The 50th volume of the Socialist Register is dedicated to the theme of 'registering class' in light of the spread and deepening of capitalist social relations around the globe. Today's economic crisis has been deployed to extend the class struggle from above while many resistances have been explicitly cast in terms of class struggles from below. This volume addresses how capitalist classes are reorganizing as well as the structure and composition of working classes in the 21st century.

Karl Marx has a unique position in the development of economic and social thought; no-one else has been subject to so much, and to such contradictory, interpretive behaviour. The publication of "Karl Marx's Economics: Critical Assessments" in 1987 brought together the range of critical material on Marx. It established a benchmark for Marx studies, and aims to serve as a resource for scholars. "Karl Marx's Economics: New Critical Assessments" completes the project of the earlier assessments by making available more than 100 additional titles. Primarily these are articles which have appeared since the earlier volumes were published, or which appeared as the earlier volumes were being compiled, and interest in Marx has raged throughout this period. Subjects addressed include traditional controversies in Marxian economics such as Marx's view on the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the transformation problem, and newer controversies, for example, those relating to the re-interpretations of Marx by Piero Sraffa and by John Roemer.

The British Labour Party has at times been a force for radical change in the UK, but one critical aspect of its makeup has been consistently misunderstood and underplayed: its Britishness. Throughout the party's history, its Britishness has been an integral part of how it has done politics, acted in government and opposition, and understood the UK and its nations and regions. The People's Flag and the Union Jack is the first comprehensive account of how Labour has tried to understand Britain and Britishness and to compete in a political landscape defined by conservative notions of nation, patriotism and tradition. At a time when many of the party faithful regard national identity as a toxic subject, academics Gerry Hassan and Eric Shaw argue that Labour's Britishness and its ambiguous relationship with issues of nationalism matter more today than ever before, and will continue to matter for the foreseeable future, when the UK is in fundamental crisis. As debate rages about Brexit, and the prospect of Scottish independence remains live, this timely intervention, featuring contributions from a wealth of pioneering thinkers, offers an illuminating and perceptive insight into Labour's past, present and future.

During the years between the publication of the first of his two major works, "The Structure of Social Action "(1937), and the writing of his second, "The Social System "(1951), Talcott Parsons was primarily engaged in political activity through the Office of Strategic Services in its efforts to bring about the defeat of the Third Reich and to set the stage for a democratic reconstruction of postwar Germany. Beyond Parsons' analytic skills the essays reveal a dedicated liberal scholar, far removed from the stereotypes with which he came to be pilloried by later critics.
The essays in this collection are the by-products of that special period of intense commitment. They reflect a single dominant theme: National Socialist Germany is seen as a tragically flawed social system but one requiring the same rigorous analysis Parsons brought to more normal and normative systems. Since virulent authoritarianism and even more virulent anti-Semitism were the dominant traits of that system as he saw it, Parsons dedicated many pages to each aspect. While he did not know the full horror of the Nazi "war against the Jews" he was able to develop a theoretical framework that continues to be a foundation stone for the analysis of national socialism.
Gerhardt's editorial labors in the Parsons archive at Harvard have yielded nothing less than a "new book" by the foremost American sociological theorist of his time. This collection of both published and unpublished writings conveys Parsons' cohesive intent. To these otherwise fugitive and neglected essays Gerhardt contributes an introductory essay of her own: in part biography, in part intellectual and social history. She discovered Parsons work on National Socialism while studying his sociology of the professions and his use of medical practice to demonstrate how social science could become an antidote for fascism and authoritarianism.
"Uta Gerhardt" is director of the Medical Sociology Unit at Justus Liebig University, Giessen. She has taught sociology at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Konstanz, the University of California at Berkeley, the San Francisco Medical School, the University of London, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The present volume comes out of her sabbatical year as Research Affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, of Harvard University.

This study explores the meanings ascribed to sexual differences within early 19th century French socialism, and the implications of such definitions for women. Through a detailed examination of the theories of Charles Fourier, the Saint-Simonians and Flora Tristan, it illustrates how gender distinctions provided a tool of social criticism and an image of the idealized future. Love and sympathy were assigned as the qualities of the feminine, thus justifying women's social participation alongside men. Furthermore, these qualities gave the feminine a symbolic significance in the project of moral and social renewal, evoking the desired world of harmony and co-operation. Rather than rejecting the binary distinction between masculine and feminine which was gaining new importance in their society, therefore, socialists challenged the value it ascribed to each sex and the roles it legitimated. However, the accentuation of sex differences also circumscribed the possibilities for female liberty and self-definition in their own society, and in the ideal worlds they envisaged.

