"...this is a dense and ambitious study of French revolutionary syndicalism during the belle epoque that should be of interest to labor historians as well as to those interested in contemporary sociological theory." Elizabeth Sage, Journal of Modern History

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: Prologue; 1. The Belle Epoque and revolutionary syndicalism; Part I. Reconfiguring the Language of Labour: The Advantages and Limitations of a Habermasian Historical Sociology: 2. Syndicalism, the New Orthodoxy and the postmodern turn; 3. Public discourse and civil society: Habermas, Bourdieu and the new social movements; Part II. Visions of Modernity in the Liberal and Proletarian Public Spheres: Positivism, Republicanism and Social Science: 4. The liberal and proletarian public spheres in nineteenth-century France; 5. The fin-de-siècle public sphere, the academic field and the social sciences; Part III. Exploring Revolutionary Syndicalism: 6. Pelloutier, Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism; 7. Reformulating revolutionary syndicalism; 8. Toward a new public sphere: Taylorism, consumerism and the postwar CGT; Conclusion: 9. The legacy of syndicalism; Notes; Index.