Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Wiegratz, Joerg / Mujere, Joseph / Fontein, Joost (eds.), Narrating Working Lives: Oral Histories of Work in Neoliberal Africa. (ThirdWorlds) 186 pp. 2024:10 (Routledge, UK) <727-883>
ISBN 978-1-03-274317-2 hard ¥38,461.- (税込) GB￡ 135.00 *

This book presents a re-engagement with oral histories as a way of documenting, understanding, and discussing experiences of work and economic life in Africa under neoliberal capitalism. It draws on seven case studies in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and South Sudan, from the late 1980s to the present, to offer a critical analysis of neoliberal transformations and realities at the incisive level of peoples' biographies.The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented changes in the working lives of people across the African continent. Oral historical accounts of working lives can offer unique and productive insights into these changes by allowing analyses of neoliberalism that focuses on personal experiences over the longue duree. Yet, there has been a surprising dearth of oral histories of work since the emergence of neoliberalism in the 1980s. Compared to scholarship published more than half a century ago, there has been a decline in the use of oral histories to explore experiences of living and working under capitalism. By grounding analysis in biographical details, histories, and dynamics, the chapters in this book seek better understandings of the wider life contexts, challenges, and circumstances in which people's 'agency' emerges, unfolds, gains traction, and gets (re)shaped; and a better grasp of the multiple, entangled layers and temporalities of life and work in capitalist Africa. This book will be indispensable to students and researchers interested in political economy, development studies, anthropology, sociology, history and African Studies.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Third World Thematics and are accompanied by a new Foreword and Afterword.

Flores, Lori A., Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19. (LatinX Histories) 320 pp. 2025:1 (U. North Carolina Pr., US) <727-241>
ISBN 978-1-4696-7986-0 paper ¥6,457.- (税込) US$ 29.95

Though Latinx foodways are eagerly embraced and consumed by people across the United States, the nation exhibits a much more fraught relationship with Latinx people, including the largely underpaid and immigrant workers who harvest, process, cook, and sell this desirable food. Lori A. Flores traces how our dual appetite for Latinx food and Latinx food labor has evolved from the World War II era to the COVID-19 pandemic, using the US Northeast as an unexpected microcosm of this national history. Spanning the experiences of food workers with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Central America, Flores's narrative travels from New Jersey to Maine and examines different links in the food chain, from farming to restaurants to seafood processing to the deliverista rights movement. What unites this eclectic material is Flores's contention that as our appetite for Latinx food has grown exponentially, the visibility of Latinx food workers has demonstrably decreased. This precariat is anything but passive, however, and has historically fought-and is still fighting-against low wages and exploitation, medical neglect, criminalization, and deeply ironic food insecurity.

Greene, Julie M., Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers, and the Panama Canal. 192 pp. 2025:1 (U. North Carolina Pr., US) <727-242>
ISBN 978-1-4696-7948-8 paper ¥6,025.- (税込) US$ 27.95

When acclaimed labor historian Julie M. Greene researched her book The Canal Builders, which went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2009, she explored a cache of first-person essays written in 1963 by the Afro-Caribbean people, mainly Jamaican and Barbadian, who migrated to the Isthmus of Panama to work as diggers, track shifters, or domestic servants in the Canal Zone. Held at the Library of Congress and stored in Box 25 of the Isthmian Historical Society Collection, they constitute the best primary source in existence on Caribbean workers' experiences during the construction project. Now Greene returns to this fascinating archive, and in this book, shares what it was like to be a migrant laborer on the construction of the Panama Canal. Caribbean workers faced life-threatening illnesses, accidents, racial discrimination, and culture clashes as well as the opportunity to materially improve their lives. Greene offers new details on the strategies of the people who built the canal and examines how colonialism, xenophobia, and racism shaped the process of writing and archiving the testimonies into Box 25.

