Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies

General Issues

SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Dyer-Witheford, Nick. Cyber-Marx. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1999. x, 344 pp. $49.95. (Paper: $21.95).
In this analysis of the consequences of the new information technology for the capitalist political economy and the conflict between capital and labour, Professor Dyer-Witheford aims to show "[...] how the information age, far from transcending the historic conflict between capital and its laboring subjects, constitutes the latest battleground in their encounter". Criticizing the concepts of postmodernism and postfordism, drawing on theories of "autonomist Marxism" and building on Marx's own concept of "general intellect", he argues that information technology also offers new opportunities for realizing Marx's ideal of common sharing of wealth and creating a twenty-first-century communism.

Espaces temporalités stratifications. Exercices sur les réseaux sociaux. Sous la dir. de Maurizio Gribaudi. [Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales/Studies in History and the Social Sciences, vol. 84.] Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1998. 347 pp. F.fr. 200.00.
The nine contributions in this volume offer empirical studies of contemporary social networks and personal ties on a local, microlevel in Paris, Naples, Turin, Cagliari, Athens, Helsinki, St Petersburg, and Madrid. Based on the theoretical background of structural analysis and the work of Max Gluckman, all studies were conducted with common survey forms. The aim was for respondents to render as intricate an account as possible of the multitude of their social contacts and relations over a given period of time. The contributors explore these surveys to share new insights about how personal ties and individual social networks aggregate into the larger social and spatial network of an urban society.

Grassby, Richard. The Idea of Capitalism before the Industrial Revolution. [Critical Issues in History.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 1999. ix, 87 pp. $50.00. (Paper: $14.95.)
In this concise textbook Professor Grassby gives a general overview of the origins and development of the idea of capitalism and re-examines the historical debates about its meaning and definitions, its rise in the industrial period and the mythical meaning it has acquired over time. His argument revolves around the need to locate a general definition of capitalism in terms of the market economy and the historical growth of financial markets and consumerism within each society.

Kapital.doc. Das Kapital (Bd. 1) von Marx in Schaubildern mit Kommentaren. [Von] Elmar Altvater, Rolf Hecker, Michael Heinrich [und] Petra Schaper-Rinkel. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 1999. 342 pp. [1 cd-rom encl. System requirements: Windows 95 or higher, Netscape Communicator 4.07 or other browser.] DM 48.00.
See Michael R. Krätke's review in this volume, pp. 82-84.

Marxism and Social Science. Ed. by Andrew Gamble, David Marsh and Tony Tant. University of Illinois Press, Urbana [etc.] 1999. ix, 381 pp. $42.50. (Paper: $19.95.)
In the light of the widely proclaimed crisis or even end of Marxism, the fourteen essays in this volume aim to assess its relevance and contribution to modern social science. The first five contributions address the engagement of Marxism with feminism (Stevi Jackson), regulation theory (Michael Kenny), postmodernism (Glyn Daly) and New Right Theory (Andrew Gamble), whereas Tony Tant analyses the extent to which Marxism can be considered scientific. Other contributions assess the utility of Marxist approaches to a broad range of substantive issues, such as the state, democracy, culture, class, globalization, ecology, nationalism, and communism.

Nelson, Anitra. Marx's Concept of Money. The god of commodities. [Routledge Studies in the History of Economics.] Routledge, London [etc.] 1999. xiii, 254 pp. £55.00.
This study of Marx's commodity theory of money places it in the broader context of his philosophical and political as well as economic thought. Giving a comprehensive chronological survey of Marx's writings on money, Dr Nelson links Marx's concept of money with some of his other key concepts, such as "alienation" and "abstract labour". She concludes by reviewing commentaries and controversies on the subject since his time.

Ranganayakamma. House Work and Outside Work. Transl. by Hyma. Sweet Home Publications, Hyderabad 1999. 95 pp. Rs. 30.00.
This booklet is the English translation of an original text in Telugu, meant for general readers, which attempts to explain the relationship between "house work" and "outside work". This relationship automatically implies, according to the author, the relationship between men and women. Basing herself on Marx's theory of labour in Capital, the author aims to explain how the "physical" or "natural" relationship between men and women is moulded by the social relationship, which in turn is moulded by the labour relations in a capitalist society.

Ranganayakamma. An Introduction to Marx's "Capital". (in 3 vols.) Vol. 1 transl. by K.V.R., S.V. Rajyalakshmi, [and] B.R. Bapuji. Vol. 2 transl. by B.R. Bapuji. Vol. 3 transl. by B.R. Bapuji. Sweet Home Publications, Hyderabad 1999. 630 pp.; 766 pp.; 572 pp. Rs. 90.00; 110.00; 80.00; $10.00; 15.00; 10.00.
This three-volume introduction to Marx's Capital is the English translation of an originally five-volume introduction in Telugu, published between 1978 and 1993. The aim of this introduction is, according to the author, to provide an easily accessible and understandable introduction to a work of which she regards the emergence as "the most wonderful event in the history of society". Adhering to the same line of argumentation and logical sequence that Marx originally followed in Capital, volume 1 features a section on commodities and money and a section on the process of capitalist production; volume 2 comprises sections on the capitalist reproduction and circulation processes; and volume 3 deals with relations of capitalist distribution and the road towards a classless society.

