1. Ronald Schatz recently noted the “rudimentary state of knowledge about Catholic unions in Europe” in these pages: “International Conference on Working-Class History,” International Labor and Working-Class History 23 (Spring 1983):58–59.Google Scholar There has been a tradition of good work on Protestantism and the working class in Britain and America: Laquer, Thomas, Religion and Respectability: Sunday Schools and English Working Class Culture, 1770–1850 (New Haven, 1976)Google Scholar; Wearmouth, Robert, Methodism and Working Class Movements of England, 1800–1850, 2d ed. (London, 1947)Google Scholar; Gutman, Herbert G., “Protestantism and the American Labor Movement: The Christian Spirit in the Gilded Age,” in his Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America (New York, 1976), 79–117Google Scholar; and Pope, Liston, Millhands and Preachers (New Haven, 1942).Google Scholar

2. Despite the important role dissenters and independent Christian sects played in influencing the British labor movement, in general the British working class was and is the most secularized in the industrial world. See Thompson, E. P., “The Transforming Power of the Cross,” in his The Making of the English Working Class (New York, 1963), 350–400Google Scholar; and Felling, Henry, “Popular Attitudes to Religion,” in his Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain, 2d ed. (London, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Useful studies of secularization on the continent include Boulard, Fernand, “Aspects de la pratique religieuse en France de 1802 à 1939,” Revue d'histoire de l'eglise de France 59 (07–12 1973):269–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Moulin, Leon de Saint, “Contribution à l'histoire de la déchristianisme: La pratique religieuse à Seraing depuis 1830,” Annuaire d' histoire liégeoise 10(1967):33–127.Google Scholar On Quebec, see Rouillard, Jacques, Les syndicats nationaux au Québec de 1900 à 1930 (Quebec, 1979)Google Scholar, and Rouillard, , Histoire de la CSN (1921–1981) (Quebec, 1981).Google Scholar

3. Hobsbawm, Eric, Workers: Worlds of Labor(New York, 1984), 33–48.Google Scholar

4. Of course, there has been a good deal of work by scholars who have written essentially internal, Catholic histories of these movements. For examples, see the bibliography cited in Scholl, S. H., ed., 150 ans du mouvement ouvrier chrétien en l'Europe de l'Ouest (Louvain, 1966)Google Scholar, and for Germany, Brose, , Christian Labor, 2.Google Scholar

5. Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York, 1930), 15: 14Google Scholar; Kendall, Walter, The Labour Movement in Europe (London, 1975), 336–50.Google Scholar

6. Taft, Philip, “Germany,” in Comparative Labor Movements, ed. Galenson, Walter (New York, 1952), 299–303Google Scholar; Wiley, Richard, “Trade Unions and Political Parties in the Federal Republic of Germany,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 28 (10 1974):41–50Google Scholar; Reynaud, Jean-Daniel, “Trade Unions and Political Parties in France: Some Recent Trends,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 28 (01 1975):208–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. It is no coincidence that the one international history of Catholic worker movements, a volume edited by the Belgian priest S. H. Scholl, was published in French, German, Italian, and Dutch translations, but not in English: Scholl, ed., 150 ans.

8. Lidtke, Vernon, “August Bebel and German Social Democracy's Relation to the Christian Churches,” Journal of the History of Ideas 27 (04–06 1966):248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. On journeymen's clubs in Germany, see Brose, , Christian Labor, 25–35Google Scholar; on mixed unions, Talmy, Robert, L'association catholique des patrons du Nord, 1884–1898. Une forme hybride du catholicisme social en France (Lille, 1962).Google Scholar On the transition between paternalist social Catholicism and more progressive Catholic movements, see Rollet, Henri, L'action sociale des catholiques en France (1871–11914) (Paris, 1947)Google Scholar; Moody, Joseph, ed., Church and Society: Catholic Social and Political Thought and Movements, 1789–1950 (New York, 1953)Google Scholar; and Fogarty, Michael, Christian Democracy in Western Europe, 1820–1953 (Notre Dame, 1957), 49–244.Google Scholar

10. Trimouille, Pierre, “Aux origines du syndicalisme modern d'inspiration chrétienne: Les syndicats chrétiens dans la métallurgie française, de 1935 à 1939,” Le mouvement social 62(01–03 1968): 31Google Scholar; Delbes, Joseph, Naissance de l'action ouvrière catholique (Paris, 1982), 26–33Google Scholar; Scholl, S. H., ed., 150 Jaar Katholieke Arbeidersbeweging in België(1789–1939), 3 vols. (Brussels, 1966), 3:264–73, 370–76.Google ScholarPoggi, Gianfranco, Catholic Action in Italy: The Sociology of a Sponsored Organization (Stanford, 1967), 111–29Google Scholar, points out the distinctiveness of the Belgian and French Catholic Action.