Grob, Leo, Bevor die Fabriken schliessen: Arbeit und Management bei Alusuisse (1960-1991). (Industrielle Welt 106) 312 S. 2024:9 (Boehlau, GW) <727-313>
ISBN 978-3-412-53102-7 hard ¥10,593.- (税込) EUR 45.00 *

Die industrielle Arbeitswelt veraenderte sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten des 20. Jahrhunderts stark: Unternehmer drohten mit Restrukturierungen und Betriebsschliessungen, Arbeiter:innen sahen sich einer verschaerften Standortkonkurrenz und einem groesseren Leistungsdruck ausgesetzt, sie bangten um ihre Arbeitsplaetze und Loehne, Gewerkschaften gerieten in die Defensive. Leo Grob untersucht diesen Wandel am Beispiel des Schweizer multinationalen Unternehmens Alusuisse. Er analysiert das Denken und Handeln der Topmanager am Schweizer Hauptsitz in Zuerich. Und er folgt der Aluminium-Herstellungskette quer ueber den Globus von Australien ueber Italien bis in die Schweiz. Das Buch beleuchtet die Kraefteverhaeltnisse zwischen Arbeiter:innen und Managern. Es zeigt, wie das Management die Krisen und Arbeitskaempfe der 1970er Jahre als Katalysator nutzte, um neue Formen des Personalmanagements und Anreizsysteme einzufuehren, welche die Betriebe und Arbeitskraefte mehr Marktrisiken aussetzten, in einen ?Ueberlebenskampf“ versetzten und das Wissen und die Subjektivitaet der Arbeiter:innen nutzbar machen wollten.

世界中の性労働の歴史
Phipps, Catherine (ed.), Histories of Sex Work Around the World. (Routledge Research in Gender and History) 272 pp. 2024:8 (Routledge, UK) <727-1212>
ISBN 978-1-03-247932-3 hard ¥37,037.- (税込) GB￡ 130.00 *

This book offers snapshots of sex work in global history, examining how it has differed in different places around the world at different points in time. Focusing on certain moments in certain places and examinations of historical lives, it offers a diverse approach with a heavy focus on lived experience to see what selling sex was like instead of what it "meant". Therefore, this book aims to argue that selling sex has been different at different times and present the diversity of experience in sex work throughout history, through case studies and comparisons.Aimed for students, scholars, and general readers alike, Histories of Sex Work Around the World provides an introduction to the history of sex work within a global perspective. The case studies cover a wide range of topics and geographical regions - from North America to Mexico City to Vietnam, spanning across 12 different countries and over 400 years of history, before considering the future of sex work in the internet age. Furthermore, this book features chapters with personal accounts from writers with experience selling sex, managing a brothel, or working as a dancer. It also includes a foreword from renowned writer and historian Julia Laite, author of bestselling book The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey.

Streichhahn, Vincent (Hrsg.), Feministische Internationale: Texte zu Geschlecht, Klasse und Emanzipation 1832-1936. 160 S. 2024:9 (Dietz, GW) <727-1224>
ISBN 978-3-320-02421-5 paper ¥4,237.- (税込) EUR 18.00

