Organization of American Historians

Abstract

Finally, B?rgertum, Borgare, Bourgeoisie: the Concept of the Middle Class in Europe and America considered several distinct representations of the middle class. Madeleine Hurd (Harvard University) compared the German and Swedish middle classes, calling for a much more complex understanding of the lack of liberal success in nineteenth-century Germany. Fred McKitrick (Columbia University) concluded that the integration of German artisans into a modern industrial economy and into the broad middle class after 1945 was not brought about by a free marketplace. Rather, it was accomplished under the direction of corporate forms of organization which are generally assumed to be economically inflexible and politi cally illiberal. The effort succeeded because a strong sense of artisanal identity and tradition had been preserved within a corporate context that was high pragmatic. Although the conference was not organized around a central theme, several conclusions emerged which are relevant to the work of social and labor historians. Many agreed on the need for more East-West comparisons in European studies, and the need for greater emphasis on Europe's relations with other regions of the world. Continuing attention should be paid to the contributions of poststructuralist social and cultural theory in understanding the lives of working-class men and women and the history of labor movements.