University of Illinois
History 301 (LIR 301, Sociology 301)
Prof. Diane P. Koenker
Spring 2000
European Working-Class History, 1750-Present
Syllabus
The everyday life of workers and their families at work, home, and in public constitutes the
focus of this course, which considers the experiences of workers and the working class in
Europe from the Industrial Revolution to the mid-twentieth century. The central theme of class
formation will help in studying the rise of workers as a class, the ways in which gender
structured class experience and class consciousness, changes in living standards, the
development of unique cultural worlds, stratification by skill, ethnicity, and religion,
workplace autonomy and control, collective action and labor organization, the role played by
workers in socialist movements and European politics, and the experience of workers under
Soviet communism and under fascism.
Books to Buy
Lenard R. Berlanstein, ed., The Industrial Revolution and Work in 19th-Century Europe (Routledge paper)
Patrick Joyce, ed. Class (Oxford paper)
Daniel H. Kaiser, ed. The Workers' Revolution in Russia: The View from Below (Cambridge paper)
Albert S. Lindemann, History of European Socialism (Yale paper)
Emile Zola, Germinal , Peter Collier, trans. (Oxford paper)
Course pack from Notes-n-Quotes, 502 E. John, Champaign
Required readings will also be available on reserve in the Undergraduate Library.
Course Outline
I. The Industrial Revolution: European Society Transformed (January 19-February 9)
1. Pre-Industrial Traditions
Reading: Lindemann, ch. 1 (pp. 1-36)
E. P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the 18th
Century," Past and Present , 50 (February 1971), pp. 76-136, in
packet (January 24)
Timeline exercise due January 24
Discussion: Moral economies (January 24)
2. The Problem of the Industrial Revolution: Economics and Proletarianization
Reading: Christopher H. Johnson in Berlanstein (pp. 81-101) (January 28)
Raphael Samuel in Berlanstein (pp. 26-43), Charles Tilly in
Berlanstein (pp. 44-60) (February 2)
Standard of living exercise due January 31
Discussion: the Industrial Revolution "problem" (February 2)
3. Class and Gender
Reading: Theresa McBride in Berlanstein (pp. 63-80) (February 4)
Joyce, Class, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Max Weber, in Part
A (February 7)
Discussion: Class, Part I (February 7)
Recommended:
David Cannadine article in Berlanstein, pp. 3-25
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Vintage, 1967), pp. 213-268; chaps. 10, 11
Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost, 2d ed. (New York, 1971)
Jean Quataert, "The Shaping of Women's Work in Manufacturing: Guilds, Households, and the State in Central Europe, 1648-1870," American Historical Review, 90:5 (1985), pp. 1122-48
Michael Sonenscher, "Journeymen's Migration and Workshop Organization in 18th Century France," in Work in France, eds. S. L. Kaplan and C. J. Koepp (Ithaca, 1986)
E. J. Hobsbawm, "The British Standard of Living, 1790-1850," in Laboring Men (New York, 1964)
E. P. Thompson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism," Past and
Present (December 1967)
II. Class, Consciousness, and Class Struggles to 1848 (February 9-18)
4. Chartism and Socialism
Reading: Lindemann, ch. 2 (pp. 37-85) (February 9)
Joan W. Scott in Berlanstein (pp. 163-175) (February 11)
William H. Sewell, Jr. in Berlanstein (pp. 148-162) (February 14)
5. Class and Class Consciousness
Reading: Joyce, Class, Part C(a) (February 16)
Joyce, Class, Part C(b) (February 18)
Discussion: Class, Part II (February 16 and February 18)
FIRST ESSAY DUE FEBRUARY 21
Recommended:
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York, 1963), introduction and ch. 16
Anna Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches: Gender and the Making of the British Working Class (Berkeley, 1995)
Gareth Stedman Jones, Language of Class (Cambridge, 1983)
Marc W. Steinberg, Fighting Words: Working-Class Formation, Collective Action, and
Discourse in Early Nineteenth-Century England (Cornell 1999), ch. 12
III. Socialism and the Labor Movement, 1850-1890 (February 21-March 3)
6. French Coal Miners on Strike
Reading: Zola (all) (February 23-25)
Discussion: Germinal as a source of working-class experience (February 23 and
25)
7. The Rise of Democratic Socialism
Reading: Peter Stearns in Berlanstein (pp. 127-47) (February 28)
Lindemann, ch. 3 (pp. 87-132), pp. 133-158 of ch. 4 (March 1)
Otto Krille memoir from The German Worker: Working-Class Autobiographies from the Age of Industrialization, ed. Alfred Kelly (Berkeley, 1987), pp. 269-286, in packet (March 1)
Adelheid Popp memoir from The German Worker, pp. 121-134, in packet (March 1)
S. I. Kanatchikov memoir from The Russian Worker: Life and Labor
under the Tsarist Regime, ed. Victoria E. Bonnell (Berkeley, 1983),
pp. 36-71, in packet (March 3)
Recommended:
Vasilii Gerasimov, "Foster Child of the Foundling Home," in Reginald Zelnik, Law and Disorder on the Narova River: The Kreenholm Strike of 1872 (Berkeley, 1995), pp. 270-295.