Roudinesco, Elisabeth. Jacques Lacan. Outline of a Life, History of a System of Thought. Transl. by Barbara Bray. [European Perspectives.] Columbia University Press, New York [etc.] 1997. xix, 574 pp. Ill. $36.95.
This is the English translation of Jacques Lacan: Esquisse d'une vie, histoire d'un système de pensée (1993), the first major biography of Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), the prominent French psychoanalyst who emphasized the importance of the study and analysis of language and structural linguistics in psychoanalytic theory, and who had a profound impact on the social sciences as a whole from the 1970s onward. The author, a member of Lacan's inner circle, aims both to elucidate his theoretical concepts and to chronicle his often tumultuous life and his relationships with some of the major social theorists of the period.

Swartz, Omar. Socialism and Communication. Reflections on language and left politics. Ashgate, Aldershot [etc.] 1999. xiii, 101 pp. £32.50.
Combining a communication theory perspective with a libertarian socialist or anarchist social and political philosophy, the author of this essay in social philosophy aims to trace the dimensions of what he loosely defines as a communicative theory of anarchism. The essay is supplemented by two appendices "that further exemplify the union of socialism and communication as a praxis informed activity": one on reinventing socialism and the relation between language, responsibility and the philosophy of hope; and the second on the role that organized religion, and in particular liberation theology, can play in social transformation.

HISTORY

Complicating Categories: Gender, Class, Race and Ethnicity. Ed. by Eileen Boris and Angélique Janssens. [International Review of Social History, Supplement 7.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 1999. iv, 169 pp. £12.95; $19.95.
The seven essays in this 1999 Supplement to the International Review of Social History combine the categories of class, gender and/or ethnicity as complicating central concepts in the understanding of economic and social history. The essays reflect two groupings. The first three (Sandra E. Green, Ileen A. DeVault and Laura Dudley Jenkins) offer three approaches to complicating categories: intersectionality, seriality and the materiality of identity. The next four, by Michele Mitchell, Raelene Frances, Laura Levine Frader and Fatima El-Tayeb, address the conjuncture of racialized gender and sexuality in relation to colonization and nation-building.

Drescher, Seymour. From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. Foreword by Stanley L. Engerman. Macmillan, Basingstoke [etc.] 1999. 454 pp. £55.00.
See Gert Oostindie's review in this volume, pp. 84-86.

Furet, François. The Passing of an Illusion. The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century. Transl. by Deborah Furet. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago [etc.] 1999. xiii, 596 pp. $35.00.
This is the English translation of Le passé d'une illusion: essai sur l'idée communiste au XXe siècle (1995), the late Professor Furet's much acclaimed and debated history of communism and the communist myth, as he labels it. The main argument is that in the 1930s support for communism and the Soviet Union became virtually synonymous with "antifascism", a process that perpetuated a myth of the communist promise and whitewashed the Soviet regime's excesses. This myth had, according to Furet, complex moral, intellectual and political ramifications for the West.

Gallotta, Vito. Al di là delle tradizioni storiografiche. Braccianti e immigrati. [Saggi e ricerche, 17.] Cacucci Editore, Bari 1999. 159 pp. L. 22.000; € 11.36.
In the two essays in this book, the author presents a wealth of documentation and applies instruments from social sciences to offer a new impression of the history of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in the years 1910-1920, and the relations between the agricultural unions and the Camera di Lavoro in Puglia (Italy) in the years 1904-1914. According to the author, a traditional historiographical explanatory model leads to a selection of aspects in the historical process. The organizational model of industrial unionism in the United States, for example, was deemed irrelevant for the historiographical tradition based on John R. Commons' work on the history of trade unions, while Salvemini's description of the alliance of farmers and workers in Puglia in the early twentieth century overlooked elements that conflicted with the myth of full class consciousness.

Harman, Chris. A people's history of the world. Bookmarks, London [etc.] 1999. vii, 729 pp. £15.99.
See Lucien van der Walt's review in this volume, pp. 77-79.

Haslam, Jonathan. The Vices of Integrity. E.H. Carr, 1892-1982. Verso, London [etc.] 1999. xiv, 306 pp. £25.00.
E.H. Carr (1892-1982) is renowned both as historian of Soviet Russia and as philosopher of history in his influential What is History? (1961). In this intellectual biography, Dr Haslam argues that Carr's views on history arose from his own formative experiences in his work for the British Foreign Office during World War I and in the 1920s. The author portrays Carr as a man torn between identification with the romance of revolution and the ruthless realism of his own intellectual background.

