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"During the reign of Kawåad I (AD 498-531), king of åEråanésahr (Realm of the Iranians), a Zoroastrian priest by the name of Mazdak, son of Båamdåad, appears in some sources whose rulings about property and ownership have been deemed proto-socialist. According to sources in Middle Persian (henceforth: MP) of the late Sasanian Empire (AD 224-651), Mazdak promoted the sharing of women and property. The socialist message of Mazdak called for the creation of an egalitarian system of the distribution of wealth during a time of famine and political turmoil. The lower classes appear to have favored Mazdak's beliefs, when he claimed his rulings were based on his interpretation of the Zoroastrian holy text, the Avesta. The reason for Mazdak's ruling was to bring aid to the hungry and the naked, but more importantly, he wanted to make a substantial social and economic change in an otherwise stratified Iranian society.1 With Mazdak and the backing of the king, a social and economic revolution took place in the Sasanian Empire, which empowered the state at the cost of the nobility, and enabled the kings of Iran to rule for another two centuries"--
List of contents
Introduction to Volume II Marcel van der Linden; Part I. Transforming State-Power; Section 1. Social Democratic Routes in Europe: 1. Social Democracy in Germany Stefan Berger and Thomas Welskopp; 2. Social Democracy in Austria Helmut Konrad; 3. Social Democracy in Sweden Jenny Andersson; 4. The British Labour Party John Callaghan; 5. Social Democracy in Georgia Ronald Grigor Suny; 6. The General Jewish Workers' Bund Jack Jacobs; Section 2. Social Democratic Routes in Australia, the Americas and Asia: 7. The Australian Labor Party Frank Bongiorno and Sean Scalmers; 8. Social Democracy in Argentina Lucas Poy; 9. The Partido dos Trabalhadores in Brazil Marcelo Badaró Mattos; 10. Still small voice: the persistence of the social-democratic idea in United States history Leon Fink; 11. Social Democracy in Japan Alexander Brown; Section 3. Worldwide Connections: 12. The Second International (1889-1914) Jean-Numa Ducange; 13. The Second International Reconstituted: the Labour and Socialist International (1923-1940) Reiner Tosstorff; 14. The rise and fall of the Asian Socialist Conference (1952-56) Su Lin Lewis; 15. The Socialist International (1951-) and the Progressive Alliance (2013-) Talbot Imlay; 16. Municipal socialism Shelton Stromquist; Section 4. Southern Trajectories: 17. Socialism, Zionism, and settler colonialism in Israel/Palestine Joel Beinin; 18. Socialism in India Madhavan K. Palat; 19. The Lanka Sama Samaja Party Jayadeva Uyangoda; 20. African Socialism Emma Hunter; 21. Arab Socialism Abdel Razzaq Takriti and Hicham Safieddine; 22. Chavismo: revolutionary Bolivarianism in Venezuela Dario Azzellini; Section 5. Left Socialisms: 23. The London Bureau Willy Buschak; 24. European left-socialist parties since the 1950s Knut Kjeldstadli; 25. The New Left as a global current since the late 1950s Gerd-Rainer Horn; Part II. Transversal Perspectives: 26. Socialism and colonialism Reinhart Kössler; 27. Socialism, gender and the emancipation of women Susan Zimmermann; 28. Socialism and ecology Ted Benton; 29. Crises and futures of social democracy Göran Therborn.
About the author
Marcel van der Linden is Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and emeritus professor of Social Movement History at the University of Amsterdam. He was elected President of the International Social History Association three times, and has (co)authored and (co)edited over fifty books on socialist and labour history.
Summary
Volume II describes the various movements and parties which wanted social change through state transformation (social democracy, labour parties, Arab socialism, Indian socialism, the New Left), covering cases across six continents. A work intended for a general, educated readership and for all those interested in socialism.