Bernard Moss, The Origins of the French Labor Movement (Berkeley, 1976)
Michelle Perrot, Strikers in France (New Haven, 1987)
Allan K. Wildman, The Making of a Workers' Revolution: Russian Social-Democracy, 1891-1903 (Chicago 1967)
Dick Geary, European Labor Protest, 1848-1939 (1981)
Vernon Lidtke, The Alternative Culture: Socialist Labor in Imperial Germany (New York, 1985)
Sonya Rose, Limited Livelihoods: Gender and Class in 19th Century England (Berkeley
1991)
IV. European Workers at the "Highest Stage of Capitalism" (March 6-March 27)
Discussion: Researching and writing your research paper (March 6)
8. Divisions: Skill and Gender
Reading: E. A. Oliunina memoir from The Russian Worker, pp. 154-84, in packet (March 8)
Eugen May memoir from The German Worker, pp. 370-388, in packet (March 10)
Jeanne Bouvier memoir from The French Worker : Autobiographies from the Early Industrial Era, ed. Mark D. Traugott (Berkeley, 1993), pp. 336-382, in packet (March 10)
Jean-Baptiste Dumay memoir from The French Worker , pp. 309-335, in packet (March 10)
Review memoirs of Krille, Popp, Oliunina, Kanatchikov (March 10)
Discussion: Workers as autobiographers (March 10)
9. Culture, Class, and Ideology
Reading: James S. Roberts in Berlanstein (pp. 102-126) (March 22)
Joyce, Class, Robert Roberts and Richard Hoggart in Part E (March
24)
Discussion: Class, Part III (March 24)
PAPER PROPOSALS DUE MARCH 24
Reading: Lindemann, pp. 158-184 of ch. 4 (March 27)
Recommended:
E.J. Hobsbawm, "The Making of the Working Class, 1870-1914," in Hobsbawm, Workers (New York 1984)
W. Scott Haine, The World of the Paris Cafe: Sociability among the French Working Class, 1789-1914 (Baltimore,1996)
E.J. Hobsbawm, "The Labor Aristocracy in 19th Century Britain," Laboring Men (Garden City, NY, 1967)
Kathryn Amdur, Syndicalist Legacy: Trade Unions and Politics in Two French Cities in the Era of World War I (Urbana 1986)
Kathleen Canning, Languages of Labor and Gender: Female Factory Work in Germany, 1850-1914 (Ithaca, 1996)
Heather Hogan, Forging Revolution: Metalworkers, Managers, and the State in St. Petersburg, 1890-1914 (Bloomington 1993)
Helen Harden Chenut, "The Gendering of Skill as Historical Process: The Case of
French Knitters in Industrial Troyes 1880-1939,"" in Gender and Class in Modern
Europe, ed. Laura L. Frader and Sonya O. Rose (Ithaca, 1996), pp. 77-107
V. Revolutionary Europe, 1914-1921 (March 29-April 5)
10. Russia, 1914-1921
Reading: Steve Smith and Diane Koenker in Kaiser )pp. 59-97) (March 29)
William G. Rosenberg, "Russian Labor," in Kaiser (pp. 98-131)
(March 31)
11. Labor Insurgency in Europe
Reading: Lindemann, ch. 5 (pp. 185-221) (April 3)
Ronald Suny, William Rosenberg, "Conclusion," in Kaiser (pp. 1-19,
132-41) (April 5)
Discussion: Is Russia the exception in European working-class history? (April 5)
Recommended:
James Cronin, "Labor Insurgency and Class Formation: Comparative Perspectives on the Crisis of 1917-1920 in Europe," in Work, Community, and Power, ed. Carmen Sirianni and James Cronin (Philadelphia, 1983), pp. 20-48.
Diane P. Koenker and William G. Rosenberg, Strikes and Revolution in Russia, 1917 (Princeton 1989), ch. 10
Paolo Spriano, The Occupation of the Factories (London, 1975)
Temma Kaplan, "Female Consciousness and Collective Action: The Case of Barcelona, 1910-1918," Signs 7 (Spring 1982), 545-66
Belinda Davis, "Food Scarcity and the Empowerment of the Female Consumer in World War I Berlin," in The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, ed. Victoria de Grazia with Ellen Furlough (Berkeley, 1996)
Mary Nolan, "Workers and Revolution in Germany, 1918-1919: The Urban Dimension," in Work, Community, and Power, ed. James Cronin and Carmen Sirianni (Philadelphia,1983)
Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990 : From Popular Protests to
Socialist State (Princeton, 1997), chap. 2.