At a time when socialism appears to be on the wane, anthropological analyses of its origins and worldwide diffusion are long overdue. The aspirations of socialists have led to many dead-ends, and revolutionary claims must be carefully scrutinized against a background of cultural communities. Yet there are few, if any, peoples in today's world who remain unaffected by socialism, both as a political force and as a set of ideas, and no-one can doubt that its cultural legacies will make themselves felt in years to come, in the so-called First and Third worlds, as well as in its Eurasian heartlands. While anthropological work illuminates some of the mechanisms of the recent changes which have removed socialists from power in many countries it also reveals the factors which have given socialism such a profound worldwide impact, and which helped socialist societies to reproduce themselves effectively for so long. "Socialism" presents diverse examples of ideals and realities and offers detailed ethnographic accounts of specific groups such as rural cultivators in China and Tanzania, gypsies in Hungary, actors in Czechoslovakia, and village women in Poland and Industrial North-East England.

First full length study in English of the Japanese Red Army. Contains lots of new information about the groups links with international terrorism. Reveals the intellectuals who supported terrorism.

How true is it that National Socialism led to an ideologically distorted pseudo-science? What was the relationship between the regime funding 'useful' scientific projects and the scientists offering their expertise? And what happened to the German scientific community after 1945, especially to those who betrayed and denounced Jewish colleagues? In recent years, the history of the sciences in the Third Reich has become a field of growing importance, and the in-depth research of a new generation of German scholars provides us with new, important insights into the Nazi system and the complicated relationship between an elite and the dictatorship. This book portrays the attitudes of scientists facing National Socialism and war and uncovers the continuities and discontinuities of German science from the beginning of the twentieth century to the postwar period. It looks at ideas, especially the Humboldtian concept of the university; examines major disciplines such as eugenics, pathology, biochemistry and aeronautics, as well as technologies such as biotechnology and area planning; and it traces the careers of individual scientists as actors or victims.
The striking results of these investigations fill a considerable gap in our knowledge of the Third Reich but also of the postwar role of German scientists within Germany and abroad.

Militarism is usually regarded as a phenomenon of the political right. It has traditionally been seen as alien - indeed, as antithetical - to the values and principles of the left. In Britain during the years before the Great War, however, the relationship between militarism and the politics of the left was a highly complex one. Militarism in pre-war British society was manifest in a variety of forms, from popular enthusiasm for war and martial values, to demands for greater provision to be made for the nation's defence, and even in calls for the militarization of society itself. The response of the political left to these challenges was ambivalent and contested. Whilst militaristic sentiment and practice did not always sit comfortably alongside progressive principles, an ideological space existed on the left in which militaristic ideas could take root. Indeed, militarism could take on ostensibly 'progressive' forms that proved particularly appealing to some elements on the left. Moving beyond the focus on pacifism and anti-militarism that has characterized much of the existing scholarship on this subject, this book explores the ways in which Liberals, socialists, and others on the left of British politics were able to accommodate aspects of militarism during the years before 1914. In doing so it offers an intriguing new perspective on the nature of militarism itself.

Questioning the primacy of class in socialist movements, this journal provides examples that debunk this myth, from the Yiddish-speaking subculture within the British Social Democratic Federation to the squatters' movements of the mid-20th century. Historians Meg Allen, Paul Burnham, and David M. Young, and the poet and biographer Charles Hobday, discuss social movements from the distant past connected to the legend of Robin Hood. Also featured is an exchange between Andy Croft and John Newsinger on the nature of George Orwell's socialism. An alternative selection of greatest Britons chosen by poets Benjamin Zephaniah and Adrian Mitchel, among others, is also provided.

