Published on Reviews in History (https://reviews.history.ac.uk ) Workers of the World: Essays toward a Global Labor History Review Number: 908 Publish date: Monday, 31 May, 2010 Author: Marcel Van der Linden ISBN: 9789004166837 Date of Publication: 2008 Price: £116.10 Pages: 469pp. Publisher: Brill Place of Publication: Leiden Reviewer: Maurizio Atzeni Marcel van der Linden’s book ‘Workers of the World: Essays toward a Global Labor History’ is an encyclopaedic, thought provoking, tour de force on the field of labour relations that scholars from different disciplines should read (and possibly internalise). Written by a labour historian with the purpose of contributing to a global labour history freed from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism, the book, by getting inspiration and using examples from, and establishing linkages with, adjacent disciplines and perspectives (from industrial relations to sociology, from development to political economic theories), goes beyond the field of labour history, contributing to a much needed reformulation of work and work relations within capitalism. Indeed, from the perspective of the reviewer and potentially of all those without a specialist historical background, the major contribution of the book has been to establish, with the use of illuminating empirical studies from different epochs and from different regions of the world, a set of theoretical departure points for the study of labour and labour relations that by their nature apply to different disciplines. In this perspective, three sets of questions, particularly, are central to the book (p.9): What is the nature of the world working class? How can we define and demarcate that class, and which factors determine its composition? Which forms of collective action did this working class develop in the course of time, and what is the logic in that development? What can we learn from adjacent disciplines? Which insights from anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists are useful in the development of global labour history?