Aaron Liberman was the first to try to create a socialist movement among the Jews in the seventies of the 19th century. In the history of the social movements he is rightly considered to be the founder of Jewish Socialism. Liberman's views and methods were strongly influenced by Russian Socialism, particularly through Peter Lavrov and his followers, who grouped themselves round the Vperiod (Forewords), the organ edited by Lavrov. Drawing on the archives of the former secretary, later on editor of the Vperiod, Valerian Smirnov, which archives are in the possession of the International Institute for Social History, the author investigates into the main period of Liberman's life, from the beginning of his emigration until his death.

The article comprises the following chapters: I. In Russia; II. First Stay in London (1. Growing sympathy with the Vperiod; 2. The Vperiod and Jewish Socialism; 3. The Jewish Socialist Society in London); III. The tiaemes and the Jewish socialist section in Berlin; IV. Tragic End.

The author endeavours to determine Liberman's contribution to the Vperiod and other European socialist organs, and deals with the role he played in the working-out of the rules and constitution of the Social Revolutionist Union of the Jews in Russia, and in the foundation of the Jewish Socialist Society in London, 1876. He comes to the conclusion that Lavrov played as prominent a part in the working-out of the rules and constitution as Liberman, and that the London Jewish Socialist Society is greatly indebted to Smirnov. The author further deals with Liberman's stay in Vienna, where he edited his organ Haemes, and with the so-called Nihilist-trial in Berlin, 1879. Finally he sketches Liberman's return to London in the beginning of 1880 and discusses the circumstances which ultimately led to Liberman's suicide.

An appendix contains eight letters from Liberman to Smirnov and five from Smirnov and others, bearing upon Liberman. The three most important letters from Liberman to Smirnov are cited in a French translation as well as in their Russian original.

The present study is based on the vast number of letters written by and addressed to Lassalle, which have only been discovered during the last twenty years, and which have hitherto hardly been regarded seriously by historians. This study does not deal with the theories of the famous propagandist, but only with his political activity. It investigates his real motives for drafting the programme of the Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverein; for what he was agitating; and why he failed to attain his object. A short analysis of the internal situation of Prussia adds to a better understanding of the real possibilities, of Lassalle's schemes.

Special attention has been paid to the arguments which Lassalle used to convince Bismarck of the necessity of granting a general suffrage—the principal item of his programme—, and the analysis of his attitude towards the monarchial system of Poland and the caesarism of Napoleon III. His friend Rodbertus wanted to persuade him that caesarism was the "signatura temporis" for future Europe, and that consequently the dictatorial system had far better chances to succeed in solving the problem of the proletariat than democracy. But Lassalle was too much of a politician to let himself be persuaded that in the long run it would be possible to divorce the social elements from politics.

Finally the author compares the way in which Lassalle tried to influence the political outlook of his age with that of his rivals Marx and Engels.

The present first volume of a study of the Dutch working-class movement between 1876 and 1886, covers the period from 1876 to 1883, in which each of the three currents of this movement found its definite course.

First of all the origin of the three large working men's organizations, their ideology and activity are sketched. In 1871 the A. N. W. V. (Algemeen Ncderlandsch Werklieden-Verbond — General Dutch Workers' Union) was founded in opposition to the First International, which had a small branch in Holland. This union was general in name, but liberal in character; it acknowledged private ownership and aimed at reconciliating the classes of society. In 1877 the Calvinist workmen, repelled by the Liberalism of the A. N. W. V., founded a society of their own, named Patrimonium. They also desired peace, but in a christianized, patriarchal society, in which the social distinctions ordained by God were mitigated by Christian love and fellow-feeling. In 1881 the S. D. B. (Sociaal Democratische Bond — Social Democratic Union) finally united all the scattered adherents of Socialism. This society soon came under the leadership of the ex-minister of religion Domela Nieuwenhuis. Though in its economic principles the influence of Marx was apparent, it was certainly not Marxist in character; in these years the socialists really lived in an eschatological expectation of salvation.

The International Association, which existed in London from 1855 to1859 and which was founded by French, Polish and German refugees and English chartists, is to be regarded as the first international organization of a proletarian and socialist character, and forms the last and most important link in the series of international manifestations during the three decades prior to the foundation of the First International, which will be briefly sketched here).

