scholarly journals Introduction: Workers and Socialist States in Postwar Central and Eastern Europe

2005 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Pittaway
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social History ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Industrial Labor ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Projects

The essays in this special issue by Jack R. Friedman, Sándor Horváth, Peter Heumos, and Eszter Zsófia Tóth, reflect a growing interest in the social history of industrial labor and industrial communities in postwar Central and Eastern Europe. While they approach their subjects in different ways and employing distinct methodologies, the essays suggest how the history of the working class and its relationship to postwar socialist state formation across the region might be rethought. They illustrate how the protracted construction and consolidation of socialist states in the region was negotiated on an everyday level by working-class citizens, and that this was a dynamic process in which state projects interacted with a variety of working-class cultures, that were in turn segmented by notions of gender, skill, generation, and occupation. The essays all demonstrate, in their different ways, how working-class Eastern Europeans were not simply acted upon by the operation of dictatorial state power, but played a role in state formation across the region. This role was characterized by an ambiguous relationship between workers and those in power who sought legitimacy by claiming that their states represented the interests of the “working class.” Yet the policies those in power pursued often confronted working-class communities directly in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania, as these essays suggest. This produced a complex relationship characterized by consent, accommodation and conflict that varied from locality to locality, state to state, and from period to period.

scholarly journals Workers under Communist Rule: Research in the Former Socialist Countries of Eastern-Central and South-Eastern Europe and in the Federal Republic of Germany

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Heumos
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Social History ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European Countries

SummaryAfter the collapse of the communist system in eastern Europe, the development of the historiographies in the Czech and Slovak republics, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Federal Republic of Germany has been characterized by a broad spectrum of differences. This article offers an overview of the ways in which these differences have worked out for the history of the working class in the eastern European countries under communist rule, understood here as the social history of workers. It shows that cultural and political traditions and the “embedding” of historical research in the respective societies prior to 1989, the extent to which historiography after 1989 was able to connect to pre-1989 social-historical or sociological investigations, and the specific national political situation after 1989 make up for much of the differences in the ways that the history of the working class is dealt with in the countries concerned.

The “Chiliasm of Despair” Reconsidered: Revivalism and Working-Class Agitation in County Durham

1989 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Wide Acceptance ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Political Radicalism

The role of evangelical religion in the social history of the English working class has been an area of both bewildering theories and un-founded generalizations. The problem, of course, was given a degree of notoriety by Elie Halévy who, according to the received interpretation, claimed that the revolutionary fervor characteristic of the Continental working class in the first half of the nineteenth century was drained from its British counterpart because of the latter's acceptance of Evangelicalism, namely, Methodism.It was revived most notably by E. P. Thompson, who accepted the counterrevolutionary effect of Methodism but claimed that the evangelical message was really an agent of capitalist domination acting to subordinate the industrial working class to the dominion of factory time and work discipline. Furthermore, Thompson argued, the English working class only accepted Methodism reluctantly and in the aftermath of actual political defeats that marked their social and economic subordination to capital. This view has gained a wide acceptance among many of the most prominent labor historians, including E. J. Hobsbawm and George Rudé who believe that Evangelicalism was the working-class's “chiliasm of despair” that “offered the one-time labour militant … compensation for temporal defeats.”There could hardly be a starker contrast between the interpretation of these labor historians and the views of those who have examined the social and political history of religion in early industrial Britain. Among the most important of these, W. R. Ward has claimed that Methodism was popular among the laboring classes of the early nineteenth century precisely because it complemented political radicalism.

scholarly journals Choosing Death: Working-Class Coming of Age in Contemporary British Cinema

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dave
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
History Of ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
The Individual

Starting with Franco Moretti's hypothesis of a relationship between the experience of modernity and the coming of age narrative in the European novel, this article explores representations of the working-class Bildung in contemporary British films that can be seen as responding to social and economic changes generally associated with neoliberalism. Contrasting the emphasis on the individual negotiation of social space in the films of Danny Boyle with work from a range of directors, including Ken Loach, Penny Woolcock, Shane Meadows and Anton Corbijn, along with recent production cycles such as the football film, the article seeks to identify representations of working-class experiences, both limiting and liberating, which mark the inherently problematic attempt to imagine a successful working-class coming of age. In doing so, the article considers the usefulness of Raymond Williams’ class-inflected account of traditions of the social bond, in particular his notion of a ‘common culture’. At the same time, it examines how such representations of working-class life often emphasise the experience of class conflict, distinguished here from class struggle, and how, formally, this emphasis can result in narratives which are marked less by what Moretti describes as the ‘novelistic’, temporising structures of the classical Bildungsroman and more by the sense of crisis and trauma found in the late Bildungsroman and modern tragedy. Ultimately, the article argues for the relevance of the long view of the social history of Britain, as a pioneer culture of capitalism, in understanding these aspects of the representation of class cultures in contemporary British film.

scholarly journals Book Reviews

Aspasia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-207
Author(s):  
Kristen Ghodsee ◽  
Hülya Adak ◽  
Elsa Stéphan ◽  
Chiara Bonfiglioli ◽  
Ivan Stankov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social History ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
First Century ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Second Wave Feminism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Modern Turkey

