International Review of Social History - Current Issue

Volume 53 Issue 02

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT

International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02

International Review of Social History , is one of the leading journals in its field. Truly global in its scope, it focuses on research in social and labour history from a comparative and transnational perspective, both in the modern and in the early modern period, and across periods. The journal combines quality, depth and originality of its articles with an open eye for theoretical innovation and new insights and methods from within its field and from contiguous disciplines. Besides research articles, it features surveys of new themes and subject fields, a suggestions and debates section, review essays and book reviews. It is esteemed for its annotated bibliography of social history titles, and also publishes an annual supplement of specially commissioned essays on a current theme. The 2008 supplement will be on the "return of the guilds": contributors re-examine guilds within a international and transcontinental comparative framework and from the perspective of re-appraisal of the classic strict distinction between "capitalist" and "pre-capitalist" modes of production.

Skills, Trust, and Changing Consumer Preferences: The Decline of Antwerp's Craft Guilds from the Perspective of the Product Market, c.1500–c.1800

Research Articles
Bert De Munck,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 197-233

Abstract
BertDe MunckThe main reason for the decline of craft guilds in Antwerp should not be sought in the labour market but rather in the product market. Apprenticeship systems, master pieces, and trademarks were conducive to a labour market monopsony but at the same time to the representation of product quality. On the one hand, product quality was legitimized through the superior manual skills of masters; on the other, it was objectified through the attribution of quality marks to the characteristics of the raw material used. This strategy was successful for the sale of the durable, expensive, luxury products Antwerp was renowned for until the first half of the seventeenth century, but economic elites and customers stopped favouring corporative regulations when demand shifted towards less expensive and more fashionable products. As guild-based skills were not necessarily superior in reality, and consumer loyalty ultimately depended upon the masters trustworthiness, the craft guilds were bound to lose credibility.

Labour Commodification and Classification: An Illustrative Case Study of the New South Wales Boilermaking Trades, 1860–1920

Research Articles
Ben Maddison,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 235-260

Abstract
BenMaddisonLabour commodification is a core process in building capitalist society. Nonetheless, it is given remarkably little attention in labour and social historiography, because assumptions about the process have obscured its historical character. Abandoning these assumptions, a close study of labour commodification in the boilermaking trades of late colonial New South Wales (Australia) illustrates the historical character of the process. In these trades, labour commodification was deeply contested at the most intimate level of class relations between workers and employers. This contest principally took the form of a struggle over the scheme of occupational classification used as the basis of pay rates. It was a highly protracted struggle, because workers developed strategies that kept the employers efforts at bay for four decades. Employer efforts to intensify the commodity character of boilermakers labour were largely ineffective, until they were given great assistance in the early twentieth century by the state arbitration system.

The 1911 Waterfront Strikes in Glasgow: Trade Unions and Rank-and-File Militancy in the Labour Unrest of 1910–1914

Research Articles
Matt Vaughan Wilson,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 261-292

Abstract
Matt VaughanWilsonThis article examines one of several massive industrial conflicts experienced in Britain and elsewhere during 1910 1914, paying particular attention to organization and the dynamics of the strikes at a local level. It takes as a case study the port of Glasgow, which has until recently received little attention from historians of waterfront labour, despite its status as a major port and an important area for labour activity. Much literature on the waterfront strike wave emphasizes spontaneity and rank-and-file initiative. These were important in Glasgow as elsewhere, but experiences varied markedly between the major ports. Moreover, prior organization and individual initiative should not be overlooked. Officials of the National Sailors and Firemen s Union played a significant role at national and international levels, while Glasgow Trades Council and activists associated with it provided a critical lead locally. The strongly local character of the strike movement and its leadership in Glasgow shaped both the strikes themselves which were appreciably more unified and coherent in Glasgow than in some other centres and the subsequent development of waterfront organization on the Clyde, marked as it was by the emergence of independent locally-based unions among both dockers and seamen.

Picturing the Everyday Life of Limburg Miners: Photographs as a Historical Source

Research Articles
Joeri Januarius,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 293-312

Abstract
JoeriJanuariusAlthough recent years have seen growing theoretical interest among historians in the use of visual material, researchers continue to neglect the importance of photographs as source material. This is particularly striking since, now that iconographic material is becoming more widely available and archival institutions are beginning to place greater emphasis on visual material as use of the simple camera becomes more widespread, photographs often provide the only source of essential information for study. They illuminate the concept of the everyday, which in turn casts light on the significance of consumer goods, domestic comfort, the aspirations of men, women, and children, in short the banality of everyday life which echoed their mentalities and how they viewed the world.

BARKER, HANNAH. The Business of Women. Female Enterprise and Urban Development in Northern England 1760 45.00. PHILLIPS, NICOLA . Women in Business 1700–1850 . The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2006. 312 pp. £50.00; $95.00.

Book Reviews
Danielle van den Heuvel,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 313-315

Abstract

Mining Women. Gender in the Development of a Global Industry, 1670 to 2005. Ed. by Jaclyn J. Gier and Laurie Mercier. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 2006. x, 355 pp. £42.00.

Book Reviews
Caroline Waldron Merithew,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 315-317

Abstract

LATTEK, CHRISTINE . Revolutionary Refugees. German socialism in Britain, 1840–1860. [Routledge studies in modern British history, Vol. 2.] Routledge, London [etc.] 2006. xiv, 358 pp. £85.00.

Book Reviews
Toni Offermann,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 317-320

Abstract

DAHLÉN, MARIANNE . The Negotiable Child. The ILO Child Labour Campaign 1919–1973. Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2007. 352 pp. (http://publications.uu.se/theses)

Book Reviews
Elise J.V. van Nederveen Meerkerk,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 320-322

Abstract

KEN FONES-WOLF . Glass Towns. Industry, Labor, and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890–1930s. [The Working Class in American History.] University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago. 2007. xxvii, 236 pp.

Book Reviews
Dwight B. Billings,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 322-325

Abstract

WILDT, MICHAEL. Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung. Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz 1919 bis 1939. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2007, 432 pp. € 28.00.

Book Reviews
Jie-Hyun Lim,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 325-327

Abstract

SANTIAGO, MYRNA I . The Ecology of Oil. Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938. [Studies in Environment and History.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2006. Ill. Maps. xii, 411 pp. £50.00; $85.00.

Book Reviews
Michiel Baud,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 328-330

Abstract

TRIECE, MARY E. On the Picket Line. Strategies of Working-Class Women During the Depression. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc]. 2007. viii, 179 pp. $60.00. (Paper: $25.00.)

Book Reviews
Ileen A. DeVault,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 330-332

Abstract

VAN KEMSEKE, PETER. Towards an Era of Development. The Globalization of Socialism and Christian democracy 1945 32.00.

Book Reviews
Carl Strikwerda,
International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 332-335

Abstract

GUIDE TO THE INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS AT THE IISH: SUPPLEMENT OVER 2007

Abstracts

International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 377-385

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RÉSUMÉS

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International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 387-388

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ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN

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International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 389-390

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RESÚMENES

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International Review of Social History, Volume 53 Issue 02 , pp 391-392

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