This book presents a critical and empirically informed examination of Islamophobia and related issues of racism and nationalism in Germany today, with particular attention to the East/West distinction. The authors, representing several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and media and literary studies, situate the topic in the global and German context of the 2015-16 "migration crisis" and its aftermath, and of the ongoing transformations seen in the postsocialist regions of the European Union. Since the 2015-16 "refugee crisis," illiberal leaders and parties within Europe have instrumentalized Islamophobia in an attempt to dislodge the traditional political elites. Strikingly, such illiberal movements have been most successful in the formerly socialist areas of the EU. This is mirrored within Germany itself, where political formations with an Islamophobic agenda remain more popular in the East than in the West. This volume examines the reasons for this difference, including not only the ideological heritage of Soviet-dominated socialism but also the effects of western interventions in the formerly socialist areas in and beyond Germany since the end of the Cold War. Some Islamophobic and other hateful tendencies were in fact introduced from, and continue to prosper also, in the West. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

In the book the author discusses the reasons for the collapse of the socialist system in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He analyses the roles of economic and political factors and of the USSR. He concludes that the lack of legitimacy of the communist regime, the disintegration of the Communist Party and its ideology were at least as important reasons as increasing lag behind the West in technology and the declining standard of living.

This publication consists of 12 essays on the principal thinkers and schools of thought concerned with the political and historical development of the Labour Party and Labour movement. It is an examination of the major methodologies and approaches in Labour studies and a critical evaluation and appreciation of much of the most interesting scholarship in this area of study. The essays have been written by contributors who have devoted many years to the study of the Labour Party, the trade union movement and the various ideologies associated with them. and goes on to examine key periods in the development of the ideologies to which the party has subscribed. This includes the ideology on inter-war Labourism, the rival post-war perspectives on Labourism, the New Left, and the contentious alliance of unions with Labour. Key thinkers analysed include: Henry Pelling; Ross McKibbin; Ralph Miliband; Lewis Minkin; David Marquand; Perry Anderson; and Tom Nairn. Each chapter situates its subject matter in the context of a broader intellectual legacy, including the works of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Theodore Rothstein, Stuart Hall and Samuel Beer, among others. This book should be of interest to undergraduate students of British politics and political theory and to academics concerned with Labour politics and history, trade union history and politics, research methodology and political analysis.

From the publicity surrounding the publication of Eric Hobsbawm's memoirs to the posthumous expose of Christopher Hill, the links between communism and the universities in the 1930s that are still present today are explored in this book. In addition to an interview with Hobsbawm by David Howell, features include a summary of the reviews of his autobiography by John Callaghan and the publication for the first time of a different type of autobiographical document--the party biography that Hobsbawm compiled for the British communist party. Other Marxist historians of the same generation are featured including Dorothy Thompson, Victor Kiernan, and Christopher Hill. As well as the usual reviews section, focusing especially on political commitments made in the age of extremes, a discussion by David Renton of Paul Lafargue's classic text, "The Right To Be Lazy, is included.

This classic collection of essays by E.P. Thompson, one of England's most renowned socialist voices, remains a staple text in the history of Marxist theory. The bulk of the book is dedicated to Thompson's famous polemic against Louis Althusser and what he considers the reductionism and authoritarianism of Althusserian structuralism. In lively and erudite prose, Thompson argues for a self-critical and unapologetically humanist Marxist tradition. Also included are three essays of considerable importance to the development of the New Left.

"State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies" provides detailed examinations of a range of state-society relations in post-socialism. It examines ways that the state regulates or sets the parameters for regulating capitalist practices and the ways in which the state interacts with social groups focused on changing state policy. The cases cover the full range of post-socialist countries, from the Central European new members of the EU, to those in Eastern Europe, as well as a range of countries of the former Soviet Union, including a "progressive" country (Lithuania) and a "reform resister" (Belarus).

In a time of great gloom and doom internationally and of major global problems, this book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of alternative societies that could be better for humans and the environment. Bringing together a wide range of approaches and new strands of economic and social thinking from across the US, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Luke Martell critically assesses contemporary alternatives and shows the ways forward with a convincing argument of pluralist socialism. Presenting a much-needed introduction to the debate on alternatives to capitalism, this ambitious book is not about how things are, but how they can be!

Against the historical backdrop of successive socialist and post-socialist claims to have completely remade society, the contributors to this volume explore the complex and often paradoxical continuities between diverse post-socialist presents and their corresponding socialist and pre-socialist pasts. The chapters focus on ways in which: pre-socialist economic, political, and cultural forms in fact endured an era of socialism and have found new life in the post-socialist present, notwithstanding revolutionary socialist claims; continuities with a pre-socialist past have been produced within the historical imaginary of post-socialism; and socialist economic, political, and cultural forms have in fact endured in a purportedly postsocialist era, despite the claims of neo-liberal reformers.

