
Unemployment and Protest
New Perspectives on Two Centuries of Contention
Oxford University Press
Published on 13. January 2011
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-0-19-959573-0 (ISBN)
Description
The unemployed are usually depicted as passive and politically apathetic individuals who are traumatized by their experience and broken in body and spirit. The seminal study of Marienthal's unemployed in the 1930s, based on pioneering methodology and rich empirical findings, helped to entrench this image as cross-disciplinary common sense.
This book challenges this dominant view by revealing the wide transnational repertoires of protest and resistance that the unemployed have deployed from the early nineteenth century to the present. They have contested their situation in a discontinuous but recurrent battle for recognition, for rights to work or welfare, and for dignity. The case studies in this volume deal with contentious actions of the unemployed across different European countries, the United States, New Zealand, and
Palestine.
They highlight the diverse responses of the workless to their fate beyond the apathy habitually ascribed to them, from passive resistance and individual protest to organized large-scale protest marches and from protest in newspapers, books, or internet forums to agitation and direct action in the streets, benefit fraud, and legal challenges of administrative measures or government laws. Instead of following the traditional focus on Communist-led protest during the inter-war period, this volume
accentuates the plurality of individuals and organizations that have tried to organize the unemployed over the past two centuries.
Taken together, these essays suggest that the unemployed exercised agency over their lives and were more than willing to express themselves, defend their interests, and participate in collective action.
This book challenges this dominant view by revealing the wide transnational repertoires of protest and resistance that the unemployed have deployed from the early nineteenth century to the present. They have contested their situation in a discontinuous but recurrent battle for recognition, for rights to work or welfare, and for dignity. The case studies in this volume deal with contentious actions of the unemployed across different European countries, the United States, New Zealand, and
Palestine.
They highlight the diverse responses of the workless to their fate beyond the apathy habitually ascribed to them, from passive resistance and individual protest to organized large-scale protest marches and from protest in newspapers, books, or internet forums to agitation and direct action in the streets, benefit fraud, and legal challenges of administrative measures or government laws. Instead of following the traditional focus on Communist-led protest during the inter-war period, this volume
accentuates the plurality of individuals and organizations that have tried to organize the unemployed over the past two centuries.
Taken together, these essays suggest that the unemployed exercised agency over their lives and were more than willing to express themselves, defend their interests, and participate in collective action.
Reviews / Votes
a well-researched and well-written collection of essays which should reinvigorate the debate about the historical experience of unemployment * Stephen Catterall, History * This is an excellent collection of essays which provides fresh insights into its subject. * Chris Wrigley, Labour History Review * This book clearly demonstrates the vast complexity of the phenomenon of movements by the unemployed ... It is a welcome addition to the historical labour literature. * William A Pelz, European History Quarterly *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
674 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-959573-0 (9780199595730)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Editor
Lecturer in History, University of Exeter
Reader in Labour History, University of Newcastle
Content
PART I. INTRODUCTION ; PART II. MOVEMENTS OF THE UNEMPLOYED IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN ; PART III. THE GOLDEN AGE OF UNEMPLOYED MOVEMENTS: THE INTER-WAR YEARS ; PART IV. BEYOND COLLECTIVE STREET PROTEST ; PART V. SELF-REPRESENTATIONS OF MOVEMENTS OF THE UNEMPLOYED ; PART VI. RECENT MOVEMENTS OF THE UNEMPLOYED ; PART VII. CONCLUSION