SECOND ESSAY DUE APRIL 7
VI. Postwar Alternatives: Socialism, Capitalism, Fascism (April 7-May 3)
12. Gender, Leisure, Divisions of labor
Reading: Lindemann, ch. 6 (pp. 222-256) (April 10)
George Orwell, selection from The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 4-7, pp. 53-106, in packet (April 12)
13. Workers in Authoritarian Regimes
Reading: Lindemann, ch. 7 (pp. 257-287) (April 17)
Diane P. Koenker, "Labor Relations in Socialist Russia: Class Values and Production Values in the Printers' Union, 1917-1921," from Making Workers Soviet: Power, Class, and Identity , ed. Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Ronald Grigor Suny (Ithaca, 1994), pp. 159-93, in packet (April 17)
Lindemann, ch. 8 (pp. 288-321) (April 21)
Detlev Peukert, "The Working Class: Everyday Life and Opposition,"
ch. 7 of Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism
in Everyday Life (New Haven, 1987), pp. 101-144, in packet (April
24)
Discussion: Germany and the USSR compared (April 24)
Reading: Eric D. Weitz, "The Primacy of Politics: State and Society in the DDR," ch. 10 of Creating German Communism, 1890-1990 : From Popular Protests to Socialist State (Princeton, 1997), pp. 357-386, in packet (April 28)
Lindemann, ch. 9 (pp. 322-362) (April 28)
14. Class and Postmodernity
Reading: Joyce, Class, Part B, selections
Discussion: Class, Part IV (May 1)
Recommended:
Michael Seidman, Workers against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts (Berkeley 1991), ch. 2, 6, 11, 13
Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz, "Beyond Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Weimar Women in Politics and Work," When Biology Became Destiny, eds. Bridenthal, A. Grossman, M. Kaplan (New York, 1984)
Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization (Berkeley, 1995)
Ross McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class: Social Relations in Britain, 1880-1950 (Oxford 1990), ch. 1, 8, 9
Joanna Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain, 1890-1960 (London, 1994), ch. 6
Diane P. Koenker, "Men against Women on the Shop Floor in Early Soviet Russia: Class and Gender in the Socialist Workplace," American Historical Review, 100:5 (December 1995),
Tim Mason, The Containment of the Working Class in Nazi Germany," in Nazism, Fascism, and the Working Class: Essays by Tim Mason, ed. Jane Caplan (Cambridge, 1995), 231-273.
Laura L. Frader, "Engendering Work and Wages: The French Labor Movement and the Family Wage," in Gender and Class in Modern Europe, ed. Laura L. Frader and Sonya O. Rose (Ithaca, 1996), pp. 142-164
Laura Lee Downs, Manufacturing Inequality: Gender Division in the French and British Metalworking Industries, 1914-1939 (Ithaca, NY, 1995)
Herrick Chapman, State Capitalism and Working-Class Radicalism in the French Aircraft Industry (Berkeley, 1990)
Padraic Kenney, Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists 1945-1950 (Ithaca,
1997)
RESEARCH PAPER DUE MAY 3
Course Requirements
1) You should complete all the required readings and you are encouraged to explore some
of the recommended readings as well. Class meetings will be devoted to some lectures and
regular discussions based on the assigned readings. There will be a few problem sets and
study questions to help with discussion. You are expected to attend all classes and to
participate regularly in class discussion. Classroom participation (attendance, speaking up, and
doing the exercises) will count for 20 percent of your final grade.
2) Two short essays (5-8 pages) on assigned topics.
The first will be on the problem of class and class consciousness, drawing on the readings in the Joyce volume. The assignment will be handed out in class on February 14, and it will be due February 21.
The second essay will be on the problem of worker participation in the Russian revolution, drawing on readings in the Kaiser volume as well as your readings on class and class consciousness. The assignment will be handed out on March 31, and the essay will be due April 7.
Each essay will count for 25 percent of your grade.
3) Each student will be expected to write a research paper on some problem of working-class history. Topics should be chosen as early as possible during the semester. I will
distribute a bibliography in the first weeks of the course as well as a suggested list of possible
topics. Each of you should discuss your interests and possible topics with me during office
hours before spring break. We will discuss the writing project in class on March 6. A one-page PAPER PROPOSAL will be due March 24, containing a statement of your topic, your
reasons for choosing it, and a preliminary list of sources. I will comment on the topic and
sources and make suggestions for additional or alternative sources. The final paper should be
12-15 pages long and is due the last day of class, May 3. ALL PAPERS MUST BE
ACCOMPANIED BY ALL NOTES AND ROUGH DRAFTS USED IN THEIR
PREPARATION. These will be returned. The research paper will count for 30 percent of
your grade.
Summary of Deadlines
February 21 First essay due
March 24 Research paper proposals due
April 7 Second essay due
May 3 Research paper due
Office Hours
301 Gregory Hall
244-2083
e-mail: dkoenker@uiuc.edu
Wednesdays and Fridays, 11-12
Other times readily available by appointment.