Harry G. West is Reader in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His research in northern Mozambique has examined how colonialism, revolutionary socialism, and post-socialist political and economic liberalization have reconfigured institutions of local authority.

Parvathi Raman is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Her research in South Africa explores the historical impact of Indians in the South African Communist Party, and their contribution to the struggle against apartheid.

This book analyzes the interaction between nationalism, feminism, and socialism in Indonesia since the beginning of the 20th century until the New Order State of President Suharto. The focus is on the communist women's organization Gerwani, which was by 1965 the largest communist women's organization in the non-communist world. Gerwani members combined feminist demands such as a reform of the marriage law with an insistence upon a political role for women.

Capitalism and Socialism in Cuba documents the history of the attempts by a small island nation to survive and gain respectability within an everchanging international political economy. Professor Ruffin presents a detailed account of the social, political, and economic forces affecting Cuba's prospects for development under both capitalism and socialism. Part one of the study focuses on Cuba's historical association with capitalism and the relationship that Cuba established with the United States. Part two of the study delineates the nature of Cuba-Soviet relations and deals exclusively with the question of socialist dependency. Professor Ruffin's study is a systematic analysis of the internal (race and class formations) and external (capitalism and socialism) factors that have thus far shaped Cuban history.

The left is dead. Its ailments cannot be cured. The only way to resurrect what was once valuable in leftist politics is to declare the left dead and begin from the beginning again. Winlow and Hall identify the root causes of its maladies, describe how new cultural obsessions displaced core unifying principles and explore the yawning chasm that now separates the left from the working class. Drawing upon a wealth of historical evidence to structure their story of entryism, corruption, fragmentation and decline, they close the book by outlining how a new reincarnation of the left can win in the 21st century.

Thomas Linehan offers a fresh perspective on late Victorian and Edwardian socialism by examining the socialist revival of these years from the standpoint of modernism. In so doing, he explores the modernist mission as extending beyond the concerns of the literary and artistic avant-garde to incorporate political and social movements.

Waiting for the revolution is a volume of essays examining the diverse currents of British left-wing politics from 1956 to the present day. The book is designed to complement the previous volume, Against the grain: The far left in Britain from 1956, bringing together young and established academics and writers to discuss the realignments and fissures that maintain leftist politics into the twenty-first century. The two books endeavour to historicise the British left, detailing but also seeking to understand the diverse currents that comprise ‘the far left’. Their objective is less to intervene in ongoing issues relevant to the left and politics more generally, than to uncover and explore the traditions and issues that have preoccupied leftist groups, activists and struggles. To this end, the book will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in British politics. -- .

What an impressively successful venture! The authors are experts, who offer here authoritative, research-based, brand-new findings, excellent coverage of extant literature, new ideas and novel interpretations, analyses of controversies concerning their topics, and fascinating case studies. While specialists absolutely need to consult every chapter, its clarity and comprehensibility - plus its provision of definitions and distinctions - mean it is pitched such that even the totally uninitiated can absorb its information. Overall, a most superb collection, going well beyond what one would imagine a 'handbook' might hold.' - Dorothy J. Solinger, University of California, Irvine, USThe Handbook of the Politics of China is a comprehensive resource introducing readers to the very latest in research on Chinese politics. David Goodman provides an introduction to the key structures and issues, providing the foundations on which later learning can be built. Including a comprehensive bibliography, it is an ideal reference work for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics. The Handbook contains four sections of new and original research, dealing with leadership and institutions, public policy, political economy and social change, and international relations. Each of the 26 chapters has been written by a leading internationally-established authority in the field and each reviews the literature on the topic, and presents the latest findings of research. Presenting the state of the art of the field, this reader-oriented Handbook is an essential primer for the study of China's politics. Contributors include: S. Breslin, K. Brown, A. Camarena, C. Cartier, M. Chen, J. A.Donaldson, J. Dosch, J. Duckett, B. Gill, D.S.G. Goodman, Y. Guo, W. Guohui, J.Y.J. Hsu, D. Hu, Y. Ji, K. Kojima, F. Li, L.C. Li, W.J. Morgan, B. Naughton, J.C. Oi, L.H. Ong, J. Reilly, S. Suzuki, F.C. Teiwes, G. Wang, Z. Wang, X.Yan, D.L.Yang, X. Zang, Y. Zheng