Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th Century

Industrial change supplies the starting point for Werner Sombart's account of socialism and organized labor. Developed from lectures delivered in Zurich in 1896, the book compares English trade unions, French revolutionary agitation and German workers' organizations. John B. Clark's introduction draws attention to machinery, the growth of large firms and the declining place of the independent craftsman, linking political ideas to changes in working life.

Sombart examines utopian socialism, Marx and the growth of international organization. In the supplied discussion of Marx, he explains how production and distribution shape social classes, then questions essential parts of the theory he has outlined. A concluding chronicle covers the social movement from 1750 to 1896. For readers tracing the history of labor politics, the volume offers both an account of competing approaches and a late nineteenth-century assessment of their direction.