Anna Artwinska and Agnieszka Mrozik, eds., Gender, Generations, and Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond, New York: Routledge, 2020, 352 pp., £120.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-0-36742-323-0.Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire, 48, no. 2 (2018)Lisa Greenwald, Daughters of 1968: Redefining French Feminism and the Women’s Liberation MovementGal Kirn, The Partisan Counter-Archive: Retracing the Ruptures of Art and Memory in the Yugoslav People’s Liberation StruggleMilena Kirova, Performing Masculinity in the Hebrew BibleAndrea Krizsan and Conny Roggeband, eds., Gendering Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative AgendaLudmila Miklashevskaya, Gender and Survival in Soviet Russia: A Life in the Shadow of Stalin’s TerrorBarbara Molony and Jennifer Nelson, eds., Women’s Activism and “Second Wave” Feminism: Transnational HistoriesN. K. Petrova, Zhenskie sud’by voiny (Women’s war fates)Feryal Saygılıgil and Nacide Berber, eds. Feminizm: Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce, Cilt 10 (Feminism: Thought in modern Turkey, vol. 10)Marsha Siefert, ed., Labor in State-Socialist Europe, 1945–1989: Contributions to a History of WorkZilka Šiljak Spahić, Sociologija roda: Feministička kritika (Sociology of gender: Feminist critique)Věra Sokolová and Ľubica Kobová, eds., Odvaha nesouhlasit: Feministické myšlení Hany Havelkové a jeho reflexe (The courage to disagree: Hana Havelková’s feminist thought and its reflections)Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz, Piotr Perkowski, Małgorzata Fidelis, Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Kobiety w Polsce, 1945–1989: Nowoczesność – równouprawnienie – komunizmp (Women in Poland, 1945–1989: Modernity, equality, communism)Vassiliki Theodorou and Despina Karakatsani, Strengthening Young Bodies, Building the Nation: A Social History of Children’s Health and Welfare in Greece (1890–1940) Maria Todorova, The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins: Imagining Utopia, 1870s–1920s Jessica Zychowicz, Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine

scholarly journals Self-censorship narrated: Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Schimpfössl ◽  
Ilya Yablokov ◽  
Olga Zeveleva ◽  
Taras Fedirko ◽  
Peter Bajomi-Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
History Of ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
The Relationship

Bringing together empirical studies of former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, this Special Issue explores the relationship between censorship and self-censorship. All the cases under consideration share a history of state-led censorship. Importantly, however, the authors argue that journalism in the former Eastern bloc has developed features similar to those observed in many countries which have never experienced state socialism. This introduction presents the theoretical framework and the historical backgound that provide the backdrop for this Special Issue’s contributions, all of which take a journalist-focused angle.

State Socialism, Egalitarianism, Collectivism: On the Social Context of Socialist Work Movements in Czechoslovak Industrial and Mining Enterprises, 1945–1965

2005 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 47-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Heumos
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Industrial Productivity

This article examines the social history of socialist work movements in Czechoslovakia during the first two decades of the Communist regime in the country. These movements were attempts to increase industrial productivity and to transform preexisting working-class culture. Not only did they founder on the chaotic operation of the bureaucratic planned economy and the endemic shortages it brought in train, they also foundered on the realities of labor relations in Czechoslovak enterprises. These were marked by the continuity of tensions inherited from the immediate postwar years that persisted into the Communist era, and the strength of egalitarian values among Czechoslovakia's working class.

scholarly journals Privacy and Social Spaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Natália Da Silva Perez
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Examination

In this introductory text to the special issue Regulating Access: Privacy and the Private in Early Modern Dutch Contexts, Natália da Silva Perez argues that privacy can be a productive analytical lens to examine the social history of the Dutch Republic. She starts by providing an overview of theoretical definitions of privacy and of the ‘private versus public’ dichotomy, highlighting their implications for the study of society. Next, she discusses the modern view of privacy as a legally protected right, explaining that we must adjust expectations when applying the concept to historical examination: in the early modern period, privacy was not yet fully incorporated within a legal framework, and yet, it was a widespread need across different echelons of society. She provides a historical overview of this widespread need for privacy through instances where people attempted to regulate access to their material and immaterial resources. Finally, she describes how the four articles in this special issue contribute to our understanding of the role of privacy in early modern Dutch life.

scholarly journals The “Rank and File” and the Social History of the Working Class

1989 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Cronin
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Labor History ◽  
Labor Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Explanation ◽  
Interpretive Frameworks

Labor history continues to progress. It continues, too, to transform itself from a field staffed by enthusiasts and partisans into a discipline peopled with scholars sympathetic to their subject but also highly conscious of the methods, theories and interpretive frameworks within which they work. The last few years in particular have witnessed a considerable intensification of scholarly controversy within labor history and a growing sophistication of debate. To some extent the discussion parallels the ongoing conversation among social historians about the boundaries of social history, the power of primarily social explanation and the role of language, culture and politics in social history. Unfortunately, however, the stepping up of debate in labor history coincides with a dip – temporary, one hopes, but perhaps more long-term – in the fortunes of labor movements themselves. This conjuncture seems to have produced a sense of pessimism and malaise as the sentimental accompaniment to many of the debates within labor history.

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