Die Anthologie ≫Feministische Internationale≪ praesentiert Texte aus dem 19. und fruehen 20. Jahrhundert zu Geschlecht, Klasse und Emanzipation aus ueber zehn Laendern und fast allen Kontinenten. Verfasst haben sie feministische Sozialistinnen und Anarchistinnen, die in der Arbeiterbewegung oder ihrem Umfeld aktiv waren. Die Sammlung erweitert den Blick ueber den eurozentrischen Horizont hinaus, zeigt die Vielfalt sowie die Verbindungen der damaligen Emanzipationsbewegungen und unterstreicht die gemeinsame Geschichte der proletarischen Frauenbewegung und der Arbeiterbewegung, die oft separat betrachtet werden. Das Verhaeltnis war nicht frei von Widerspruechen. Die Aktivistinnen sahen sich auch in den Reihen der Arbeiterparteien mit dem Widerstand von Maennern konfrontiert. Die in diesem Band versammelten Autorinnen setzten sich nicht nur fuer die Emanzipation ein und kritisierten antifeministischen Widerstand, sondern machten auch auf verschiedene Formen intersektionaler Unterdrueckung aufmerksam. Durch die Veroeffentlichung von Primaertexten ? viele davon erstmals in deutscher Uebersetzung ? soll die Geschichte und Tradition der ≫Feministischen Internationale≪ zugaenglich gemacht werden ? nicht zuletzt als Inspirationsquelle fuer aktuelle Diskussionen und Kaempfe um Gleichberechtigung und soziale Gerechtigkeit. Mit Beitraegen von Susan B. Anthony, Maria Cano, Jeanne Deroin und Pauline Roland, Eva Gore-Booth, Gertrude Guillaume-Schack, Emma Ihrer, Jeanne-Victoire Jacob, Yamakawa Kikue, Anna Kuliscioff, Mary Lee, Linda Malnati, Eleanor Marx, Dora B. Montefiore, Adelheid Popp, Begum Rokeya, Henriette Roland Holst, Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Kanno Sugako, Louise Thomson Patterson, Flora Tristan, Victoria Woodhull, Clara Zetkin. Vincent Streichhahn, geb. 1993, ist Politikwissenschaftler und promovierte mit einer Arbeit zur ≫Frauenfrage≪ in der fruehen deutschen Arbeiter- und proletarischen Frauenbewegung.

Andrews, Gregg, Hard Times in an American Workhouse, 1853-1920. 256 pp. 2024:10 (Louisiana State U. Pr., US) <727-1383>
ISBN 978-0-8071-8278-9 hard ¥9,702.- (税込) US$ 45.00 *

Hard Times in an American Workhouse, 1853 1920, is the first comprehensive examination of a workhouse in the United States, offering a critical history of the institution in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Using the Old St. Louis Workhouse as a representative example, award-winning historian Gregg Andrews brings to life individual stories of men and women sentenced to this debtors' prison to break rocks in the quarry, sew clothing, scrub cell floors and walls, or toil in its brush factory. Most inmates, too poor to pay requisite fines, came through the city's police courts on charges of vagrancy, drunkenness, disturbing the peace, or violating some other ordinance. The penal system criminalized everything from poverty and unemployment to homelessness and the mere fact of being Black. Workhouses proved overcrowded and inhospitable facilities that housed hardcore felons and young street toughs along with prostitutes, petty thieves, peace disturbers, political dissenters, ""levee rats,"" adulterers, and those who suffered from alcohol and drug addiction. Officials even funneled the elderly, the mentally disabled, and the physically infirm into the workhouse system.The torture of prisoners in the hellish chambers of the St. Louis Workhouse proved far worse than Charles Dickens's portrayals of cruelty in the debtors' prisons of Victorian England. The ordinance that created the St. Louis complex in 1843 banned corporal punishment, but shackles, chains, and the whipping post remained central to the institution's attempts to impose discipline. Officers also banished more recalcitrant inmates to solitary confinement in the ""bull pen,"" where they subsisted on little more than bread and water. Andrews traces efforts by critics to reform the workhouse, a political plum in the game of petty ward patronage played by corrupt and capricious judges, jailers, and guards. The best opportunity for lasting change came during the Progressive Era, but the limited contours of progressivism in St. Louis thwarted reformers' efforts. The defeat of a municipal bond issue in 1920 effectively ended plans to replace the urban industrial workhouse model with a more humane municipal farm system championed by Progressives.

