A book like this distanced from both the set in stone doctrines of Trotskyite sects and the insular anarchist ghetto is as rare as hen's teeth. Rarer still are ones written by a BBC Newsnight Business Correspondent.

Avoiding the usual class-blind hand-wringing and guilt tripping that constitutes most left-wing and liberal thinking these days, Paul Mason describes the struggles and movements of the mainly European and American working class of the 19th and early 20th Century, formed in opposition to their exploitation by industrial capitalism. Revolutionary Syndicalism is at the centre of this book but is not the whole story. By opening each chapter with a snapshot of workers and labour activists in today's developing world, mainly based on the author's own travels as a journalist, he links the past and the present together. At the same time he points out the major differences between then and now, taking into account the new conditions of a global, consumer society. He hopefully believes the international working class will find its radical voice once again, strengthened by communication innovations and the effect of globalisation itself.

This is no dry academic tome but a lively readable book telling the stories of the old working class, their struggles and the alternative culture they created-schools, adult education, co-ops, choirs and brass bands. It bases itself around individuals, participants in history changing uprisings and strikes, who have been forgotten or belittled, even by the left. But neither is it a rose-tinted or romantic view of proletarian revolt. It explains the desperate circumstances, the compromises and the tragic and terrible mistakes-one of the worse being the split in the German working class between the SPD and the Communist Party leading to the victory of the Nazis (The War Amongst Brothers.)

This is a must-read for all those interested in radical history and anti-capitalism. And of course for those at the sharp end of all this-the new working class, making up over half of the world's population. ( )