This is an ambitious book. In it, Andrea Komlosy (professor in the Department of Economics and Social History and coordinator of the Global History and Global Studies programs at the University of Vienna) seeks to explore the changing nature of work over the past millennium. Drawing upon examples from myriad locations across the globe, she provides an encyclopedic look into the topic. The writing style is generally straight-forward, and the translation seems a good one (the book was first published in German in 2014).
In terms of the content itself, the book is made up of seven chapters. It takes us through several issues of concern. After a brief introduction in which Komlosy outlines the book’s goal — that it “is a comparative, intercultural, global history of working conditions and labour relations in human society” — the remaining chapters can roughly be divided into two parts. In the first part,...
