This new social history of Maoist China provides an accessible view of the complex and tumultuous period when China came under Communist rule.

Barry Coward has revised his wide-ranging text which outlines the major social changes that occurred in England in the two hundred years after the Reformation. He examines the religious and intellectual changes resulting from revolutionary pressures, as well as considering the impact of rapid inflation and population expansion in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Overall he stresses that social change combined with social continuity to produce a distinctive early modern English society.

The defeat of National Socialism in 1945 was a pivotal point in Central European history. For the writing and practice of history, however, the event proved far less decisive. In West Germany and Austria, most historians who had taught under the Nazis retained their positions after 1945. Even those dismissed for their National Socialist sympathies were often able to resume their careers. And an entire generation of younger historians, trained during the Nazi years, was to enter the historical profession after 1945. Paths of Continuity examines the effect of this professional continuity on West German historical scholarship, and the impact of the Third Reich on the way German-language historians practiced their craft. The essays look at ten prominent German and Austrian historians whose lives and work spanned the period before and after 1945: Friedrich Meinecke, Gerhard Ritter, Hans Rothfels, Franz Schnabel, Heinrich Ritter von Srbik, Hans Freyer, Hermann Aubin, Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Theodor Schieder. All responded to the Nazi regime in different ways. Some willingly embraced the New Order of National Socialism; others kept their distance from the regime or openly opposed it. Ironically, however, those who were least compromised by Nazi involvements and who emerged after 1945 with the greatest moral and professional authority, often proved the most resistant to change within the discipline. Conversely, much of the impetus for scholarly innovation after 1945 came from historians with earlier ties to the anti-liberal "folk history" of the Nazi era. Exploring these and other paradoxes, this collection of essays provides fresh insight into the development of German historical scholarship since 1945.

This book defines the broad parameters of social change for Native American nations in the twenty-first century, as well as their prospects for cultural continuity. Many of the themes Champagne tackles are of general interest in the study of social change including governmental, economic, religious, and environmental perspectives.

This study of working-class culture, youth behavior, and the response of youths to conditions in a European setting acknowledges that poverty existed among much of the working class but questions the implicit arguments that these conditions necessarily brought about destructive responses. Until recently, various simplistic paradigms have dominated studies of European workers. These have stressed the misery of urban laborers in a capitalistic society, the functional importance of the isolated nuclear family in an industrial society, or the violent, authoritarian, and intolerant nature of working-class society as a result of cultural deprivation. The approach here, in contrast, is allied with the current trend in social history to allow for elements of diversity and individual initiative within the labor population. Numerous oral interviews are used to enrich other data and to provide evidence on family life that is missing in traditional sources. In examining the way life was actually lived, this book deals primarily with the children of manual laborers, but includes the children of other socially disadvantaged groups in the working-class districts. It analyses the social dimensions among laborers and those immediately above them, such as small-scale shopkeepers. With the view that there is not just one working-class culture but many, it explains the diversity of the working-class experience rather than concentrating only on the most impoverished stratum within it. Wegs argues that much of the working class had a fuller and richer life than is depicted in existing literature. The length of the period covered makes it possible also to draw comparisons and identify long-term trends. Separate chapters are devoted to topics such as everyday life, schooling, work, and sex and marriage. By showing how working-class youth were isolated within primarily working-class areas but still tied to the dominant culture through the schools, social workers, and the Social Democratic subculture, the book adds an important dimension to the study of the working class. It provides a fuller dimension to the study of the working-class youth by dealing with young women as well as men, and with major arguments concerning sexual divisions at work, in the family, and in society. It examines the subordinate position of women in working-class culture but also notes their significant role in the family and in society. Wegs&’s study will be of interest to students of European history and social history, particularly those interested in the working class, issues of adolescence, and the family.

The Industrial Revolution brought into being a distinct world, a world of greater affluence, longevity and mobility, an urban rather than a rural world. But the great surge of economic growth was balanced against severe constraints on the opportunities for expansion, revealing an intriguing paradox. This book, published to considerable critical acclaim, explores the paradox and attempts to provide a distinct model' of the changes that comprised the industrial revolution.