Proletarians and Politics: Socialism, Protest, and the Working Class in Germany before the First World War.

1992 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Dan S. White ◽  
Richard J. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

The Strange Radicalism of Thomas Carnduff and St John Ervine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connal Parr
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
First World War ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
World War ◽  
Abbey Theatre ◽  
Unpublished Work ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

St John Ervine and Thomas Carnduff were born in working-class Protestant parts of Belfast in the 1880s, though Ervine would escape to an eventually prosperous existence in England. Orangeism, the politics of early twentieth-century Ireland, the militancy of the age—and the involvement of these writers in it—along with Ervine’s journey from ardent Fabian to reactionary Unionist, via his pivotal experiences managing the Abbey Theatre and losing a leg in the First World War, are all discussed. Carnduff’s own tumultuous life is reflected through his complicated Orange affiliation, gut class-consciousness, poetry, unpublished work, contempt for the local (and gentrified) Ulster artistic scene, and veneration of socially conscious United Irishman James Hope. It concludes with an assessment of their respective legacies and continuing import.

scholarly journals Whatever Happened to Red Clydeside?

1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Melling
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Working Class ◽  
First World War ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
World War ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
First World

SUMMARYRecent studies of industrial conflict during the First World War have challenged earlier interpretations of working-class politics in Britain. The debate has focussed on the events in west Scotland during the years when the legend of “Red Clydeside” was made. It is now commonplace to emphasise the limited progress of revolutionary politics and the presence of a powerful craft sectionalism in the industrial workforce. This essay discusses the recent research on workplace unrest, popular politics and the wartime state. Although the “new revisionism” provides an important corrective to earlier scholarship, there remain important questions which require a serious reappraisal of the forces behind the different forms of collective action which took place and their implications for the politics of socialism. It is argued that the struggles of skilled workers made an important contribution to the growth of Labour politics on the Clyde.

‘Not appreciated in Worthing?’ Class expression and popular song texts in mid-nineteenth-century Britain

Popular Music ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vic Gammon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
First World War ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World ◽  
Song Texts

Recent research shows that the English folksong collectors, who were active before the First World War, systematically selected what they took down from rural working-class singers, basing their selection on what they considered to be worth preserving from such singers' repertories. Their work, then, can only give us a biased and highly mediated impression of popular singing traditions (see Harker 1972 and 1982; Gammon 1980). The purpose of this article is to see if it is possible to go beyond the work of the collectors, to try to grasp something of the wholeness of popular nineteenth-century singing traditions, and also to situate those traditions socially.

The ‘Family Wage’ as a Class-Rational Strategy

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Creighton
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
First World War ◽  
Political Context ◽  
World War ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Wage ◽  
Wage Demand ◽  
First World

This paper re-examines the debate about the class rationality of the working-class demand for a family wage and argues that this issue cannot be resolved without considering the feasibility of alternative strategies. Existing accounts are criticized for their unrealistic treatment of these alternatives and the constraints upon them and particularly for their neglect of the influence of the policies of employers and the state upon working-class strategies. The argument is supported by discussion of the economic and political context of the family wage demand in Britain up to the First World War and concludes that the strategy was more rational than many writers have suggested.

The Working Class and the Mexican Revolution, c. 1900–1920

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Knight
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
First World

Like any major historical phenomenon, the Mexican Revolution can be viewed from a variety of angles. From one, arguably the most important, it was a rural phenomenon, rightly categorised by Eric Wolf as a ‘peasant war’, hence comparable to the Russian or Chinese Revolutions. Form another it can be seen as a generalised social and political (some might like to call it ‘hegemonic’ crisis, marking the end of the old oligarchic Porfirian order and characterised by mass political mobilisation; as such it bears comparison with the crises experienced in Italy and Germany after the First World War; in Spain in the early 1930s; in Brazil in the 1960s or Chile in the 1970s. But what it emphatically was not was a workers' revolution. No Soviets or workers' party sought — let alone attained — political hegemony. No Soviets or workers' councils were established, as in Petrograd or Berlin. There were no attempts at works' control of industry, as in Turin, Barcelina — or the gran mineria of Bolivia.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document