Overview
Robert Michels (1876-1936) is best known for his 1911 book Political Parties, which is still a standard reference in political science debates. Michels' work sought to prove an ""iron law of oligarchy"" that governs the organisational evolution of democratic political parties. The work was closely informed by Michels' engagement with the German Social Democratic Party in the early 1900s, his involvement in radical politics in France and Italy in this period, and by his interest in a range of intellectual and social movements - including feminism, nationalism, racial theory, and the emerging disciplines of sociology and political science. Using archival and printed sources hitherto overlooked in work on Michels, this new study contests previous arguments which have sought to explain Michels as a disillusioned adherent of ideas of direct democracy or as an extremist moving from revolutionary syndicalism to fascism. The biographical and intellectual influences on Michels are shown to be more complex, and more transnational, than such schematic explanations have allowed. Andrew Bonnell sheds new light on Michels' relationship with the German Social Democratic Party and on his understanding of his own role as an intellectual in a workers' party. Bonnell also analyses Michels' problematical relationship with revolutionary syndicalism in France and Italy. Michels was connected to a possibly uniquely diverse network of intellectual and political contacts in pre-1914 Europe. This transnational intellectual history illuminates the intellectual worlds in which Michels moved and presents a new interpretation of his shift from the radical left of the spectrum to Italian fascism, an intellectual itinerary which has intrigued many historians.
Full Product Details
Author: Andrew G. Bonnell (Associate Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, Associate Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 24.10cm
Weight: 0.590kg
ISBN: 9780192871848
ISBN 10: 0192871846
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 10 November 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Bonnell provides us with a transnational intellectual history of the highest caliber based on an impeccable knowledge of all the relevant archives (in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands) and the innumerable printed sources that are available and that shed light on Michels and his circles. * Stefan Berger, Journal of Modern History *
Author Information
Andrew G. Bonnell is Associate Professor of History at the University of Queensland. Previous publications include The People's Stage in Imperial Germany, Shylock in Germany, and Red Banners, Books and Beer Mugs: The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863-1914. He has published extensively on modern German history and the history of German Social Democracy.
