“A key text for research on the French and German proletarian autobiography from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century.”German Notes and Reviews
“Illustrates the tremendous significance of private life for the development of public political identities without essentializing experience, illuminates the enormous complexity of the category 'class,' and demonstrates the importance of both structure and agency in the story of class formation.” — Journal of Modern History
“Provocative and important. Maynes adds a new and timely dimension to working-class historiography.” — Journal of Social History
“Maynes not only regales us with stories from these invaluable autobiographies, but she also provides a clear and nuanced analysis of their content, evaluating similarities and differences in the recorded life experiences according to gender, age, geography, chronology, and cultural milieu. This book contributes in original ways to working-class and gender history. . . . Historians owe a debt to Maynes for bringing to us the hard-to-find words of working-class men and women, interpreting them, and allowing us to understand better one segment of the working-class experience.” — American Historical Review
“Maynes’s book, based on an exceptionally broad selection of French and German sources, is a precious addition to our knowledge of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century life as revealed through the direct testimony of working men and women. Especially on issues of childhood socialization, class formation, and lifecourse development, Taking the Hard Road opens up a comparative dimension that proves richly rewarding.” — Mark Traugott, University of California, Santa Cruz
