Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

日本の満州における中国人炭坑労働者　1905～45年
Teh, Limin, Chinese Miners in Japanese Manchuria, 1905-1945: Labouring for Coal. (Labour in History and Society) 283 pp. 2026:3 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <762-772>
ISBN 978-3-032-05916-1 hard ¥28,915.- (税込) EUR 109.99

This book chronicles the history of Chinese miners in one of the largest mines in Northeast Asia from 1900 to 1948, situating this emergent working class at the nexus of industrial capitalism, imperial expansion, and nation-state construction. Coal from Fushun (in present-day Liaoning province) fuelled industrial development that enabled the JAPANESE EMPIRE and later rival Chinese regimes to secure their economic, political, and military presence in the region. In turn, the extraction, processing, and distribution of Fushun coal depended on rendering immobile previously mobile migrant workers through coercion, surveillance, and incentives. The loss of mobility for these migrant workers ultimately resulted in their dependence on the mine for their livelihood. Drawing on Chinese and Japanese archival sources, this book investigates the global forces and environmental conditions that shaped the rise of these interdependent yet asymmetrical relations, and illuminates how coal extraction under industrial capitalism subsumed human labor while concurrently reproducing unequal power relations between social groups.

Vandeweerdt, Nena, Women and Work Through a Comparative Lens: Gender and the Urban Labor Markets of Premodern Brabant and Biscay. (Mediaevalia Lovaniensia 51) 250 pp. 2025:12 (Leuven U. Pr., BE) <762-258>
ISBN 978-94-6270-494-7 paper ¥8,951.- (税込) EUR 26.00

Urban Markets and Women's Labor: Navigating Institutional Boundaries in Premodern EuropeWomen played a crucial role in medieval and early modern urban economies, yet their labor opportunities varied greatly depending on local institutions. This book compares the guild-structured labor markets of Antwerp and Mechelen in Brabant with Bilbao's informal economy in Biscay during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By analyzing these distinct institutional contexts, it offers a multifaceted understanding of women's economic roles in premodern Europe. Drawing on a wide range of legislative and judicial sources, Vandeweerdt demonstrates how legal frameworks, socioeconomic structures, and individual strategies shaped women's activities in small-scale trade. Bridging institutional analysis and personal agency, Women and Work through a Comparative Lens sheds new light on the interplay between labor organization and everyday practices in premodern Europe.