteenth-Century War on Terrorism. Ed. by Isaac Land. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2008. viii, 246 pp. £40.00.
The ten essays in this volume aim to offer a comprehensive analysis of wars on terrorism as these developed globally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, based on a new perspective on the definition and origins of terrorism. The contributors argue that, rather than being a novelty in the arsenal of the dissatisfied, nineteenth-century terrorism was defined by the novel Europe-centred practice of declaring war on terrorism, which covers a broad variety of counter-revolutionary policies. The phenomena addressed cover a broad range, including slave revolts, working-class agitation, reformist movements, and nationalist freedom fighters.
Hanioğlu, M. Sükrü. A Brief History of the Late Ottoman empire. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2008. xii, 241 pp. Ill. Maps. £17.95.
In this concise history of the Ottoman Empire in the last century of its existence, Professor Hanioğlu aims to correct prevailing teleological interpretations that see the imperial collapse as the inevitable outcome of trends of Westernization, nationalism, and secularism. Considering broad historical trends, he focuses on the tensions between the imperial drive towards centralization and the opposition of local rulers, nationalists, and foreign powers, examines the socio-economic changes that influenced the process of collapse, and emphasizes the role of international relations.
Hart, Jonathan. Empires and Colonies. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. ix, 387 pp. € 18.99.
In this study Professor Hart aims to provide a general overview of the expansion of the seaborne empires of western Europe from the fifteenth century onward, and to describe how that process of expansion affected the world, including the successor of these European empires, the United States. Chronologically organized, the study explores the connections between empires and colonies, focusing on cultural aspects and calling attention to areas and people that lack substantial economic power (slaves, indigenous peoples, critics of empire and colonization).
Headley, JohnM. The Europeanization of the World. On the Origins of Human Rights and Democracy. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2008. xvi, 290 pp. Ill. $26.95.
In this study, Professor Headley, a well-known specialist on the Renaissance and the Reformation, puts forward the argument that in 1500–1800 (a period of an emerging global context) European civilization developed two distinct unique concepts: that of a common, all-inclusive humanity and that of a capacity for self-criticism, review, and dissent, which culminated eventually in constitutional democracy. Challenging common critiques of European global dominance, he argues that these two concepts constitute Europe’s unique and most precious export to the rest of the world.
Histoire transnationale de l’utopie littéraire et de l’utopisme. Coord. par Vita Fortunati et Raymond Trousson, avec la coll. de Paola Spinozi. [Bibliothèque de littérature générale et compare, No. 74]. Honoré Champion Éditeur, Paris 2008. 1359 pp. S.fr. 215.04
This bulky volume brings together 111 contributions that together offer a comprehensive transnational and diachronic overview of utopia as a literary genre and of utopianism as a social and political idea. Organized in five chronological sections (from antiquity to the twentieth century), each section but the first is ordered identically, opening with a discussion of the most important literary works on utopia, followed by an overview of the main streams and a geographical overview of utopianism and its history of ideas, and concluding with a synthesis of each period.
Kasaba, ReŞat. A Moveable Empire. Ottoman Nomads, Migrants, and Refugees. [Studies in Modernity and National Identity.] University of Washington Press, Seattle [etc.] 2009. x, 194 pp. $70.00. (Paper $30.00.)
This study examines the status and role of tribes and their relationship to political authority in the long history of the Ottoman Empire. Revising the standard evolutionary view of tribe–state relations, which sees the development of the central state as leading nomadic tribes to increasingly become settled populations, Professor Kasaba argues that, throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire, the imperial centre cooperated with tribal leaders to reach distant parts of the empire, allowing them to perpetuate their own authority. Early twentieth-century ethnicity-based notions of nationality led to forced migrations that contributed to the end of the empire. See also Mustafa Erdem Kabadayı’s review in this volume, pp. 327–328.
Linebaugh, Peter. The Magna Carta Manifesto. Liberties and Commons for All. University of California Press, Berkeley [etc.] 2008. xvi, 352 pp. Ill. $24.95.
In this new, essayistic history of the Magna Carta, Professor Linebaugh argues that a basis for the historical and present-day fight for political freedom, as well as for fundamental economic and social rights, can be found in the origins and development of the charter and its scarcely known companion, the Charter of the Forest. Reviewing many centuries and global regions, he contends that the true, people’s history of both charters shows the importance of a return to the “commons”, in their broadest possible meaning, in the struggle against dispossession, class divisions and all the other problems that come with contemporary globalization.
Muller, JerryZ. Capitalism and the Jews. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2010. 267 pp. $24.95; £16.95.
This study offers an essayistic exploration of the relationship between Jews and capitalism and the ways in which this relation has shaped European and Jewish history from medieval times onward. Professor Muller, who has published widely on the history of capitalism, aims to explain why Jews have tended to be disproportionately successful in capitalist societies but have figured among the fiercest anti-capitalist and communist adherents, and how the status of diasporic merchant minority has made Jews particularly vulnerable to nineteenth and twentieth-century ethnic nationalism. See also Mario Kessler’s review in this volume, pp. 318–321.
Munier, Gerald. Thomas Morus. Urvater des Kommunismus und katholischer Heiliger. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2008. 332 pp. € 22.80.
This biographical study of Thomas More (1478–1535) aims to offer a sketch of the life and work of the author of Utopia (1516) that does justice to the divergent images of him as being both the herald of communism and a Catholic saint. After giving an overview of More’s life and career and of the main elements and interpretations of Utopia, Dr Munier analyses to what extent his political economic thought might apply to the present time, and concludes that More’s general idea of a communal economy may be surprisingly useful in some respects.
VanderWalt, Lucien and MichaelSchmidt. Black Flame. The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism. [Counterpower, Vol. 1.] AK Press, Edinburgh [etc.] 2009. 395 pp. $22.95.
This is the first of two volumes that aim to give a comprehensive global history of anarchism and syndicalism and examine the ideas of the broad anarchist tradition. In this volume the authors situate the origins of this anarchist tradition in the revolutionary and libertarian socialist tradition within the First International, with Bakunin and Kropotkin as key figures. They relate this tradition to the ideas of Proudhon, Marxism, and economic liberalism, analyse the movement’s class and global character, and aim to show the potential role of this broad anarchist tradition in present-day struggles against neo-liberalism. See also Ruth Kinna’s review in this volume, pp. 329–331.
Women and Slavery. Vol.1. Africa, the Indian Ocean World, and the Medieval North Atlantic. Ed. by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller. Ohio University Press, Athens 2007. xxvii, 399 pp. £20.31.
Women and Slavery. Vol.2. The Modern Atlantic. Ed. by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller. Ohio University Press, Athens 2008. xxvi, 329 pp. £20.31.
This two-volume set brings together twenty-seven essays that examine women’s experiences with slavery on a global scale over an extended period. Volume I comprises fifteen contributions that centre on Africa and the western Indian Ocean from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, such as essays on women in domestic slavery and women in Islamic households, and also includes a contribution on female slavery in the medieval Norse Atlantic. This variety serves to reveal similarities between women’s experiences with slavery and the disproportionate focus in slavery studies on highly commercialized and legally framed forms of slavery in the eighteenth-century New World. Volume II then addresses women and slavery in this context of the modern Atlantic, and shows how the dominant images of modern, commercialized New World slavery tend to conceal the position of women in slavery, who accounted for a greater proportion of the enslaved in the Americas than is commonly acknowledged.
Comparative History
Bruhn, Kathleen. Urban Protest in Mexico and Brazil. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. xii, 212 pp. £50.00; $85.00.
This study is about protest in Mexico City and São Paulo. In part because São Paulo is not the national capital, Brasilia serves as a reference. The author uses a data set covering the period 1989–2003 and mainly compares differences in protest traditions with the positions of the political parties in the respective cities. The tendency of organizations to stage protests is largely determined by their internal structure and political culture, as well as by whether the ruling party is favourably disposed toward them. Such factors may increase or decrease the frequency of protests. Government cycles matter as well: during the first year of government, organizations step up protests to get their causes on the agenda.
Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places Class, Nation and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Ed. by Graeme Morton, Boudien de Vries, and R. J. Morris. [Historical Urban Studies]. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2006. xiv, 220 pp. £55.00.
This volume presents ten case studies on associational culture and the role of association in the construction of civil society in various towns in Europe and one in North America from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. In his introduction, R.J. Morris argues that although a vibrant associational culture leads to a deep and interlocking civil society, democratic activity will not necessarily increase as consequence. Greater subdivision and the fragmentation and isolation of certain groups may just as easily ensue. See also Irina Novichenko’s review in this volume, pp. 321–326.
Hitlers Sklaven. Lebensgeschichtliche Analysen zur Zwangsarbeit im internationalen Vergleich. Hrsg. Alexander von Plato, Almut Leh, and Christoph Thonfeld. Unter Mitarb. von Elena Danchenko, Joachim Riegel und Henriette Schlesinger. Übersetzung aus dem Englischen von Astrid Becker. Böhlau Verlag, Wien [etc.] 2008. 498 pp. € 59.00.
Resulting from an international research programme, initiated in 2003 by the German Stiftung “Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft” (Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”), this volume brings together 32 contributions that tell the life histories of almost 600 former forced labourers from 27 countries in eastern and western Europe, the United States, and Israel, who were put to work as concentration camp inmates, prisoners of war, and other forms of foreign forced labour. Adopting an international comparative perspective, the contributors analyse the memories and experiences in the context of the Nazi war and occupation policies in various parts of Europe and consider the variety in postwar experiences.
Social Capital and Associations in European Democracies. A comparative analysis. Ed. by William A. Maloney and Sigrid Roßteutscher. [Routledge research in comparative politics.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2007. xvii, 308 pp. £70.00.
This volume brings together thirteen contributions on the potential that voluntary organizations offer citizens for social and political participation in several European countries. Focusing on six medium-sized European cities (Aalborg, Denmark; Aberdeen, UK; Berne, Switzerland; Enschede, the Netherlands; Mannheim, Germany; and Sabadell, Spain), the contributors examine the opportunities for civic involvement in democracy offered by a broad variety of voluntary associations, while considering the role, structure, and functions of those associations. See also Irina Novichenko’s review in this volume, pp. 321–326.
Contemporary Issues
Negri, Antonio. Empire and Beyond. Transl. by Ed Emery. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. ix, 239 pp. £16.99; $55.00.
This volume, originally published in Italian as Movimento nell’Impero (2006), brings together thirty-six writings based on talks given in 2003–2004 by the Marxist political philosopher Professor Antonio Negri, once he was allowed to travel again after twenty-four years of imprisonment, exile, and constraint. In these writings he aims to elaborate on various discussions arising from the influential volume Empire (2000, co-authored with Michael Hardt). The writings are organized around four broader themes: Empire; Europe; post-socialist politics; and political philosophy in imperial postmodernity.