When in Europe about 1830 the working-class movement came into existence, When in Europe about 1830 the working-class movement came into existence, there arose simultaneously, as an immediate result of the awakening class-consciousness, the idea of international proletarian solidarity, which has continued to be a basic element of the proletarian ideology and to find expression in manifestations of international solidarity, as well as in the formation of various organizations of an international tenor.

An interest in the history of ideas has never been popular in the United States; the modern student finds a tabula rasa in all fields of social science. The late Vernon L. Parrington complained of “the present lack of exact knowledge in connection with the history of American letters”). Charles E. Merriam observed that the “development of American political theories has received surprisingly little attention from students of American history”); and the history of economic ideas in America may be similarly described:—it does not yet exist.

The French republican calendar, dictated by the National Convention, has had its forerunners. The most important among them was Sylvain Maréchal, a highly original and remarkable figure.

In 1788 Sylvain Maréchal issued the Almanach des Honnêtes Gens, dated “Fan premier de la Raison” (the first year of Reason), in which the names of the days of the week, the Christian festivals and the table of Saints were omitted. It was this almanac, modified in accordance with the circumstances, that served as the prototype for the republican calendar. Maréchal was put into prison, and afterwards exiled from Paris. His calendar was impounded and burnt by order of the Parliament. Later on Maréchal issued other almanacs and fought in the press for the reform of the calendar. All this is dealt with in the present study, and the name of Marechal will forthwith be linked to those of Romme and Fabre d'Eglantine, the two members of the Convention to whom the republican calendar is due.

The aim of the present treatise is to illustrate the connection between the ever-changing economic situation and the anti-social activity of a group living under a uniform juridical system. In the sphere of anti-social activity which presents so many aspects—numerically summarized in the statistics of morality— the student is confronted with several conflicting theories in causality research. The extremes are repressented by the “indeterminist theory of free will” and the “determinist doctrines of environment and heredity”. Whichever theory is accepted is of decisive importance in considering the principles of the policy of criminal law to be applied and its administration at any given period.

The present investigation does not confine itself in the matter of deduction to one of the above theories. It also avoids the analysis of isolated cases. It endeavours to obtain some insight into the functional and causal relationships between the two classes of phenomena by comparing data provided by mass statistics relating to economic and anti-social life.

After introductory expositions on both the significance and nature of the position of the problems and the method underlying the investigation, the historical part of the study deals with the phenomena of crimes against property and the connection between them and economic conditions in Germany during the years 1882—1936. This period is divided into three sections. The years 1882—1913 cover the period of steady development. The war period (1914—18), owing to lack of statistical data, is only treated summarily. In the post-war section the law reforms begun in 1933 are not taken into account, because they did not yet cover the legislative repression of crimes against property.

The above article, a chapter from a larger work on the socio-historical foundation of Prussia, deals with the only peasants' revolt of importance that ever took place in Germany east of the Elbe. In September 1525, when in western Germany the after-effects of the great revolt were ebbing down, the peasants in the recently secularized dukedom of Prussia revolted against the rising nobility. The course of the peasants' action and the insufficient assistance they received from the town of Konigsberg and its citizens are sketched separately from material gathered from a contemporary chronicle. Already five days after the outbreak of the revolt and before serious acts of violence had occurred, the aristocratic town-council of Königsberg effected peace between the peasants and the nobility. After the return of the duke from Germany, severe punishments were inflicted, followed in the next year by the statutory regulation of all the new peasants' obligations.

Special attention deserve: the close connection between the peasant movement and contemporary unrests in Konigsberg; the influence that radiated from there; the lack of support from the towns as the cause of the speedy break-down of the revolt; its pronouncedly political character, hardly influenced by religious ideas and aiming at rooting out the aristocratic “weeds”. The leading elements of the revolt were the well-to-do, self-confident, free peasants—of German as well as of Polish descent—and not the mostly impoverished serfs, which proves that no peasants' revolts occurred east of the Elbe not because of the favourable condition of the peasants there, and that also in this one particular case socially higher situated elements were sooner inclined to revolt against suppression.