When it was originally published in 1982, this book presented pioneering new research into the everyday life of the German working class in the crucial decades between the accession of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Nazi seizure of power.

1.Introduction: The Sociological Interpretation of German Labour History Richard J. Evans 2. Working-Class Crime and the Labour Movement: Pilfering the Hamburg Docs, 1888-1923 Michael Grüttner 3. Drink and the Labour Movement: the Schnaps Boycott of 1909 James S. Roberts 4. Steel, Sabotage and Socialism: The Strike at the Dortmund ‘Union’ Steel Works in 1911 David F. Crew 5. Illegitimacy and the Working Class: Illegitimate Mothers in Brunswick, 1900-1933 Stefan Bajohr 6. Organising the ‘Lumpenproletariat’: Cliques and Communists in Berlin During the Weimar Republic Eve Rosenhaft 7. Identifying Militancy: The Assessment of Working Class Attitudes Towards State and Society Dick Geary

‘Eley is one of the most interesting, trenchant and controversial historians of Germany.’ Paul Kennedy‘Eley is perhaps the most original and exciting historian working in the field of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German history…’ Richard J. Evans