Continents and Countries
Africa
Derrick, Jonathan. Africa’s ‘Agitators’. Militant Anti-Colonialism in Africa and the West, 1918–1939. Hurst and Company, London 2008. ix, 483 pp. £17.99.
This study aims to give a comprehensive overview of the anti-colonial struggle, and in particular the opposition to British and French rule in Africa, practised by Africans living on the continent, members of the black diaspora, and European anti-colonialists. Focusing predominantly on activities outside Africa, Dr Derrick covers among others: early ANC campaigns, Kikuyu protests in Kenya, the Étoile Nord Africaine, the French Ligue de Défense de Race Nègre (LDRN), and the British International African Service Bureau (IASB). Exploring the role of the Comintern and Western communist parties, he concludes that actual communist activity was far less than colonial rulers feared.
Hanging by a Thread. Cotton, Globalization, and Poverty in Africa. Ed. by William G. Moseley and Leslie C. Gray. [Ohio University Research in International Studies. Global and Comparative Studies No. 9.] Ohio University Press, Athens; The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala 2008. xii, 297 pp. $24.00.
This volume brings together ten case studies from sub-Saharan Africa in the postcolonial period that use cotton as a way to understand the evolving dynamics between African livelihoods and the global economy. Contributors explore the complexities and inequalities involved in the production of cotton in Africa at regional, national, and global levels, analyse the relation between the cotton production and international circuits of power and trade, and examine the social, economic, and environmental consequences at various locales throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Congo
Marchal, Jules. Lord Leverhulme’s Ghosts. Colonial Exploitation in the Congo. Transl. by Martin Thom. Introd. by Adam Hochschild. Verso, London [etc.] 2008. xxii, 244 pp. £16.99.
This is the English translation of Travail forcé pour l’huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme: L’histoire du Congo 1910–1945, tome 3 (2001), the last of three volumes on the history of the Belgian Congo in the first half of the twentieth century, by a former Belgian diplomat in the Belgian Congo, Jules Marchal (1924–2004). The author explores meticulously the nature of forced labour under Viscount Leverhulme’s rule over the extensive palm plantations in this period. He concludes that the appalling conditions and brutal private regime set up by Lord Leverhulme reduced the population of the Congo by half and would account for more deaths than the Nazi Holocaust.
Namibia
Genocide in German South-West Africa. The Colonial War (1904–1908) in Namibia and Its Aftermath. Ed. by Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller. Transl. from the German by Edward Neather. Merlin Press, Monmouth 2008. xxxvi, 291 pp. Ill. $50.00. (Paper: £15.95.)
This collection was originally published in German in 2003, one year before the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war in German Southwest Africa (presently Namibia). This war of the German colonial authorities against the Herero and the Nama was genocidal. Five contributions from the collection are about this war, and the introduction for English readers is by the translator Edward Neather, who relates Namibian history to the little-known, brief history of German colonialism. Five other contributions elaborate on cultural aspects of memories of the war.
America
The New Latin American Left. Utopia Reborn. Ed. by Patrick Barrett, Daniel Chavez, and César Rodríguez Garavito. Pluto Press, London 2008. xviii, 302 pp. £19.99.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Latin America witnessed the resurgence and unexpected success of social movements and leftist parties. Based on a conference organized at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, the ten essays in this volume aim to give a comparative systematic account and analysis of the rise of this new Latin American left. Included are case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela, while two concluding essays take a broader look at the challenges and future of the Latin American left in the twenty-first century.
Chile
Vergara, Angela. Copper Workers, International Business and Domestic Politics in Cold War Chile. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park (Penn.) 2008. xii, 222 pp. Ill. Maps. £56.19.
This study explores the history of copper workers through three distinctive periods in Chilean and copper-mining history: Chilean traditional democracy and foreign US ownership of the copper industry (1945–1970); Popular Unity and nationalization of copper (1970–1973); and the military dictatorship and state ownership of the copper industry (1973–1990). Focusing on the complex of mines and plants of Potrerillos and El Salvador, Professor Vergara examines the living and working conditions among the workers and the socio-political aspects of copper production to offer a perspective on the very different political, economic, and social models of development in these three periods.
Mexico
Bortz, Jeffrey. Revolution Within the Revolution. Cotton Textile Workers and the Mexican Labor Regime, 1910–1923. Stanford University Press, Stanford (Cal.) 2008. xi, 247 pp. £55.65.
Focusing on the cotton textile workers in Mexico in the early decades of the twentieth century, Professor Bortz aims to show in this study how within the larger Mexican Revolution a workers’ revolution took place in urban-based industries in the period 1910–1923 and gave rise to a labour regime that was later conducive to political peace in Mexico. Challenging standard interpretations that see the Mexican Revolution as an agrarian one, the author argues that the role of the urban industrial workers in the creation of this unique labour regime has hitherto been underestimated. See also IRSH, 42 (1997), pp 253–288.
United States of America
Alexander, LeslieM. African or American? Black Identity and Political Activism in New York City, 1784–1861. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2008. xxiv, 258 pp. Ill. $45.00.
This study explores the rise of black activism in New York from the formation of the first black organization, the African Society, in 1784 to the eve of the Civil War in 1861. Faced with the tenuous nature of Northern emancipation and a series of socio-political issues, such as racial violence and being denied American citizenship, Professor Alexander examines how black activists sought to formulate a response to their unequal freedom, and how this led to a ideological rift between those who advocated that the black community should strive for moral improvement and American citizenship and those who began to consider emigrating to Africa or Haiti.
