Red Banners, Books and Beer Mugs: The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863–1914

Red Banners, Books and Beer Mugs: The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863–1914 PDF Author: Andrew G. Bonnell
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004300635
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
The German Social Democratic Party was the world’s first million-strong political party. This book examines key themes around which the party organized its mainly working-class membership, with a focus on the experiences and outlook of rank-and-file party members.

Robert Michels, Socialism, and Modernity

Robert Michels, Socialism, and Modernity PDF Author: Andrew G. Bonnell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192699911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
Robert Michels (1876-1936) is best known for his 1911 book Political Parties, which is still a standard reference in political science debates. Michels' work sought to prove an "iron law of oligarchy" that governs the organisational evolution of democratic political parties. The work was closely informed by Michels' engagement with the German Social Democratic Party in the early 1900s, his involvement in radical politics in France and Italy in this period, and by his interest in a range of intellectual and social movements - including feminism, nationalism, racial theory, and the emerging disciplines of sociology and political science. Using archival and printed sources hitherto overlooked in work on Michels, this new study contests previous arguments which have sought to explain Michels as a disillusioned adherent of ideas of direct democracy or as an extremist moving from revolutionary syndicalism to fascism. The biographical and intellectual influences on Michels are shown to be more complex, and more transnational, than such schematic explanations have allowed. Andrew Bonnell sheds new light on Michels' relationship with the German Social Democratic Party and on his understanding of his own role as an intellectual in a workers' party. Bonnell also analyses Michels' problematical relationship with revolutionary syndicalism in France and Italy. Michels was connected to a possibly uniquely diverse network of intellectual and political contacts in pre-1914 Europe. This transnational intellectual history illuminates the intellectual worlds in which Michels moved and presents a new interpretation of his shift from the radical left of the spectrum to Italian fascism, an intellectual itinerary which has intrigued many historians.

German Social Democracy through British Eyes

German Social Democracy through British Eyes PDF Author: James Retallack
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487527489
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
On the eve of the First World War, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the largest and most powerful socialist party in the world. German Social Democracy through British Eyes examines the SPD's rise using British diplomatic reports from Saxony, the third-largest federal state in Imperial Germany and the cradle of the socialist movement in that country. Rather than focusing on the Anglo-German antagonism leading to the First World War, the book peers into the everyday struggles of German workers to build a political movement and emancipate themselves from the worst features of a modern capitalist system: exploitation, poverty, and injustice. The archival documents, most of which have never been published before, raise the question of how people from one nation view people from another nation. The documents also illuminate political systems, election practices, and anti-democratic strategies at the local and regional levels, allowing readers to test hypotheses derived only from national-level studies. This collection of primary sources shows why, despite the inhospitable environment of German authoritarianism, Saxony and Germany were among the most important incubators of socialism.

The Cambridge History of Socialism

The Cambridge History of Socialism PDF Author: Marcel van der Linden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110858859X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 896

Book Description
This volume describes the various movements and parties, across all six continents, that wanted social change through state transformation. It begins with a reconstruction of social democracy's trajectories from the 1870s until the present. The evolution of socialism on different continents is illustrated through a number of national case studies. Experiments at a subnational level (for example, municipal socialism) are also explored, as are the varying experiences of international umbrella organizations. The next part focuses on divergent socialist experiments and ideologies in several parts of the world, including South Asia, Africa, the Arab world, Brazil, Venezuela, and Israel/Palestine, followed by an overview of 'independent' socialist movements, including left-socialist parties of the 1930s and the post-war period, and the global New Left since its beginnings in the 1950s. The volume concludes with critical essays on socialism's long-term and global development.

Voices of Challenge in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

Voices of Challenge in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press PDF Author: Catherine Dewhirst
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030673308
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
This book brings together long-obscured histories to discuss Australia’s cultural, social, and political diversity in depth. The history of Australia’s migrant and minority print media reveals extensive evidence for the nation’s global connectedness, from the colonial era to today. A fascinating and complex picture of Australia’s long-term transnational ties emerges from the smaller enterprises of individuals and communities in the distant and more recent past. This book explores the authentic voices of minority groups which challenged the dominant experiences, patterns, and debates that have shaped Australia.