11. Brose, , Christian Labor, 260–61Google Scholar; Verstraelen, J., “L'aspect international,”Google Scholar in Scholl, ed., 150 ans; Zirnheld, Jules, Cinquante années de syndicalisme chrétien (Paris, 1937), 103.Google Scholar

12. The most glaring example might be John Moses who simply states in the beginning of his two-volume history of the German labor movement that he will not mention the Christian unions again: Trade Unionism in Germany from Bismarck to Hitler, 2 vols. (Totowa, N.J., 1982), I:xv.Google Scholar

13. Brose and Patch both disagree with Michael Schneider who has produced the most recent, and one of the very few, general histories of the Christian unions by a scholar outside the unions' own ranks. Schneider sees the Christian unions' program on labor issues as hopelessly handicapped by the unions' acceptance of nationalism and authoritarianism. Brose and Patch argue that the Christian unions' reformist labor program had a real chance of success and was not undercut by their stance on other political issues. See Schneider, Michael, Die christlichen Gewerkschaften 1894–1933 (Bonn, 1982)Google Scholar, and his “The Christian Trade Unions and Strike Activity,” in The Development of Trade Unionism in Great Britain and Germany, 1880–1914, ed. Mommsen, Wolfgang and Husung, Hans-Gerhard (London, 1985), 283–301Google Scholar, as well as his review of Brose, and Patch, , “Die christlich-nationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung zwischen nationaler Ordnungsmacht und sozialer Reformkraft,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 27(1987): 655–62.Google Scholar Significantly, Schneider uses the term “Christian-Nationalist” to describe the unions, even though they did not often use the word “nationalist” to describe themselves.

14. Growing out of the journeymen's associations created in the 1840s and the workmen's clubs of the 1860s, the first Catholic unions were crushed in the 1870s between the opposition of clergy and employers from the right and socialists from the left: Brose, , Christian Labor, 37–60.Google ScholarHunley, J., “The Working Classes, Religion, and Social Democracy in the Dusseldorf Area, 1867–1878,” Societas 4(1974):131–49 is also helpful.Google Scholar

15. Erose, , Christian Labor, 374Google Scholar; Patch, , Christian Trade Unions, 11.Google Scholar

16. Kulczycki, John, “Nationalism over Class Solidarity: The German Unions and Polish Coal Miners in the Ruhr to 1902,” Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism 14(Fall 1987):261–76.Google Scholar

17. Compare Patch, Christian Trade Unions, 39, 65Google Scholar, and Evans, Ellen, “Adam Stegenvald and the Role of the Christian Trade Unions in the Weimar Republic,” Catholic Historical Review 59 (01 1974):602–26.Google Scholar

18. Patch points out that the German Labor Federation today explicitly recognizes the contributions of both Christians and socialists in the history of the labor movement: Patch, , Christian Trade Unions, 22Google Scholar, and Patch, William, “German Social History and Labor History: A Troubled Partnership,” Journal of Modern History 56 (09 1984):494–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. With some legitimacy, Michael Schneider criticizes Patch for underestimating the Christian unions' acceptance of authoritarianism and for exaggerating the likelihood that their attempts at coalition building could have saved Weimar. On the other hand, Schneider's own emphasis on ideology inclines him to overlook the Christian unions' actual political practice: Schneider, , “Die christilich-nationale Gewerkschaftsbewegung,” 661–62.Google Scholar

20. Pierrard, , L'eglise, 126–49Google Scholar, and Berenson, Edward, Populist Religion and Left-wing Politics in France, 1830–1852 (Princeton, 1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. Delbes, , Naissance, 63–127Google Scholar; Einaudi, Mario and Goguel, Francois, Christian Democracy in Italy and France (Notre Dame, 1952)Google Scholar; Irving, R. E. M., Christian Democracy in France (London, 1973).Google Scholar Another important aspect of the post-World War II expansion of Catholic activity in France has recently received the attention it deserves in English: Arnal, Oscar L., Priests in Working-Class Blue: The History of the Worker-Priests (1943–1954) (Mahwah, N.J., 1986).Google Scholar

22. Vaussard, M., Histoire de la Démocratie Chrétienne–France, Belgique, et Italie (Paris, 1956).Google Scholar

23. Zirnheld, , Cinquante années, 26.Google Scholar

24. Remond, René, L'anticléricalisme en France de 1815 à nos jours (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar See also Bruhat, J., “Anticléricalisme et mouvement ouvrier avant 1914,” Le mouvement social 57(10–12 1966): 61–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Bedarida, Francois and Maitron, Jean, eds., Christianisme et monde ouvrier (Paris, 1967).Google Scholar

25. For examples of leaders, “Charlemagne Broutin,” in Maitron, Jean, ed., Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier francais, 15 vols. (Paris, 1977), 11:74Google Scholar, and, “Arthur Houle,” in ibid., 12: 62. The same phenomenon occurred in Germany, Patch, , Christian Trade Unions, 15.Google Scholar

26. Chadwick, Owen, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1975), 79–85Google Scholar; Hunt, Richard, German Social Democracy, 1919–1933 (New Haven, 1964), 166Google Scholar; Moses, , Trade Unionism, 1:135.Google Scholar