Kotek, Joël. La jeune garde. Entre KGB et CIA. La jeunesse mondiale, enjeu des relations internationales 1917-1989. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 1998. 418 pp. F.fr. 195.00.
Dr Kotek aims to show how by 1919 the Bolsheviks, through the establishment of the Communist Youth International and a strategy of large-scale infiltration and cell formation in a variety of politically-neutral international youth organizations, sought to control an important part of politically-concerned youth worldwide. He argues that only after the beginning of the Cold War from the early 1950s onward did the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begin to launch counter-operations and start infiltration practices and covert funding operations of its own.

Many Shades of Red. State Policy and Collective Agriculture. Ed. by Mieke Meurs. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham [etc.] 1999. vii, 251 pp. $62.00.
This volume brings together five case studies that re-examine the process of the collectivization of agriculture under socialism in Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, China and Cuba and evaluate the potential of various forms of land and resource pooling to improve agricultural performance under varying conditions. Focusing on the diversity of and dependency on local circumstances, the editor stresses the importance of such a re-examination as a contribution to the ongoing debate about the role of cooperative forms of agriculture in rural development.

Nationalism, Labour and Ethnicity 1870-1939. Ed. by Stefan Berger and Angel Smith. Manchester University Press, Manchester [etc.] 1999; distr. excl. in the USA by St. Martin's Press, New York. xii, 292 pp. £47.00.
See Kenneth Lunn's review in this volume, pp. 86-88.

New Left, New Right and Beyond. Taking the Sixties Seriously. Ed. by Geoff Andrews, Richard Cockett, Alan Hooper and Michael Williams. Macmillan Press Ltd, Basingstoke [etc.] 1999. x, 207 pp. £45.00.
Focusing mainly on the British and American context, the twelve essays in this collection examine the long-term political and cultural legacies of "the Sixties": the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the rise of the "New Left" social movements after the events in 1968. The collection includes contributions on the legacy of Gramsci in British cultural politics (Tom Steele); a history of the American New Left (Marvin Gettleman); the rise of the New Right, New Labour and the problem of social cohesion (Peter Saunders); and the emergence of antiracism from the 1960s onward (Tariq Modood).

Ross, Eric B. The Malthus Factor. Population, Poverty and Politics in Capitalist Development. Zed Books, London [etc.] 1998. viii, 264 pp. £45.00; $65.00. (Paper: £14.95; $25.00.)
See David Levine's review in this volume, pp. 79-82.

Rowbotham, Sheila. Threads through Time. Writings on History and Autobiography. Penguin Books, London [etc.] 1999. viii, 423 pp. £8.99; A$18.95; C$19.99; $13.95.
This collection comprises nineteen articles and extracts by the well-known women's historian, Dr Rowbotham. All previously published between 1973 and 1998, the articles include methodological and substantive material on women's and social history, as well as discussions of ideas in the contemporary women's movement and autobiographical accounts intended to shed light on assumptions and concepts in the author's historical writing.

Shaffer, Jack. Historical Dictionary of the Cooperative Movement. [Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements, No. 26.] The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham (Md.) [etc.] 1999. xviii, 610 pp. $110.00.
According to the editor of the series in which this handbook of the cooperative movement appears, this is the only single source for obtaining information on different cooperatives and the people involved in a large number of countries. The editor offers in his introduction a concise general history of the cooperative movement in all its diversity and has added a list of acronyms, a chronology, and an extensive bibliography.

Terms of Labor. Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor. Ed. by Stanley L. Engerman. [The Making of Modern Freedom.] Stanford University Press, Stanford 1999. ix, 350 pp. $55.00; £35.00.
The nine chapters in this volume deal with the causes and consequences of the rise of so-called free labour (as opposed to labour under the coercive control of systems of slavery and serfdom) in Europe, the United States and the Caribbean over the past five centuries. The topics covered include European beliefs that opposed enslavement of other Europeans but nevertheless permitted the slavery of Africans (Dave Eltis), British abolitionism and the impact of emancipation on the British West Indies (Seymour Drescher), and female dependent labour in the aftermath of American emancipation (Amy Dru Stanley).

Verstaatlichung der Welt? Europäische Staatsmodelle und außereuropäische Machtsprozesse. Hrsg. von Wolfgang Reinhard unter Mitarb. von Elisabeth Müller-Luckner. [Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien, Band 47.] R. Oldenbourg, München 1999. xv, 375 pp. DM 128.00.
These are the proceedings of a colloquium, organized by the Historische Kolleg in Munich in March 1998, on the global proliferation of the European model of modern state formation worldwide from the middle of the eighteenth century onward, its relative success or failure elsewhere in the world and the reasons for the failures. Sixteen of the eighteen papers are arranged geographically, dealing with America, South and East Asia, the Islamic Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions by the editor and Harald Haury offer a concluding assessment.