Archer, Robin. Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? [Princeton Studies in American Politics.] Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2007. xvii, 348 pp. Ill. $38.50; £26.95.
In this new study on the old theme of American exceptionalism, Dr Archer aims to challenge previous explanations for the lack of a major political organization of the American labour movement by comparing the United States with Australia, rather than with Europe. He argues that such a comparison reveals that the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism on the left has left the United States without a labour party. See also Shelton Stromquist’s review essay in this volume, pp. 307–315.
Downey, GregoryJ. Closed Captioning. Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television. [Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology.] Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2008. ix, 387 pp. $52.00.
In this study of the development of three speech-to-text systems into closed captioning for television in the United States in the last decades of the twentieth century, Professor Downey combines the fields of communication technology, human geography, and the place and role of labour in a technologically complex and spatially fragmented digitalizing world. The author, who previously explored information labour in the context of global information revolutions in IRSH Supplement 11, “Uncovering Labour in Information Revolutions, 1750–2000” (2003), and in the world of the telegraph messenger boys (see IRSH, 49 (2004), pp. 308–310, 331), examines the role and position of hidden information workers who mediate between live audiovisual action and the production of visual track and written records.
Dunaway, WilmaA. Women, Work and Family in the Antebellum Mountain South. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. xiv, 301 pp. Ill. £50.00; $80.00.
After two recent studies on slavery and the African-American family in the southern Appalachian region (see IRSH, 49 (2004), pp. 305–308, 331ff.), Professor Dunaway in the present study examines race, class, and ethnic differences among women in the antebellum mountain South. She aims to show how Cherokee, black, and poor white women worked alongside males in cross-racial settings in agricultural and non-agricultural tasks as a survival strategy, and at the same time were often raising families outside marriages, thus challenging middle-class cultural ideals of motherhood and family.
The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. Ed. by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, and Immanuel Ness. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk (New York) [etc.] 2009. xxxix, 750 pp. Ill. $175.00.
Although not truly encyclopaedic, this volume aims to offer a representative history of strikes in nineteenth and twentieth-century American history by offering essays that focus on an economic sector or industry and essays on themes that transcend industries, groups of workers, and time. The first section of thematic essays deals with theoretical and general practical issues connected to strikes in the United States; the second section examines various aspects of striker identity; the third section focuses on the most important strike waves; and the fourth and fifth sections are devoted to strikes in various economic sectors and industries. See also Paul F. Lipold’s review in this volume, pp. 331–334.
Flamm, MichaelW. and DavidSteigerwald. Debating the 1960s. Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives. [Debating Twentieth-Century America.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., Lanham [etc]. 2008. vi, 213 pp. £39.00.
This textbook combines two analytical essays – “The Liberal–Radical Debates of the 1960s” by David Steigerwald and “The Liberal–Conservative Debates of the 1960s” by Michael W. Flamm – with a selection of source documents following each essay, to explore the decade of the 1960s in the United States through the arguments and controversies among radicals, liberals, and conservatives. Focusing on four areas of contention: social welfare, civil rights, foreign relations, and social order, the authors examine the emergence of the New Left and the modern conservative movement and assess the enduring influence of the 1960s on contemporary American politics and society.
Haydu, Jeffrey. Citizen Employers. Business Communities and Labor in Cincinnati and San Francisco, 1870–1916. Cornell University Press, Ithaca [etc.] 2008. x, 268 pp. $39.95; £20.50.
In this study of employer attitudes toward unions and collective bargaining, Professor Haydu compares the changes in United States’ businessmen’s class alignments, civic ideologies, and approach to their workers and unions in Cincinnati and San Francisco in the period between the Civil War and World War I. He concludes that, whereas in Cincinnati employers were united in their fierce opposition to unionization, San Francisco businessmen remained divided, sided with white unions against Chinese labour and advocated treating trade unions as legitimate partners in economic and municipal governance.
Land and Labor, 1865. Series 3,1. Ed. by Steven Hahn, Steven F. Miller, and Susan E. O’Donovan. [Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867.] University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill [etc.] 2008. xxxiv, 1073 pp. Ill. $85.00.
This is the fifth volume in a series launched in 1976 by the Freedman and Southern Society Project under the direction of Ira Berlin to document the history of emancipation in the United States (see IRSH, 39 (1994), p. 488; 40 (1995), p. 160; and 45 (2000), p. 140). This volume examines the creative uses of the law and judicial institutions by former slaves to expand their freedom by presenting a selection of letters and testimonies from them and from former slaveholders, Freedmen’s Bureau agents, and others. Essays by the editors offer an interpretive context and explore the major themes in emancipation history in the pivotal year 1865.
Leopold, Les. The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont 2007. xvi, 525 pp. Ill. $32.00.
Tony Mazzocchi (1926–2002) was a leading official of the American Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers’ International Union (OCAW) and an important pioneer in the trade-union struggle to address environmental and health problems among workers, which led to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. This biographical study of the life and work of Mazzocchi was written by a fellow environmentalist and trade-union activist, who co-founded the Labor Institute and the Public Health Institute.
Lewis-Colman, DavidM. Race Against Liberalism. Black Workers and the UAW in Detroit. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2008. ix, 150 pp. Ill. $50.00. (Paper: $22.00.)
