“…As part of Global Labor History, Jan Lucassen, Magaly Rodrígues García, Sidney Chalhoub, and Willem van Schendel discuss new concepts of work and workers, including sex workers, slaves in Brazil, and voluntary communal laborers in North-East India, while Andreas Eckert shows the relevance of area studies. …”

“…The volume goes beyond merely examining the place of industrial workers, paying attention to the position of slaves, women working on the front line of civil war, colonial forced labourers, and white collar workers…”

“…They illuminate demographic facts and developments, and their literary representations, such as the enforced displacement of the 18th century Acadiens, who later reassembled in Louisiana (Cajun culture), and the flight of thousands of fugitive (African American) slaves to the safe haven of Canada. Special attention is focused on the intertextual links between Southern writers and their Canadian counterparts, with William Faulkner and Eudora Welty especially providing inspiration for Canadian authors such as Alice Munro, Jack Hodgins, and Margaret Atwood…”

“…Drawing on archival sources in Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay, Sanders traces the circulation of political discourse and democratic practice among urban elites, rural peasants, European immigrants, slaves, and freed blacks to show how and why ideas of liberty, democracy, and universalism gained widespread purchase across the region, mobilizing political consciousness and solidarity among diverse constituencies. …”

“…It also traces legal responses to the effects of demographic factors, which gave increased importance to maternal connections, and to social effects, such as the difficulties for ex-slaves in conforming to the familia-pattern…”

“…Ce prisme local conduit aussi à évaluer d’en bas le rôle de la papauté dans l’expression des appartenances des Slaves orientaux à l’époque moderne…”