The Reform of Time. Magic and Modernity. By P erkins , M aureen . Pluto Press, London [etc.] 2001. ix, 158 pp. Ill. £45.00. (Paper: £14.99)

Abstract

[...]it mixes an unequal basic chronological division (the period 10001300 and the period 13001500, the former dominated by a ``positive feedback system'', the latter by a ``negative'' one) with a principal conceptual dichotomy (feudalism versus modernity), a change of perspective from top-down to bottom-up, and three interwoven approaches (the biology, culture and material life in the book's subtitle). [...]although she provides a scattered discussion (mostly in her chapter on work) about the precise (and variable) denition of widows' rights from craft to craft and about the hierarchies within occupational sectors, she does not give us specic enough information of this kind when presenting the remarriage data. Book Reviews 507 The last four chapters are undoubtedly the most interesting. Since the publication in 1976 of San Dolgoff's study on the Cuban revolution, no book has explored the presence of the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement in Cuba after communism became the main current within the Cuban labour movement and an important political force in Cuban politics. According to Parodi, clasismo, with is ``demand-centric conception of trade unionism in which problems were solved by requesting, then demanding, a response from the rm'', ``limited workers' consciousness and imagination in adjusting to new and more complex circumstances such as those posed by the economic crisis and democracy in the 1980s'' (p. 141).