Workers: New Developments in Labor History since the 1980s

Abstract

In 1971, at the age of 19, Marcel van der Linden—who took his M.A. in sociology at Utrecht University—had already started his publishing career, initially dealing with topics concerning political economy. In 1983 he joined the International Institute of Social History (iish) as a member of the section International Review of Social History and publications, headed by Arend van Woerden. This was just before the iish underwent a major reorganization under Eric Fischer (in charge from 1984 to 1993), in which the regional “cabinets” were discontinued and replaced by functional departments, including a separate research department.1 The “cabinet” staff who wished to, were given the option to become assistant researchers or researchers, which initially entailed the continuation of their source publications underway. However, Fischer wanted more: he felt the iish research department should concentrate on analytical historical research in close connection with historical departments at universities. Based at Utrecht University and a former colleague of Eric Fisher, in 1988 I was invited to put into practice this new research policy, which turned out not to be an easy task. However, by finding new funding and by offering parttime positions to colleagues who at the same time were able to maintain their professorial chairs at Dutch universities (for example Tony Saich for Chinese history, Eric Jan Zürcher for Turkish history, and later on Willem van Schendel for South-Asian history), a new start gradually became feasible. In this process it turned out that at the Institute, although in a different department, in Marcel I would find my natural ally. In 1987 he had succeeded Van Woerden to