Busch, Andrew E., Ronald Reagan and the Firing of the Air Traffic Controllers. (Landmark Presidential Decisions) 180 pp. 2024:7 (U. Pr. Kansas, US) <727-1384>
ISBN 978-0-7006-3690-7 hard ¥15,089.- (税込) US$ 69.99
ISBN 978-0-7006-3691-4 paper ¥5,387.- (税込) US$ 24.99 *

On August 3, 1981, over 12,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO) walked off their jobs, striking for higher pay, shorter hours, and increased benefits. Unexpectedly, President Ronald Reagan decided to fire the strikers, prosecute their leaders, and decertify their union. This swift and unwavering decision was a shocking reversal of the sympathy and support Reagan showed PATCO during his campaign ten months earlier, which had earned him the union's endorsement.Andrew Busch, an expert on the Reagan presidency, explores this overlooked decision, showing the many ways that it set the tone for Reagan's two terms in the White House. It was a contested decision both within the administration and in the public sphere, though it ultimately proved popular. Reagan's action demonstrated his commitment to upholding federal labor law, limiting federal spending, and cutting inflation. He also modeled his management style of delegating to subordinates and supporting his guidance with decisive judgment when necessary.More broadly, this decision had long-term significance that far exceeded its immediate importance. The response to the PATCO strike formed a pattern for future decisions and made a strong impression on foreign adversaries. It also contributed to the declining power of unions, marking a shift in labor politics that has continued to this day.Andrew Busch brings a wealth of insight to this concise and accessible book, making it an ideal entry into understanding Ronald Reagan's domestic policy and leadership, and a fine addition to the Landmark Presidential Decisions series.

Dyer, Glenn, The Era Was Lost: The Rise and Fall of New York City's Rank-and-File Rebels. (Justice, Power and Politics) 256 pp. 2024:10 (U. North Carolina Pr., US) <727-1385>
ISBN 978-1-4696-8206-8 paper ¥6,457.- (税込) US$ 29.95 *

An exciting yet relatively unknown episode in American labor history took place in New York City between 1965 and 1975. Rank-and-file members of numerous unions caught a ""strike fever"" as they challenged the entrenched power of some of the country's most powerful politicians, employers, and union leaders in a wave contract rejections, wildcat strikes, and electoral campaigns. Workers in unions across New York wanted more than better contracts: they contested control of the work process, racism on the job, and workers' place in America's socioeconomic hierarchy while implicitly and explicitly demanding greater democratic control of their representative organizations and lives. Some initial challenges were effective and succeeded in delivering better contracts and unseating undemocratic leaders. However, those early successes were short-lived. Glenn Dyer traces the way workers were met with employer recalcitrance and union attacks that proved too powerful to organize against. In the face of this resistance, workers retreated into a survivalist attitude of accommodation and resignation, contributing to the decline of social democratic New York and working-class power in the city. Ultimately, as Dyer argues, the failures of the rank-and-file organizing efforts in New York City, which was the biggest center of organized labor in the country, shows how stunted workers' aspirations and numerous defeats not only uprooted the foundations of New York's uniquely social democratic polity but also ushered in a national era of increased working-class subservience that has resonance today.

O'Donnell, Edward T., The Pullman Strike: A Gilded Age Clash between Labor, Capital, and Government. (Critical Moments in American History) 230 pp. 2024:10 (Routledge, UK) <727-1389>
ISBN 978-1-03-248391-7 hard ¥38,461.- (税込) GB￡ 135.00 *
ISBN 978-1-03-247382-6 paper ¥10,538.- (税込) GB￡ 36.99 *

This book examines the 1894 Pullman Strike, one of the most consequential clashes between labor and capital that paralyzed America's railroad system.The Gilded Age saw rapid economic growth, expansion of industrialization, and real wage growth. Yet between 1800 and 1900 there were nearly 37,000 strikes, and the Pullman Strike reflected the broad dissatisfaction and unrest among American workers. The book consists of an engaging narrative, analysis of existing scholarship, sidebars, and primary source documents which collectively answer why the Pullman Strike is so critical to the American Experience: it exposed the limits of paternalistic capitalism, revealed the extraordinary power of big business, introduced the use of injunctions to stop strikes, and launched the career of the iconic labor leader Eugene Debs. Overall, it reveals what struggles workers encountered when forming unions, the changing role of government regarding the economy, and the threat that unchecked big business posed to democracy.The Pullman Strike is useful for all undergraduate students who study the Gilded Age, industrial relations, and labor, urban, and economic history in the United States.