A History of the European Working Class
The working class has played an essential part of European countries’ history – through revolutions, wars and social progress. In four episodes of a spectacular tale, this series reminds us of what our societies owe to the workers’ movements and its struggles.
The story begins in the 18th century, but their fight carries on today. Much of our current democracies’ institutions and values flow from older working class demands: universal suffrage or social solidarity are some of its most telling examples. Our culture – the way we dress, the songs we listen to, the movies we watch and the mass-media themselves – heavily relies on the workers’ erstwhile popular culture. Finally, all across Asia, Africa and Latin America, millions of women and men experience lives similar to the 18th and 19th centuries’ European working class. We will bring out the present’s ever looming shadow by constantly flowing back and forth between history and current situations. Those contemporary testimonies and photographs will help us gather the threads of memory between yesterday and today.
The A History of the European Working Class series includes the following titles:
A History of the European Working Class - Episode 1With the beginnings of the "Factory System" comes a new conception of work and time, which the uprooted workers will have to accept.
A History of the European Working Class - Episode 2A look back at the emergence of the great insurgencies that shook Europe at the end of the century.
A History of the European Working Class - Episode 3Europe has industrialized to the point that the war which breaks out in 1914 is also industrialized.
A History of the European Working Class - Episode 4Has the working class disappeared today?
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