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OverviewIn October 1918, war-weary German sailors mutinied when the Imperial Naval Command ordered their engagement in one final, fruitless battle with the British Royal Navy. This revolt, in the dying embers of the First World War, quickly erupted into a full scale revolution that toppled the monarchy and inaugurated a period of radical popular democracy. The establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919 ended the revolution, relegating all but its most prominent leaders to a historical footnote. In A People's History of the German Revolution, William A. Pelz cuts against the grain of mainstream accounts that tend to present the revolution as more of a 'collapse', or just a chaotic interregnum that preceded the country's natural progression into a republic. Going beyond the familiar names of Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg or Clara Zetkins, Pelz explores the revolution from the bottom up, focusing on the active role that women, rank-and-file activists, and ordinary workers played in its events. Rejecting the depiction of agency as exclusively in the hands of international actors like Woodrow Wilson or in those of German elites, he makes the compelling case that, for a brief period, the actions of the common people shaped a truly revolutionary society. Full Product DetailsAuthor: William A. Pelz , Mario KesslerPublisher: Pluto Press Imprint: Pluto Press Weight: 0.415kg ISBN: 9780745337111ISBN 10: 0745337112 Pages: 208 Publication Date: 20 June 2018 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsForeword by Mario Kessler Introduction: What German Revolution? 1. Industrialization and the Emergence of the German Working Class 2. The Rise of Popular Radicalism 3. War, Suffering and Resistance 4. The Road to the November Revolution 5. The Kaiser Goes, the Generals Remain 6. Provocation, Revolt and Repression 7. Women in the War and the Revolution 8. Death Agony of the Revolution Conclusion Notes IndexReviews'An excellent and much needed work with the focus on the grassroots out of which developed the revolutionary mass movements of the sailors and workers bringing peace and democracy to Germany' -- Ottokar Luban, International Rosa Luxemburg Society Author InformationWilliam A. Pelz (1951-2017) was Director of the Institute of Working Class History in Chicago and a Professor of History at Elgin Community College. His works include A People's History of the German Revolution, (Pluto, 2018) Wilhelm Liebknecht and German Social Democracy (Haymarket, 2015), The Eugene V. Debs Reader (Merlin Press, 2014) and A People's History of Modern Europe (Pluto, 2016). Mario Kessler is Associate Professor at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany. He is the author of Revolution and Counterrevolution: Studies on Violence and Humanity from the Century of Disasters (2016) and Ruth Fischer: A Life with and against Communists (2013) amongst many other works. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |