The Emancipation of Labor - (Contributions in Labor Studies) by Henryk Katz (Hardcover)

About the Book

Beginning in 1859, the world was engulfed by a new process of revolutionary change that was more extensive geographically, more prolonged in time, more powerful, and more varied in its consequences than the great European revolution of 1848-1849. The same working classes participated in both movements, but earlier visions were replaced by pragmatic ideas, new forms of organization, and new lines of action. This volume chronicles the emergence and evolution of one of the new groups, the International Working Men's Association, which went into history under the name of the First International.

Unlike previous historians and writers who generally aligned themselves with either Marx or Bakunin, the great rivals in the movement, author Henryk Katz offers a history of the group and its scores of fascinating personalities. He surveys the First International in the context of the general history of the period from 1846 to 1874, as well as in the context of the worldwide movements of liberation that included the freeing of American slaves, the emancipation of Russian serfs, and the unification of Italy. Katz also fully describes the major role the First International played in the process of the revival and expansion of the West European labor movement. Working from primary and secondary sources, Katz presents a secularized history of the International that will be a valuable reference tool for both libraries and a wide variety of history, political science, and sociology courses.

Book Synopsis

Beginning in 1859, the world was engulfed by a new process of revolutionary change that was more extensive geographically, more prolonged in time, more powerful, and more varied in its consequences than the great European revolution of 1848-1849. The same working classes participated in both movements, but earlier visions were replaced by pragmatic ideas, new forms of organization, and new lines of action. This volume chronicles the emergence and evolution of one of the new groups, the International Working Men's Association, which went into history under the name of the First International.

Unlike previous historians and writers who generally aligned themselves with either Marx or Bakunin, the great rivals in the movement, author Henryk Katz offers a history of the group and its scores of fascinating personalities. He surveys the First International in the context of the general history of the period from 1846 to 1874, as well as in the context of the worldwide movements of liberation that included the freeing of American slaves, the emancipation of Russian serfs, and the unification of Italy. Katz also fully describes the major role the First International played in the process of the revival and expansion of the West European labor movement. Working from primary and secondary sources, Katz presents a secularized history of the International that will be a valuable reference tool for both libraries and a wide variety of history, political science, and sociology courses.

Review Quotes

?This posthumous study by Katz, former International Secretary of the Labour History Society, continues the tradition of fine Eastern European scholarship on the history of socialism and the Left with a spirited account of Karl Marx's First International. This distinguished volume accomplishes a smooth merger of the labor situation in the early 1860s with the need to end the isolation of radical political theory. This detail adds a great deal to our knowledge of the International's origins and functionaries with clarity and economy. The chapter on Bakunin and the International uses much from Arthur Lehning and Max Nettlau, as any good study properly should. The confrontations between Marx and Bakunin, often sensationalized in earlier works, are played out with a context of the International's struggles to find an independent course between French and German delegates during the difficult period just before and after the Franco-Prussian War. In the International's last years before its collapse in 1876, the growing fragmentation between northern and southern European socialists becomes the pathway of the final chapters. A fine book and a good guide to the European manuscript collections dealing with this topic. Advanced undergraduate to faculty.?-Choice

"This posthumous study by Katz, former International Secretary of the Labour History Society, continues the tradition of fine Eastern European scholarship on the history of socialism and the Left with a spirited account of Karl Marx's First International. This distinguished volume accomplishes a smooth merger of the labor situation in the early 1860s with the need to end the isolation of radical political theory. This detail adds a great deal to our knowledge of the International's origins and functionaries with clarity and economy. The chapter on Bakunin and the International uses much from Arthur Lehning and Max Nettlau, as any good study properly should. The confrontations between Marx and Bakunin, often sensationalized in earlier works, are played out with a context of the International's struggles to find an independent course between French and German delegates during the difficult period just before and after the Franco-Prussian War. In the International's last years before its collapse in 1876, the growing fragmentation between northern and southern European socialists becomes the pathway of the final chapters. A fine book and a good guide to the European manuscript collections dealing with this topic. Advanced undergraduate to faculty."-Choice

About the Author

HENRYK KATZ was Honorary Research Fellow of the Coventry (England) Polytechnic, and a former instructor in the History and Politics Department at the University of Nottingham. He authored numerous books, articles, and journal reviews.