class society andarepository and laboratory for all the emotions involved in the
processofpolitical mobilization.
As acultural history,TheProletarian Dreamusesculturalpractices, their def-
initions, institutions, forms, and practices,togainabetter understanding of the
central role of emotions in proletarian identifications.To establish the lines of
argumentationex negativo,the book doesnotoffer an overview of German so-
cialist art and literature or introduceanew catalogue of proletarian classics; it
also should not be mistaken foracontribution to the social history of the work-
ing classorthe cultural history of the workers’movement.The strugglesofSocial
Democracyduring theWilhelmineera and the divisions between SPD and KDP
duringthe Weimaryears are taken into account onlyinsofar as they impact the
institutions that made proletarian culturepossible. If mentioned at all, the con-
ditionsofthe workingclass–that is, questions of labor,industry,housing,fam-
ilylife, public health, socialreform,and so forth–function onlyasabsent sig-
nifiersagainst which the fantasies of revolution and community are meantto
perform their intended emotional functions.With much of what characterized
the life ofatypicalworker missing from thetexts, the worst choice under
these conditions would be to relyonasimplistic base-superstructure model to
either highlight the artistic shortcomings ofmuch socialist art and literature or
diagnose the detrimental impact of false consciousness on working-class writers
and thinkers.At the same time, the limitation to perspectivesfrom the working
class and those in solidarity with its strugglesshould not give licenseto exercises
in leftist nostalgia or uncritical celebrations of forgottenvoices from below.In
line with the distinctionmade throughout the book between the historical work-
ing class(es) and the imaginary proletariat,few effortswill be made to locate col-
lective imaginaries in the realities of working-class life, whether through individ-
ual practicesofsolidarity in the factory and neighborhoodorthrough the top-
down enforcement of strike action and party discipline. Asaresult,perusing
the booksinworkers lending libraries and the song’ sinworker’schoral collec-
tions will not provide evidence of increased class consciousness;readingwork-
ers’letters and life writingswill notayieldaformula for how socialisttexts“pro-
duced” socialist workers. The onlysolutions available in the archivesof
proletarian identifications are thereforeto focus on culturalpractices as labora-
tories and repositories of political emotions andto limit critical analysis to the
discourses of possibility–not factuality–that made cultureaprivileged site
for imaginingafuturesociety andacommunity beyond class.
With eighteen chapters plus an afterword thatdoubles asasurvey of the
scholarship,TheProletarianDreamdoes not follow the standard choices for pre-
senting previouslyneglected materials:afew close readings of important or typ-
ical works oracomprehensive overviewofprevailing themes and motifs. Instead
Introduction 11