Journal article

Publication year: 1991

Pages: 1-23

Journal: International Review of Social History

Volume number: 36

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0020-8590

eISSN: 1469-512X

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000110326

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Abstract: 

The early labour movements in Western Europe and North America were all dominated by urban artisans, a fact reflected most clearly at the programmatic level by the prominence of demands for producers' cooperatives. This article presents a proposal for and an extremely brief sketch of a comparative investigation of this first phase of the labour movement in England, France, Germany, and the United States. Different aspects of class formation, such as the economic situation of the trades, the social relationships within them, or the role of artisanal and corporate traditions in artisanal politics and trade-union organization, are discussed. Comparative labour history, it is argued, must employ such a theoretical framework, one that allows the integration of the many dimensions of class formation; otherwise it will have to sacrifice whatever progress the last generation of labour historians has achieved.

Harvard Citation style: Lenger, F. (1991) Beyond Exceptionalism: Notes on the Artisanal Phase of the Labour Movement in France, England, Germany and the United States, International Review of Social History, 36(1), pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000110326

APA Citation style: Lenger, F. (1991). Beyond Exceptionalism: Notes on the Artisanal Phase of the Labour Movement in France, England, Germany and the United States. International Review of Social History. 36(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000110326