Against Capitalism

The Author: Holding a Ph.D. in contemporary European history and an M.A. in politics, William A. Pelz is the author of The Spartkusbund and the German Working Class Movement (1988) and Wilhelm Liebknecht and German Social Democracy (1994) and editor of The Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism and Democracy (2000). His articles and book reviews have appeared in the American Historical Review, International Labor and Working Class History, German History, Sozialismus, JahrBuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, and International Labor History Yearbook among others.

«The hardest trick for a historian to pull off, especially when engaged in a work aimed at a broad readership, is to tell an interesting story without sacrificing analysis and explanation. In his history of the rise of the European radical Left in the half-century following the foundation of the International Working Men's Association in 1871, William A. Pelz has performed this feat admirably. Although this revolutionary Left failed in its goal of destroying capitalism as a basis of political power and instituting a classless society, it played a major and positive role in creating the world we know. Pelz explains this paradox, while maintaining a well-paced narrative of the individual men and women, sometimes heroic and sometimes less so, who built and staffed this movement.» (Steven McGiffen, Editor of Spectre Magazine (France); Visiting Professor of International Relations, American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Paris)
«Criticisms of a world governed by the marketplace rather than by people have become all the more timely with the acknowledged global environmental crisis and the ever-tighter control of money over the political processes in capitalist societies. Students interested in a historical perspective on these questions will find William A. Pelz's 'Against Capitalism' a coherent, concise, and accurate description of the emergence of the European Left and its enduring significance. This book is a real gem!» (Mark Lause, Professor of History, University of Cincinnati)
«This is a very useful introduction to the adolescent years of socialism in Europe. It clearly demonstrates how very differently socialists looked for answers to very diverse national problems and how difficult it was to find international unity. More important, the book shows the significance of these different socialist ideals and movements for the development and the emancipation of the individual. This is why, at the beginning of this new century, social