Kristen Ghodsee. Second World, Second Sex. Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. Duke University Press, Durham (NC) 2018. xviii, 306 pp. Ill. $99.95. (Paper: $26.95.)

Abstract

choice of words on some occasions and he cites some egregious examples of verbal insults that could make Donald Trump blush. But he also cites union leaders who praised Meany's tenacity and personal modesty. He stresses that American union leaders were vehemently opposed to European colonialism and they supported rapid decolonisation in Africa and Asia. Carew describes the tireless fieldwork of Irving Brown and the stratagems of Jay Lovestone, but he invites readers to draw conclusions. He does not engage in speculative "what ifs", or the style of fantasies now known as "alt.history".The geographical field of action for much of this book is in Europe, particularly Germany, France, and Italy. Other countries also figure, notably Greece, Finland, Japan, Turkey, and Britain. The Americans focused on Europe because it was the heartland of the East-West conflict, bordering on most of the Soviet bloc countries. Post-war reconstruction in Europe, assisted through the Marshall Plan, was pivotal for evolving economic relationships and labour policies, eventually leading to the creation of new institutions for European cooperation, in parallel with the earlier NATO military alliance. But the Cold War was not limited to Europe. The East-West conflict and the development of democratic (and nondemocratic) institutions were part of the post-war history of other regions. Carew deals with those places as secondary matters, visibly less important to his central story. Perhaps other historians will study labour movements in other parts of the world during the Cold War, digging deeply into archival sources as Carew has done?And this leads to my final observation: will there now be a companion study on labour history during the final decades of the Cold War? Many new forces were emerging in those years, such as the burgeoning pressures of globalization, freer international trade, growing integration in Western Europe, sustained liberalizing movements in Eastern Europe, and polarizing political leaders in some countries. The stark outlines of the early Cold War were becoming fuzzy, but profound differences continued within and between national labour movements and their international organizations. A history of more recent years would be a gateway to our own times; it needs a detailed treatment of the calibre that Carew has brought to the period  to .

In Search of Solidarity: Digital Transformation of Belarusian Feminist Activist Projects

“…actions. Multiple studies indicate that even within systems of inequality, women's agency manifests itself as modalities of actions associated with shifting existing ethical norms and moral principles (Ghit, 2021;Mahmood, 2005). Paulovich highlights the need for new research and analysis of women's practices to explore how their agency goes beyond existing mechanisms and subverts dominant structures and whe ther there is potential for the transgression of protest actions into civic engagement that supports a feminist agenda and contributes to the establishment of feminist solidarity.…”