A study of the economic and social changes which shaped the movement for German unification. The author emphasizes the effect of industrialism on urban life, traces the decline of manorialism in agriculture and seeks to show that the political movements of these years were profoundly influenced by the economic transition from agrarianism to capitalism.

Broers seeks to unravel the different strands of modern European political culture at a crucial but neglected stage of their development by analyzing and comparing the major political ideologies of the period within the context of their times.

The period from 1898 to 1923 was a particularly dramatic one in Spanish history; it culminated in the violent Barcelona "labor wars" and was only brought to a close with the coup d'état launched by the Barcelona Captain General, Miguel Primo de Rivera, in September 1923. In his detailed examination of the rise of the Catalan anarchist-syndicalist-led labor movement, the author blends social, cultural and political history in a novel way. He analyses the working class "from below" and the policies of the Spanish State towards labor "from above." Based on an in-depth usage of primary sources, the authors provides an unrivalled account of Catalan labor and the Catalan anarchist-syndicalist movement and thus makes an important contribution to our understanding of early twentieth-century Spanish history.

Explains how bold efforts at profound progressive change provoked a powerful reactionary backlash that led to the imposition of brutal, regressive dictatorships.