Examining the position of black workers and black union activists in the Detroit automobile industry and the United Auto Workers (UAW), this study aims to show how after the “Negro–Labor” alliance of the 1930s and 1940s, class-based racial inequality persisted in the three decades following World War II. Professor Lewis-Coleman explores the ways in which black union activists struggled to establish a form of civic unionism, combining trade-union and civil-rights activism, how the UAW’s liberal white leadership opposed and tried to undermine this black activism, and how this course transformed the black labour movement in Detroit.
Valk, AnneM. Radical Sisters. Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, D.C. [Women in American history.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 2008. xiv, 253 pp. $40.00.
In this study of 1960s and 1970s local grassroots feminism in Washington DC, Professor Valk aims to show how an array of activities, organizations, and people nurtured new models of womanhood and developed programmes and projects to realize women’s liberation. The author examines both women who defined themselves explicitly as feminists and activists whose primary goal was not the elimination of sexual or gender oppression, but who fought through movements for economic justice and black liberation, thus showing the fruitful, but often divisive, connections between the various radical movements of the time.
Voogd, Jan. Race Riots and Resistance. The Red Summer of 1919. [African American Literature and Culture, Vol. 18.] Peter Lang, New York [etc.] 2008. x, 234 pp. € 64.50; £48.40; $99.95. (Paper: € 21.20; £15.90; $32.95.)
The Red Summer of 1919, when between April and November at least twenty-five violent, race-related events, including seven major ones, took place in cities throughout the United States, with white mobs targeting black communities, has been largely neglected in American historiography, according to the author of this study. Dr Voogd examines the contexts out of which white mob violence arose, the patterns and similarities discernible and the ways in which the riots marked an early stage of the civil rights movement.
Asia
China
Eyferth, Jacob. Eating Rice from Bamboo Roots. The Social History of a Community of Handicraft Papermakers in Rural Sichuan, 1920–2000. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.). 335 pp. Ill. $45.00; £33.95; € 40.50.
In this study of handicraft papermaking in the rural area of Jiajiang in China’s Sichuan province during the twentieth century, Professor Eyferth focuses on skills in two interrelated ways – production-related skills (included both technical and social skills) and skills of everyday life: quotidian living and survival strategies – to examine the daily life of rural dwellers. Based on this village study, he argues that the Chinese revolution – understood as a series of interconnected political, social and technological transformations – resulted in a massive transfer of technical control from the villages to the cities, from primary producers to managerial elites and from women to men. See also Christine Moll-Murata’s review in this volume, pp. 336–339.
Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolution. Volume I. Policies and Strategies, 1919–49. Volume II. Policies and Strategies, 1949–76. Volume III. Marxism, Politics and Culture. Volume IV. View, Sketches and Assessments. Ed. by Gregor Benton. [Routledge Library of Modern China.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2008. 1936 pp. £595.00.
This collection of four volumes brings together eighty-one writings about Mao Zedong (1893–1976), published between 1958 and 2006, that, according to the editor, are pioneering, representative, and authoritative in the study of Mao’s political career and thought. Volumes I and II cover Mao’s political career and strategies before and after 1949; volume III deals with Marxism, politics and culture, and volume IV assesses Mao’s legacy and his place in history. In his introduction to the collection, Professor Benton, who has previously published extensively on the early history of Chinese communism (see IRSH, 38 (1993), p. 418; 44 (1999), pp. 519f.; 46 (2001), p. 122), presents key themes in Mao studies and changes therein over time.
India
Trivedi, Lisa. Clothing Gandhi’s Nation. Homespun and Modern India. Indiana University Press, Bloomington [etc.] 2007. xxvi, 205 pp. $29.95.
Combining social history and the study of visual culture, Professor Trivedi explores in this book the making and development of the khadi – home-spun, home-woven cloth – as an enduring political symbol of Indian independence. She aims to show how the khadi, promoted by Mohandas Gandhi as both a commodity and a symbol of the swadeshi movement (advocating exclusive consumption of indigenous goods to establish India’s autonomy from Britain), in the 1930s came to be used as a symbol in public processions and demonstrations and after Independence became a visual expression of national identity.
Iran
Osanloo, Arzoo. The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran. Princeton University Press, Princeton [etc.] 2009. xix, 258 pp. £13.50.
In this study of the discourse and practice of women’s rights in Iran in the Islamic republic after 1979, Professor Osanloo offers a legal anthropological perspective on how women understand their rights, and how women’s claims to rights emerge from a hybrid discourse that draws on both liberal individualism and Islamic ideals. Through an exploration of various sites where rights are produced and applied (Qur’anic reading groups, family courts, and law offices), the author aims to show that, despite official rejection of a discourse of rights as Western, liberal notions of rights prevail in present-day Iran.
Japan
The Culture of Japanese Fascism. Ed. by Alan Tansman. [Asia-Pacific. Culture, Politics, and Society]. Duke University Press, Durham [etc.] 2009. xii, 477 pp. Ill. $99.95. (Paper: $27.95.)
The seventeen essays in this volume examine the relationship between culture and fascism in Japan in the decades preceding 1945. Contributors from history, literature, film, art history, and anthropology aim to show how in this period a fascist ideology was diffused throughout Japanese culture through literature, popular culture, film, design, and everyday discourse, thereby challenging past scholarship that rejects the notion of pre-1945 Japan as fascist. In the concluding essay, Alejandro Yarza performs a comparative analysis of the culture of fascism in Spain and Japan.
Turkey
Turkey in the Modern World. Ed. by Reşat Kasaba. [Cambridge History of Turkey, Vol. 4.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. xxiv, 574 pp. £100.00; $195.00.
