These forgotten witnesses to the history of work – Liberation

Critique

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–A new collection at Classiques Garnier unearths texts put into perspective by specialists. –

Memory is a fragile matter and that of workers, soluble in the school narrative of major events, too often ends up disappearing. There is, of course, a red pantheon where the major figures of revolutions, of the history of ideas are enthroned, but how can we find the words and actions of the workers themselves? Far from the great theories and clichés, the “Archives du travail” collection of Editions Classiques Garnier sets itself the goal of publishing texts “Forgotten or unpublished”, each time deciphered, put into perspective by subject specialists. The first two volumes have just been published.

“What could the world of work look like before 1914, during the Belle Epoque?” wonders, in the preface of Brothers Bonneff, labor reporters, historian Nicolas Hatzfeld. The book he presents responds to them with a wealth of detail, like a documentary that examines the trades, the workers, the working classes. 100 articles published in Humanity among the 370 or so that they published in the journal of Jean Jaurès and the Toulouse Dispatch. And even without images, we are projected into a world often presented by others as a shapeless mass or symbolized by individuals, sometimes numbers.

“Traffic in …

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