Contributors examine Euro-American consumer cooperation in order to challenge the assumption that these consumer economies, institutions, and cultures were necessarily and inevitably capitalist, individualistic, and apolitical. Topics include the political economy of consumer cooperation in Belgium, 1860-1980; the rise and fall of working-class cooperatives in the US; French consumer cooperation, 1885-1930; consumer cooperation in Denmark, 1850-1940; and the consumer co-op in Japan: building democratic alternatives to state-led capitalism. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
In this important collection of essays, historians from six different countries trace the history of the consumer cooperative movement in much of western Europe and North America from its inception to the present. The consumer cooperative, as the contributors show, bears directly on the role of socialist parties, the nascent feminist movement, and conceptions of the worker's role in a changing economy and society in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Arvustused
An important book on a topic of considerable current interest. -- Timothy Guinnane, Yale University [ This anthology] constitutes an insightful and stimulating first step towards the explanation of the infrastructure of consumption in the age of capitalism. . . It is to the great merit of Ellen Furlough and Carl Strikwerda to have drawn attention to the possibility of historical alternatives in an area as seemingly "naturally" capitalist as commercial activities in nineteenth and twentieth century First World societies. -- Gerd-Rainer Horn, Western Oregon University * H-Business and Eh.Net * All in all, this book is to be recommended as a very useful guide to the international development of consumer cooperation. -- Eric Hopkins, Universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton * Journal of Economic History * This volume will be of considerable value to a range of scholars. Uniformly well-organized and capably written, the essays composing this volume will pique the interest on most readers. * Business History * It seldom happens that a book lives up to its grandiose promises, but this one really "fills a significant gap in the literature of labor history." * International Review Of Social History * An exceptionally interesting collection. . . All the articles in this collection are solid, well-informed contributions that cast new light on working-class culture in their respective countries. -- Michael Hanagan, New School for Social Research
Acknowledgments ix 1 Economics, Consumer Culture, and Gender: An Introduction to the Politics of Consumer Cooperation 1(66) Ellen Furlough Carl Strikwerda 2 Alternative Visions and Working-Class Culture: The Political Economy of Consumer Cooperation in Belgium, 1860-1980 67(26) Carl Strikwerda 3 The Citizen Producer: The Rise and Fall of Working-Class Cooperatives in the United States 93(22) Steven Leikin 4 From Cooperative Commonwealth to Cooperative Democracy: The American Cooperative Ideal, 1880-1940 115(20) Kathleen Donohue 5 Labors Great Arch: Cooperation and Cultural Revolution in Britain, 1795-1926 135(38) Peter Gurney 6 French Consumer Cooperation, 1885-1930: From the Third Pillar of Socialism to A Movement for All Consumers 173(18) Ellen Furlough 7 From Self-Help to Konzern: Consumer Cooperatives in Austria, 1840-1990 191(30) Gabriella Hauch 8 Between Farmers and Workers: Consumer Cooperation in Denmark, 1850-1940 221(20) Niels Finn Christiansen 9 Swedish Consumer Cooperation as an Educational Endeavor 241(26) Peder Alex 10 The Rise and Fall of Consumer Cooperation in Germany 267(36) Brett Fairbairn 11 The Consumer Co-op in Japan: Building Democratic Alternatives to State-Led Capitalism 303(28) Ruth Grubel 12 Of Spheres, Perspectives, Cultures, and Stages: The Consumer Co-operative Movement in English-Speaking Canada, 1830-1980 331(28) Ian MacPherson Bibliography 359(10) Index 369(6) About the Contributors 375
Ellen Furlough is associate professor of history at Kenyon College and the author of Consumer Cooperation in France, 1834-1930: The Politics of Consumption (Cornell). Carl Strikwerda is associate professor of history and chair of the European studies program at the University of Kansas. He is the author of A House Divided: Catholics, Socialists, and Flemish Nationalists in Nineteenth Century Belgium (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) and the editor, with Camille Guerin-Gonzales, of The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy since 1830.
