Work in a Modern Society ― The German Historical Experience in Comparative Perspective

Whereas the history of workers and labor movements has been widely researched, the history of work has been rather neglected by comparison. This volume offers original contributions that deal with cultural, social and theoretical aspects of the history of work in modern Europe, including the relations between gender and work, working and soldiering, work and trust, constructions and practices. The volume focuses on Germany but also places the case studies in a broader European context. It thus offers an insight into social and cultural history as practiced by German-speaking scholars today but also introduces the reader to ongoing research in this field.

Jürgen Kocka taught Social History at the University of Bielefeld for many years, after which he was appointed Professor of History of the Industrial World at the Free University of Berlin and Research Professor at Berlin Social Science Research Centre (WZB). He has published widely in the field of Modern History, particularly Social and Economic History of Europe, 18th-20th centuries. His publications in the English language include Facing Total War. German Society 1914-1918 (Berg, 1984), Industrial Culture and Bourgeois Society. Business, Labor, and Bureaucracy in Modern Germany (Berghahn, 1999), Civil Society and Dictatorship in Modern German History (University Press of New England, 2010) and Comparative and Transnational History. Central European Approaches and New Perspectives (Berghahn 2009, edited together with Heinz-Gerhard Haupt).