Robert Michels, Socialism, and Modernity

Robert Michels, Socialism, and Modernity PDF Author: Andrew G. Bonnell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192871846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
Robert Michels (1876-1936) is best known for his 1911 book Political Parties, which is still a standard reference in political science debates. Michels' work sought to prove an "iron law of oligarchy" that governs the organisational evolution of democratic political parties. The work was closely informed by Michels' engagement with the German Social Democratic Party in the early 1900s, his involvement in radical politics in France and Italy in this period, and by his interest in a range of intellectual and social movements - including feminism, nationalism, racial theory, and the emerging disciplines of sociology and political science. Using archival and printed sources hitherto overlooked in work on Michels, this new study contests previous arguments which have sought to explain Michels as a disillusioned adherent of ideas of direct democracy or as an extremist moving from revolutionary syndicalism to fascism. The biographical and intellectual influences on Michels are shown to be more complex, and more transnational, than such schematic explanations have allowed. Andrew Bonnell sheds new light on Michels' relationship with the German Social Democratic Party and on his understanding of his own role as an intellectual in a workers' party. Bonnell also analyses Michels' problematical relationship with revolutionary syndicalism in France and Italy. Michels was connected to a possibly uniquely diverse network of intellectual and political contacts in pre-1914 Europe. This transnational intellectual history illuminates the intellectual worlds in which Michels moved and presents a new interpretation of his shift from the radical left of the spectrum to Italian fascism, an intellectual itinerary which has intrigued many historians.

History and the Formation of Marxism

History and the Formation of Marxism PDF Author: Bertel Nygaard
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303109655X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
This book redefines the relationship between Marxism and history. At its roots, Marxism was aimed at analyzing society in order to change it, reflecting on the past to create the ‘poetry of the future.’ No single event of the past was as important to early Marxists as the French Revolution of 1789. Studying the varying uses of the history of that past event among Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and prominent European Marxists before 1914 (Karl Kautsky, V.I. Lenin, and others), this book argues that we should take the historiography of concrete past events seriously. It was not only an auxiliary element of Marxism, but a core constitutive element in its formation. Thus, this book calls for transcending traditional approaches to Marxism as a fixed set of social theories combined with strategies for the present and future. Important to students of Marxism, the labor movement, and the French Revolution alike, this study contains refreshing perspectives on the interplay between past, present, and future and on the role of states, social classes, socio-economic determination, and political organization in history.

The Routledge History of the First World War

The Routledge History of the First World War PDF Author: Paul R. Bartrop
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040104711
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1065

Book Description
The Routledge History of the First World War is a work which, in a single volume, covers a range of major themes and issues relating to that conflict. Providing a comprehensive but readily accessible reference work examining the First World War, in accordance with a broad range of themes, this book presents the many ways in which study of the First World War can take place and introduces readers to new areas of research, often untouched in other studies of the war. With a scholarly Introduction and 60 chapters by specialist authors who come from 14 different countries, across four continents, the book is also intended to open lines of further inquiry from its solid base of academic knowledge. The volume demonstrates the war’s global and total nature, examining the conflict in all major theatres and through the lens of the key combatants and neutrals. It also fully engages with issues of race, gender, ideology, and society during the war. This book will appeal to students of all levels, scholars, and general readers alike interested in the First World War from several different perspectives and research areas. The 60 chapters cover topics from numerous angles and provide detailed information about all aspects relating to the First World War.

The Imperial German Army Between Kaiser and King

The Imperial German Army Between Kaiser and King PDF Author: Gavin Wiens
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031228634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
This book provides a reappraisal of Germany’s military between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the First World War. At its core is the following question: how 'German' was the imperial German army? This army, which emerged from the Wars of Unification in 1871, has commonly been seen as the 'school of the nation'. After all – so this argument goes – tens of thousands of young men passed through its ranks each year, with conscripts undergoing an intense program of patriotic education and returning to civilian life as fervent German nationalists and ardent supporters of the German emperor, or Kaiser. This book reexamines this assumption. It does not deny that devotion to the Fatherland and loyalty to the Kaiser were widespread among German soldiers in the decades following unification. It nevertheless shows that the imperial German army was far less homogenous and far more faction-ridden than has hitherto been acknowledged.

Nationalism in Modern Europe

Nationalism in Modern Europe PDF Author: Derek Hastings
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350303607
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
Derek Hastings's Nationalism in Modern Europe is the essential guide to a potent political and cultural phenomenon that featured prominently across the modern era. With firm grounding in transnational and global contexts, the book traces the story of nationalism in Europe from the French Revolution to the present. Hastings reflects on various nationalist ideas and movements across Europe, and always with a keen appreciation of other prevalent signifiers of belonging – such as religion, race, class and gender – which helps to inform and strengthen the analysis. The text shines a light on key historiographical trends and debates and includes 20 images, 14 maps and a range of primary source excerpts which can serve to sharpen vital analytical skills which are crucial to the subject. New content and features for the second edition include: - A chapter examining region, religion, class and gender as alternative 'markers of identity' throughout the 19th century - An enhanced global dimension that covers transnational fascism and non-European comparatives - Additional primary source excerpts and figures - Historiographical updates throughout which account for recent research in the field