This is the fourth and last volume in the series The Cambridge History of Turkey, which covers the period from the eleventh century to the present. The eighteen chapters in this volume explore the interaction between state and society in the context of Turkish modernization. Covering the period from the inauguration of the Tanzimat in 1839 to the contemporary Turkish Republic, contributors deal with a broad range of themes, including political ideology, economic development, the military, migration, Kurdish nationalism, the rise of Islamism, women’s struggle for empowerment, and several cultural themes. The last chapter offers a history of modern Istanbul.
Turkey in the Twentieth Century. La Turquie au vingtième siècle. Ed. by Erik-Jan Zürcher. [Philologiae et Historiae Turcicae Fundamenta, Tomus Secundus.] Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 2008. 688 pp. € 154.00.
This bulky volume, the fourth in the series Philologiae et Historiae Turcicae Fundamenta, offers a comprehensive overview of Turkish twentieth-century history, including the years of the Young Turk rule in the late Ottoman Empire and the years of national resistance after World War I up to the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. This reference work brings together twenty-five contributions, subdivided into six thematic fields: political history, social history (including a chapter on the history of the working class in Turkey by Yıldırım Koç and on Turkish labour migration to Western Europe and its impact on Turkey by Ahmet İçduygu), economic history, history of ideas, history of culture and education, and international relations.
Vietnam
Nguyen-Marshall, Van. In Search of Moral Authority. The Discourse on Poverty, Poor Relief, and Charity in French Colonial Vietnam. Peter Lang, New York [etc.] 2008. x, 180 pp. € 52.30.
This study explores the discourse on poverty and the practice of poor relief and charity in French colonial Vietnam, with a focus on northern Vietnam. Professor Nguyen-Marshall argues that French colonial officials and Vietnamese intellectuals had distinctly different perspectives on poverty and poor relief. Whereas for the French, poor relief figured within the “civilizing mission”, for Vietnamese intellectuals, the discourse and activities around poor relief became a means to appeal for patriotism, nationalism, and anti-colonialism.
Europe
Akgündüz, Ahmet. Labour Migration from Turkey to Western Europe, 1960–1974. A Multidisciplinary Analysis. [Research in Migration and Ethnic Relations.] Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 2008. viii, 221 pp. £55.00.
Focusing on the cases of Germany and the Netherlands, this study explores the migration of workers from Turkey to western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, with an emphasis on the “push” factors that drove this migration movement. Apart from the role of the sending state, Dr Akgündüz examines the system and channels through which labour exits, the labouring population’s attitudes towards migration, the relevance of social networks in the process, and the relative significance of Turkish labour migration with regard to the total demand for foreign labour.
Zwischen Ausschluss und Solidarität. Modi der Inklusion/Exklusion von Fremden und Armen in Europa seit der Spätantike. Hrsg. Lutz Raphael [und] Herbert Uerlings. [Inklusion/Exklusion, Band 6]. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2008. 570 pp. Ill. € 80.40
The twenty-one contributions to this volume in a series of studies on foreignness and poverty over the course of history (see IRSH, 51 (2006), p. 508; 54 (2009), pp. 549ff. for previous volumes) are based on a colloquium organized at the University of Trier in November 2006 on the inclusion and exclusion of foreigners and poor people in Europe since late antiquity. Apart from three contributions dealing with general, long-term perspectives on the issue, the essays in the other three sections address inclusion and exclusion of foreigners and the poor in the medieval and early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, with an emphasis on eastern and central Europe.
France
deOchandiano, Jean-Luc. Lyon, un chantier limousine. Les maçons migrants (1848–1940). Éditions Lieux Dits, Lyon 2008. 261 pp. Ill. € 30.00.
From the mid-nineteenth century, large groups of seasonal migrant workers from the Limousin countryside went to Lyon to work as masons on the many building sites in the city. This large-size book offers a richly illustrated history of the vibrant building industry in Lyon and the pivotal role of these Limousin migrant workers from 1848 to the beginning of World War II. Dr de Ochandiano aims to show how these workers not only were central in the development of the city’s infrastructure but also played a leading role in the rise of trade unionism within the building trades.
Drouard, Alain. Geschichte der Köche in Frankreich. Aus dem Französischen von Michael Tillmann. [Studien zur Geschichte des Alltags, Band 26.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2008. 145 pp. Ill. € 34.00.
This German translation of Histoire des cuisiniers en France: XIXe–XXe siècle (2004) aims to give a comprehensive social history of professional cooks in nineteenth and twentieth-century France. Exploring the social and cultural aspects of the cook’s profession, Dr Drouard aims to show how cooks evolved gradually from the social humility of domestic servants into more esteemed employees, and sometimes even became independent restaurant owners and employers, generally leading to a far higher social status for the cook’s profession.
Harison, Casey. The Stonemasons of Creuse in Nineteenth-Century Paris. University of Delaware Press, Newark 2008. 331 pp. Maps. $65.00.
Covering the long nineteenth century, starting before 1789 and ending near 1914, this study explores the role and reputation of a specific group of well-known seasonal migrants in the city of Paris: the stonemasons of Creuse (a region in central France), who were generally considered to be particularly rebellious and revolutionary. Dr Harison explores the origins of this reputation, the extent to which it was based on actual rebellious or contentious behaviour, and how it relates to the specific locality of the Place de Grève, where the migrant workers went to seek work.
