The Foreign Worker and the German Labor Movement: Xenophobia and Solidarity in the Coal Fields of the Ruhr, 1871-1914 - Hardcover

'... a valuable contribution to the study of both the Ruhr labor movement and Poles in the Kaiserreich.'H-German Book Reviews'Would do well in any upper-division or graduate level course concerning modern nationalism and labor movements in Europe in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.'The Polish Review'... a fine piece of scholarship which deserves a wide audience among anyone interested in Imperial Germany, labor history, migration, or nationalism.'Central European History'Kulczycki's methodology and presentation is distinguished by precision, an extensive knowledge of sources, the literature, and to the European history of the period - and at the same time by being rather provocative.'Arbejderhistorie'It is to be hoped that Kulczycki's stimulating study will be published in German and Polish in the near future. Without question, the work is giving rise to new comparative studies about regional, polyethnic labor movements.'German Politics and Society' ...

Based on extensive research in Polish and German archives this book documents the major developments within the labor movement in the Ruhr, including the mass strikes of 1889, 1905 and 1912 and the so-called 'Polish Revolt' of 1899. The author argues that Polish militancy generally exceeded that of native miners and calls into question the standard view of the Polish workers' relationship to the labor movement. This revisionist book begs a reconsideration of the role that foreign labor plays in modern industrial societies.