In an important contribution to a perennial debate, Dr Savage argues that over-concentration on national labour movements has ignored the variety of local political strategies developed by working-class movements; these variations show that working-class politics develops on the basis of different types of solidarity rooted in various forms of local social structure. Such mutations are not a recent development, testifying to the decline of class politics, but have been an enduring feature of capitalist societies. In a detailed case study of Preston, Lancashire, Dr Savage shows how the strategies and strengths of the various political parties changed between 1880 and 1940, as workplace solidarities gave way to neighbourhood-based ones, and as changing gender relations in the textile industry facilitated the organisation of women. Its sophisticated use of sociological theory and detailed empirical analysis distinguish The Dynamics of Working-Class Politics as one of the more important essays in historical sociology published in past years.
This groundbreaking comparative study rediscovers the socialists of Russia’s borderlands, upending conventional interpretations of working-class politics and the Russian Revolution. Researched in eight languages, Revolutionary Social Democracy challenges long-held assumptions by scholars and activists about the dynamics of revolutionary change.
Many black strategies of daily resistance have been obscured--until now. Race rebels, argues Kelley, have created strategies of resistance, movements, and entire subcultures. Here, for the first time, everyday race rebels are given the historiographical attention they deserve, from the Jim Crow era to the present.
It wasn't so long ago that the white working class occupied the middle of British and American societies. But today members of the same demographic, feeling silenced and ignored by mainstream parties, have moved to the political margins. In the United States and the United Kingdom, economic disenfranchisement, nativist sentiments and fear of the unknown among this group have even inspired the creation of new right-wing parties and resulted in a remarkable level of support for fringe political candidates, most notably Donald Trump. Answers to the question of how to rebuild centrist coalitions in both the U.S. and U.K. have become increasingly elusive. How did a group of people synonymous with Middle Britain and Middle America drift to the ends of the political spectrum? What drives their emerging radicalism? And what could possibly lead a group with such enduring numerical power to, in many instances, consider themselves a "minority" in the countries they once defined? In The New Minority, Justin Gest speaks to people living in once thriving working class cities--Youngstown, Ohio and Dagenham, England--to arrive at a nuanced understanding of their political attitudes and behaviors. In this daring and compelling book, he makes the case that tension between the vestiges of white working class power and its perceived loss have produced the unique phenomenon of white working class radicalization.
Applying an original theoretical framework, an international group of historians and social scientists here explores how class, rather than other social bonds, became central to the ideologies, dispositions, and actions of working people, and how this process was translated into diverse institutional legacies and political outcomes. Focusing principally on France. Germany, and the United States, the contributors examine the historically contingent connections between class, as objectively structured and experienced, and collective perceptions and responses as they develop in work, community, and politics. Following Ira Katznelson's introduction of the analytical concepts, William H. Sewell, Jr., Michelle Perrot, and Alain Cottereau discuss France; Amy Bridges and Martin Shefter, the United States; and Jargen Kocka and Mary Nolan, Germany. The conclusion by Aristide R. Zolberg comments on working-class formation up to World War I, including developments in Great Britain, and challenges conventional wisdom about class and politics in the industrializing West.
Richard Müller, a leading figure of the German Revolution in 1918, is unknown today. As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin’s metalworkers, he was main organiser of the ‘Revolutionary Stewards’, a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Müller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic. Using new archival sources and abandoning the traditional focus on the history of political parties, Ralf Hoffrogge zooms in on working class politics on the shop floor and its contribution to social change. First published in German by Karl Dietz Verlag as Richard Müller - Der Mann hinter der November Revolution, Berlin, 2008, this english edition was completerly revised for the english speaking audience and contains new sources and recent literature.
Today’s political controversy over immigration highlights the plight of the working class in this country as perhaps no other issue has recently done. The political status of immigrants exposes the power dynamics of the “new working class,” which includes the former labor aristocracy, women, and people of color. This new working class suffers exploitation in advanced industrial countries as the social cost of capitalism’s success in a neoliberal and globalized political economy. Paradoxically, as borders become more open, they are also increasingly fortified, subjecting many workers to the suspension of law. In this book, Kathleen Arnold analyzes the role of the state’s “prerogative power” in creating and sustaining this condition of severe inequality for the most marginalized sectors of our population in the United States. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical literature from Locke to Marx and Agamben (whose notion of “bare life” features prominently in her construal of this as a “biopolitical” era), she focuses attention especially on the values of asceticism derived from the Protestant work ethic to explain how they function as ideological justification for the exercise of prerogative power by the state. As a counter to this repressive set of values, she develops the notion of “authentic love” borrowed from Simone de Beauvoir as a possible approach for dealing with the complex issues of exploitation in liberal democracy today.
In the aftermath of the 2012 elections some progressive commentators have drawn the mistaken conclusion that the Democratic coalition no longer needs to win the support of any significant number of white working class Americans. The high turnout and pro-Democrats tilt of youth, minorities, single women and upscale professionals in 2012 has led some political strategists to imagine a new "Obama coalition" that does not need to include white working Americans. Andrew Levison's remarkable new book dramatically challenges this false notion and presents a compelling case that winning the support of a substantial group of white working class Americans remains absolutely critical for the creation of a stable Democratic majority. The book very dramatically shows: That white workers remain a critical swing group in American politics That white workers represent a far larger part of the workforce than is often thought. That white workers are not all "conservative" but include many progressives and moderates as well. The book presents extensive data drawn from demographic analysis, opinion polls, focus groups and field research to butress its dramatic conclusions Reviews: Andy Levison's The White Working Class Today is a tremendous contribution to our understanding of this vital group. Too many progressives dismiss the white working class as either irrelevant or hopelessly reactionary or both. Levison shows in this compelling, empirically grounded work just how wrong they are. I don't often describe a book as a "must read." This is one. Ruy Teixeira, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution and Author of The Emerging Democratic Majority: The White Working Class Today is a studious, well-researched, and timely signal to progressives that we cannot ignore today's Reagan Democrats. Levison is a rare voice in progressive and Democratic circles today, and this book raises critical questions about how progressives should think about, define, and address the needs of the white working class. Stan Greenberg, leading Democratic pollster, political strategist and advisor to Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Tony Blair and other progressive leaders "In "White Working Class Today," Andrew Levison offers us a powerful analysis and solution to one of the most important dynamics in politics -- the alienation between white working class voters and liberals. Levision fills a large void in an important discussion, explaining exactly how the Democratic coalition can break the political stalemate, bring this important group into the fold and move a stable, progressive agenda forward. Karen Nussbaum, Executive director of Working America, the 3 million member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Andrew Levison's book assesses today's white working class from a fresh, empirically-grounded perspective, and provides unique insight for all those who want to understand this critically important segment of U.S. society and political life. Ed Kilgore, political commentator, author of the Washington Monthly's Political Animal.
This book explores the new politics of class in 21st century Britain. It shows how the changing shape of the class structure since 1945 has led political parties to change, which has both reduced class voting and increased class non-voting. This argument is developed in three stages. The first is to show that there has been enormous social continuity in class divisions. The authors demonstrate this using extensive evidence on class and educational inequality, perceptions of inequality, identity and awareness, and political attitudes over more than fifty years. The second stage is to show that there has been enormous political change in response to changing class sizes. Party policies, politicians' rhetoric, and the social composition of political elites have radically altered. Parties offer similar policies, appeal less to specific classes, and are populated by people from more similar backgrounds. Simultaneously the mass media have stopped talking about the politics of class. The third stage is to show that these political changes have had three major consequences. First, as Labour and the Conservatives became more similar, class differences in party preferences disappeared. Second, new parties, most notably UKIP, have taken working class voters from the mainstream parties. Third, and most importantly, the lack of choice offered by the mainstream parties has led to a huge increase in class-based abstention from voting. Working class people have become much less likely to vote. In that sense, Britain appears to have followed the US down a path of working class political exclusion, ultimately undermining the representativeness of our democracy. They conclude with a discussion of the Brexit referendum and the role that working class alienation played in its historic outcome.
