French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere
French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere
$120.00
USDThis study explores the evolution of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), and its interaction with the French public sphere, between 1900 and 1920. Kenneth Tucker examines the triumph of this productivism and instrumental rationality, in contrast with other visions of society and the future. He gives a Habermasian twist to the recent linguistic turn in labour history, focusing on the role of competing bodies of knowledge in influencing the self-understanding and strategies of the CGT. He also goes further to situate the rise of productivism within the social and cultural context of the French Third Republic.
- First book to apply Habermas to a concrete study of the labour movement and other historical problems of post-revolutionary France
- Modifies Habermasian theory, incorporating post-modern criticisms
- Highlights the importance of labour movements for understanding shape of modernity while questioning newness of social movements
Reviews & endorsements
"...this is a dense and ambitious study of French revolutionary syndicalism during the belle epoque that should be of interest to labor historians as well as to those interested in contemporary sociological theory." Elizabeth Sage, Journal of Modern History
"Kenneth Tucker is to be congratulated for this formidable intellectual accomplishment....Scholars and students in history, sociology, and anthropology will find Tucker's work a valuable educational experience." Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford
"French Revolutionary Syndication and the Public Sphere is an original and highly documented book that explores the evolution of French syndicalist organization." Alberto Spektorowski, AJS
"...a sensitive readeing of an historical case used to motivate a critical but sympathetic critique of contemporary social theory, and particularly the work of Habermas." Christopher K. Ansell, Social Forces
Product details
September 1996Hardback
9780521563598
296 pages
236 × 158 × 23 mm
0.56kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Prologue
- 1. The Belle Epoque and revolutionary syndicalism
- Part I. Reconfiguring the Language of Labour: The Advantages and Limitations of a Habermasian Historical Sociology:
- 2. Syndicalism, the New Orthodoxy and the postmodern turn
- 3. Public discourse and civil society: Habermas, Bourdieu and the new social movements
- Part II. Visions of Modernity in the Liberal and Proletarian Public Spheres: Positivism, Republicanism and Social Science:
- 4. The liberal and proletarian public spheres in nineteenth-century France
- 5. The fin-de-siècle public sphere, the academic field and the social sciences
- Part III. Exploring Revolutionary Syndicalism:
- 6. Pelloutier, Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism
- 7. Reformulating revolutionary syndicalism
- 8. Toward a new public sphere: Taylorism, consumerism and the postwar CGT
- Conclusion:
- 9. The legacy of syndicalism
- Notes
- Index.