McKinley, C. Alexander. Illegitimate Children of the Enlightenment. Anarchists and the French Revolution, 1880–1914. [Francophone Cultures and Literatures.] Peter Lang, New York [etc.] 2008. xii, 237 pp. € 54.60.
This study explores the relationship between French anarchism and the French Revolution and focuses on the period of the most prominent activity by French anarchists from the beginning of the Third Republic through to World War I. Professor McKinley first examines how anarchist historiography used the French Revolution, particularly its most radical, Jacobin phase, to support their own revolutionary cause. Subsequently, he explores how the anarchists tried to use the culture of the Revolution and commemorative aspects of it to communicate with the French working class.
Germany
Jones, ElizabethB. Gender and Rural Modernity. Farm Women and the Politics of Labor in Germany, 1871–1933. [Studies in Labour History.] Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2009. xvi, 238 pp. Ill. Maps. £55.00.
The progressive feminization of agricultural work in Germany during the decades from the end of the nineteenth century onwards, and the concomitant flight of young women from family farms, was identified as a serious problem by contemporary observers. Focusing on Saxony, this study traces how and why women’s productive and reproductive roles on German family farms assumed ever greater significance, and how women themselves shaped debates over their labour and its relation to the nation’s future. Dr Jones suggests that rural inhabitants participated actively in the broader debates over individual rights versus collective national duties, the future health and prosperity of the Volk and the meanings of Germanness.
Klessmann, Christoph. Arbeiter im “Arbeiterstaat” DDR. Deutsche Traditionen, sowjetisches Modell, westdeutsches Magnetfeld (1945 bis 1971). [Geschichte der Arbeiter und der Arbeiterbewegung in Deutschland seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, Band 14.] Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2007. 892 pp. Ill. € 68.00.
This study aims to offer a comprehensive political, social, and cultural historical overview of the position and condition of the East German working class. In five chronologically ordered chapters, Professor Klessmann covers the main stages in the development of the GDR, including the political and social crises (such as the workers’ uprising in 1953), from the threefold historical perspective of the tradition of the German working class, the Soviet Marxist-Leninist model, and the magnetic appeal of the working class in capitalist West Germany. In a sixth thematic chapter, the author analyses the daily life experience and culture of the East German working class.
Radkau, Joachim. Max Weber. A Biography. Transl. by Patrick Camiller. Polity, Cambridge [etc.] 2009. xix, 683 pp. Ill. £25.00; € 28.80.
This English translation of the comprehensive biography of Max Weber (1864–1920), of which the German original appeared in 2005, has been abridged by almost one-third, omitting, for example, detailed accounts of the reception of his work and parts dealing with Weber’s writings on his debate with Karl Marx, but at the same time containing new information and ideas added by the author. Professor Radkau focuses in this biography on the intimate interrelations between Weber’s ideas and his life experiences, in particular his physical and mental sufferings, his sexual experiences, and his religious experiences. See also the review essay by Sara Farris in this volume, pp. 297–306.
Sturm, Beate. “Wat ich schuldich war”. Privatkredit im frühneuzeitlichen Hannover (1550–1750). [Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Beihefte Nr. 208.] Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009. 336 pp. € 62.00.
Based on samples from thousands of debt cases brought before the court of Hanover between 1550 and 1750, this study examines private credit relations and networks in early modern Germany to offer a comprehensive analysis of economic, social, psychological, cultural, and everyday life aspects of early modern private credit. Dr Sturm aims to show how credit figured in a wide variety of transactions, ranging from financing land purchases or wage payments to everyday purchases, and how the relations and networks involved people from all layers in society. See also Jaco Zuijderduijn’s review in this volume, pp. 317–318.
Voigt, JohannesH. Die Indienpolitik der DDR. Von den Anfängen bis zur Anerkennung (1952–1972). [Stuttgarter Historische Forschungen, Band 5.] Böhlau Verlag, Köln [etc.] 2008. xvii, 717 pp. € 69.90.
This hefty volume offers a detailed study of East Germany’s policy towards the new postcolonial state of India in the period 1952–1972. Professor Voigt argues that from the mid-1950s, the GDR’s policy was directed towards securing recognition of the East German state by the Indian government, as India was a leader among the non-aligned nations. He explores how this ambition was long thwarted by West Germany, and reviews the political, diplomatic, economic, propaganda, and cultural policy measures taken by the GDR leadership to achieve their goal.
Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte in Diskussion. Beiträge des Dresdner Kolloquiums 2005/2006. Hrsg. Peter Fässler [und] Susanne Schötz. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [etc.] 2008. 257 pp. € 40.00.
This volume brings together thirteen contributions that were presented at a colloquium with a similar title organized at the University of Dresden in the academic year 2005/2006 to raise the profile of economic and social history. Offering a broad variety of themes and topics spanning from the late medieval and early modern to contemporary periods, it encompasses essays on urban elites, gender and generational issues in the German bourgeoisie, history of business cultures, and several socio-cultural themes, such as changes in and problems with career-advancement opportunities for women in academia.
Zierenberg, Malte. Stadt der Schieber. Der Berliner Schwarzmarkt 1939–1950. [Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 179.] Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008. 349 pp. Ill. € 39.90.
This revised edition of a dissertation (University of Cologne, 2006) offers a history of the black market in Berlin during World War II and the first five postwar years. Considering the history of the black market and its participants from the perspective of macroeconomics, as well as individual adaptation to the circumstances, Dr Zierenberg analyses the black market as both a complexly structured geographical space and an economic space of trade and barter. The black market, he argues, may also be regarded as a social and cultural event that served as a “school” for the evolving social market economy.
