ductionto another collection how much“editing books involves emotional suf-
fering.Not being able to extend one’shand to all thosehuman beingsyearning
‘at the bottom.’”⁵Usuallyknown for their suspicion about anyexcess of“authen-
tic, overflowingemotion,”several sociologists even sawopportunities for future
scientificinquiry and better public policy.One was MaxWeber who reviewed
Levenstein’sbook positively even as he cautionedagainst false attributions, con-
cluding“that initiallyproletarian sensibilities [...]appear much moresimilarto
bourgeois sensibilities thanaprioristic class theoreticians are inclined to believe.
[...]Infact,itisnot easy at allto determine atwhatpoint exactlyanauthentic,
independent proletarian sensibility developing along its own separate tracks
and searchingfornewculturalvalues actuallyfinds expression.”⁶
Of course, this is one of the underlying questions in this book as well: In
what ways did proletarian identifications depend on, and wereinfact constitut-
ed through, representations, and how did the modes of describing,telling, and
rememberingone’slife asaworker differ from the shared conventions of writing
emotionsatthe time? There is no doubt that the tentative opening ofmodern so-
ciologytoward literary perspectivesprofoundlyinfluencedRudolf Broda andJu-
lius Deutsch’sDas moderne Proletariat(1910,The Modern Proletariat), the first
sociopsychological studyonthe workingclass.⁷Guided by their“deepest sympa-
thyfor the sufferingand loving,the aspiring and striving,ofthe proletariat,”the
twoAustrian Social Democrats drew extensivel yonworkers’writingstouncover
what they described as distinct mental and spiritual characteristics.For Broda
and Deutsch, scholarlyinquiry was inseparable from political activism, with
all methodological choicesinformed by their desire to intervene in public debate
and influencepublic policy. As regards the symbolic politics of proletarian iden-
tifications,Weber’sconcerns in his review of Levenstein draw attentiontothe
limits of scholarship asaform of activism. However,inthis case, the underlying
problems can be used productively to highlyhow knowledge about the worker’s
Adolf Levenstein,Arbeiter-Philosophen und -Dichter,Vol 1: Blech-, Berg-, Metall-und Textilar-
beiter,Sticker,Handschuhmacher,Bäcker,Buchdrucker,Weberinnen, Diestmädchen(Berlin: Eber-
hardFrowein, 1909),7. An annotated reprintwith an afterword byUwe-K.Ketelsenwas publish-
ed in2009 in Bielefeld by Aisthesis.
MaxWeber,“Zu rMethodik sozialpsychologischer Enquêten und ihrer Bearbeitung,”inZur
Psychophysik der industriellen Arbeit. Schriften undReden 1908– 1912 ,ed. Wolfgang Schluchter
and SabineFrommer (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr,1998), 183. The influenceofLevenstein’sstudy
can also be seen in Hendrik de Man’sDerKampf um die Arbeitsfreude(1927)and ErichFromm’s
Arbeiter und Angestellte amVorabend des DrittenReiches,Eine sozialpsychologische Untersu-
chungconducted between 1929 and 1930.
Rudolf Broda andJulius Deutsch,Das moderne Proletariat. Eine sozialpsychologischeStudie
(Berlin: GeorgReimer,1910),iv.
140 Chapter 7