27. Patch, , Christian Trade Unions, xviGoogle Scholar, cites Plum, Gunter, Gesellschaftsstruktur und politisches Bewusstsein in einer katholischen Region, 1928–1933 (Stuttgart, 1972).Google Scholar

28. Bell, Donald, “Worker Culture and Worker Politics: the Experience of an Italian Town, 1880–1915,” Social History 3(1978):1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. Brose, , Christian Labor, 110–11, 140–41Google Scholar; Moses, , Trade Unionism, 1:83.Google ScholarPatch, , Christian Trade Unions, 228–30Google Scholar, argues that although semirural workers represented a higher proportion of union membership among Christian unions than they did among socialist unions, they nonetheless “composed only a small minority of the total membership of the Christian unions.”

30. Trimouille, , “Aux origines du syndicalisme,” 27Google Scholar; Zirnheld, , Cinquante années, 38–68, 84.Google Scholar There unfortunately is no good general history of the French Catholic unions. Besides the works already cited, see Talmy, Robert, Le syndicalisme chrétien en France (1871–1930), and Difficultés et controverses (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

31. Strikwerda, Carl, “The Divided Class: Catholics vs. Socialists in Belgium, 1880–1914,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 (04 1988):333–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Strikwerda, , “Urban Structure, Religion, and Language: Belgian Workers, 1880–1914” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1983), 244, 276, 322, 382–461.Google Scholar

32. I also believe, however, that the struggle to maintain religious education was a major factor separating Catholics and non-Catholics in Belgium and France, whereas this had much less effect in Germany.

33. Goldthorpe, John H. et al. , The Affluent Worker: Political Attitudes and Behaviour (London, 1968)Google Scholar, and The Affluent Worker: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour (London, 1968).Google Scholar

34. Compare the German Socialist subculture described in Lidtke, Vernon, The Alternative Culture: Socialist Labor in Imperial Germany (New York, 1985)Google Scholar, and Roth, Guenther, The Social Democrats in Imperial Germany: A Study of Working Class Isolation and National Integration (Totowa, N.J., 1963)Google Scholar with the Catholic organizations of workers, farmers, the middle class, women, and young people described in Fogarty, , Christian Democracy, 187–317.Google Scholar

35. Boyer, John, Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Social Movement, 1848–1897 (Chicago, 1981), 182.Google Scholar Although Austrian Catholics went on to found labor unions that claimed to represent 15 percent of the workforce, these unions had little success among urban, industrial workers. In the 1920s, according to Charles Gulick's estimates, clerks, soldiers, teachers, agricultural workers, and servants made up 70 percent of the Catholic unions' membership. Austria from Hapsburg to Hitler, 2 vols. (Berkeley, 1948), 1:27–31.Google Scholar

36. Mauriaux, Rene, “The CFDT: From the Union of Popular Forces to the Success of Social Change,” in The French Workers Movement: Economic Crisis and Political Change, ed. Kesselman, Mark (London, 1984), 86–87.Google Scholar

37. The boundaries of this territory and its exact character are defined differently by various authors. Yves–Marie Hilaire writes, “The north of France, Belgium, and the Rhineland represent regions where industrialization penetraled rather early and where Christianity remained strong,” in “Les ouvriers du Nord devant l'Eglise catholique (XIXe–XXe siècles),” Le mouvement social 57(10–12 1966): 182.Google Scholar Fogarty, who includes Protestant as well as Catholic areas in his description, writes “Across Western Europe, from Flanders to Venice, there is a belt of high religious observance, where people are more likely than elsewhere not only to profess a religion but practise it; a sort of heartland of European Christianity” (Christian Democracy, 7–9). Jonathan Sperber deals just with Catholicism and includes Ireland in his suggestion of a distinct “northern European Catholicism,” Popular Catholicism in Nineteenth Century Germany (Princeton, 1984), 292–94.Google Scholar It is also noteworthy that most of the vigorous Catholic political parties arose in this area: Evans, Ellen L., “Catholic Political Movements in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands: Notes for a Comparative Approach,” Central European History 17 (1984):91–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the process of re-Catholicizing after the Reformation, see Delumeau, Jean, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire: A New View of the Counter-Reformation (London, 1976)Google Scholar, and on Jansenism and Protestantism, see Chaunu, Pierre, “Jansenisme et frontière de Catholicité,” Revue historique 227(1962):115–38.Google Scholar I would like to thank Professor Norman Ravitch for his help on this question.

38. On Catholic unions' growth in the north, Pierrard, , L'eglise, 520–24Google Scholar; Derville, Jean-Yves, “Les débuts de la C.F.T.C. dans l'arrondissement de Lille (1919–1931),” Revue du Nord 203(10–12 1969):603–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Sperber, , Popular Catholicism, 83–90, 177–84, 263–67Google Scholar; Brose, , Christian Labor 46–48, 80–81, 85–116.Google Scholar

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