Great Britain
D’Cruze, Shani. A Pleasing Prospect. Society and culture in eighteenth-century Colchester. [Studies in Regional and Local History, Vol. 5.] University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield 2008. xiv, 235 pp. Ill. £18.99.
In this local study of the large provincial town of Colchester, Essex, in the southern part of the English region of East Anglia, Dr D’Cruze examines social change and the emergence of a distinct urban culture during the eighteenth century from the perspective of the town’s “middling sort”, the social group generally considered to be central to the major social, economic, and cultural changes of the period. Reconstructing social networks, growth of agriculturally based industries, port activities, and other commercial enterprises, the author also explores the rise of a middling-sort political and cultural identity.
Dorey, Peter. British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945–1964. [Modern Economic and Social History Series.] Ashgate, Farnham [etc.] 2009. 200 pp. £55.00.
This study examines the debates and disagreements within the British Labour Party that the issue of constitutional reform has variously evoked from the party’s early twentieth-century beginnings until the present day. Dr Dorey concludes that, like “Old Labour”, “New Labour” has been dominated by a strong constitutional conservatism, despite the latter’s reputation for constitutional radicalism, and that a persistent top-down “executive-minded” stance has determined Labour attitudes towards both constitutional reforms, and more open government and freedom of information legislation.
Herbert, Christopher. War of no Pity. The Indian Mutiny and Victorian Trauma. Princeton University Press, Princeton, [etc.] 2008. 334 pp. Ill. £19.95
In this study of the reactions to the Indian Mutiny of 1857–1859, Professor Herbert sets out to analyse why this episode was considered so important and epochal at the time, and what the deeper origins were of the wave of rhetorical violence that swept Britain during and in its aftermath. Uncovering a body of often overlooked texts, including memoirs, histories, letters, journalistic works, and novels, the author argues that the startling ferocity of the violence during this conflict provoked a crisis of national conscience, He aims to show that the Victorian imperialist culture was not as unambiguous as postcolonial scholarship often suggests.
Lewis, Brian. “So clean”. Lord Leverhulme, soap and civilization. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 2008. x, 246 pp. Ill. £55.00.
This biographical study of William Hesketh Lever, first Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and founder of the Lever Brothers’ Sunlight Soap business empire, aims to offer more than a traditional biographical portrait. Professor Lewis places Lever’s life and career in the context of the history of advertising, factory paternalism, town planning, and the garden city movement, as well as colonialism and forced labour in the Belgian Congo and the South Pacific. In the concluding chapter, the author considers Lever’s attempt in his final years to transform crofting and fishing in the Outer Hebrides.
Vicarious Vagrants. Incognito Social Explorers and the Homeless in England, 1860–1910. Ed. with Annotations and an Introductory Essay by Mark Freeman and Gillian Nelson, University of Glasgow. The True Bill Press, Lambertville, NJ 2008. 327 pp. £65.00.
In the decades around the turn of the nineteenth century, many men and women travelled in disguise among the poor in England and published lively accounts of their experiences. This volume brings together several examples of this genre of incognito investigations of vagrancy. Included are James Greenwood’s account of a night at a Lambeth workhouse in 1866, as well as longer pieces, such as Everard Wyrall’s The Spike (1909), describing various institutions that aided the homeless in and around London. The editors offer the context of the legislative response to vagrancy and of new social research methods in this period.
Russia – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Jones, JeffreyW. Everyday Life and the “Reconstruction” of Soviet Russia During and After the Great Patriotic War, 1943–1948. Slavica, Bloomington, Indiana 2008. xiv, 309 pp. Ill. $29.95.
This is a case study of the reconstruction of Soviet power, the city, and everyday life in Rostov-on-Don, from February 1943, when the Red Army retook the city from the Nazi forces, to 1948. Professor Jones examines differences in how ordinary people and party leaders experienced and understood the reconstruction process. Looking at the physical reconstruction of the city’s largely devastated infrastructure, he analyses the ways in which the state and party leaders officially portrayed this reconstruction as a mythical, heroic process, whereas ordinary inhabitants of the city saw the political leadership primarily as a privileged elite.
Shulman, Elena. Stalinism on the Frontier of Empire. Women and State Formation in the Soviet Far East. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2008. xiv, 260 pp. Ill. £99.00. (Paper: $55.00.)
From 1937 to 1939, some 25,000 women in the Soviet Union volunteered to participate in a resettlement programme later known as the Khetagurovite campaign in the Soviet Far East. This study explores the life stories of the women involved to analyse the instrumental part played by these migrant women in the extension of the Soviet state in this region, the role of frontier Stalinism in structuring gender ideals and the nature of Soviet society and Stalinism in the late 1930s. See also Marianna Muravyeva’s review in this volume, pp. 334–336.
Spain
Smith, Angel. Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction. Catalan Labour and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898–1923. [International Studies in Social History, Vol. 8.] Berghahn Books, New York [etc.] 2007. 405 pp. $89.95; € 55.00.
This study aims to examine the relationship between Catalan workers, the anarchist-syndicalist movement and the development of the Spanish polity in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Covering both the social history of labour and its organizational manifestations and the impact the labour movement had on the political history of Spain in this period, Dr Smith focuses on three interrelated themes: first, the social and economic change and its impact on workers’ lives; second, the attitude of the state and business toward labour; and third, the ways in which labour adapted to and criticized the wave of changes that swept Spain in this period.
