The recent wave of globalization has a profound impact on labour. Consequently research in the
field of labour and working-class history has become less Eurocentric and more global over the
last twenty years. Outstanding specialists take stock of the globalization of the field in
eighteen essays. Two introductory essays discuss the theoretical consequences of this
development as well as the early historiography of labour and working-class history. Next ten
essays provide an exceptionally complete coverage of recent historiographical trends in the
labour history of Western Europe Eastern Europe North America South America Africa the
Middle East South Asia China Japan and Australasia. Finally six case studies research
worldwide and comparative aspects of global labour history developing best practices in this
new and difficult field. They include a wide variety of occupations and economic sectors:
agricultural labour domestic labour brick making coal mining and the work done in the docks
and on the railways on different continents.
