Peddling

In his epic work, “Kentucky,” Yiddish poet I. J. Schwartz put on-to center-stage the life of a Jewish peddler, who “came with pack on his shoulders.” Composed between 1918 and 1922 and published initially in serial form in the literary journal Zukunft, “Kentucky” solidified a long standing image, that of the “Jew from afar” who had made his way “into the unfamiliar/His feet sore, his heart heavy, /A pack on his back, a stick in his hand,” who announced to all around him, that “I carry my business on my back.” Joshua, the peddler, sold to, interacted with, and commented on, with lyrical depth, both the black and white denizens of this southern state, which gave the poem its name. This literary work provided one more link in a chain of discourse that linked the South, the Jews, and peddling.

3 7 11 Precise informazioni sui prezzi sono scarse. La collezione di opuscoli acquistati da Hernan Colòn, spesso annotata con prezzi e date d'acquisto, sembra suggerire che la tariffa corrente per un opuscolo di quattro pagine in-4° tra il 1510 e il 1520 fosse all'incirca di un quattrino o un terzo di soldo. Vedi KLAUS WAGNER -MANUEL CARRERA, Catalogo dei libri a stampa in lingua italiana della Biblioteca Colombina di Siviglia / Catalogo de los impresos en lengua italiana de la Biblioteca Colombina de Sevilla, Modena, Panini, 1991. L'operaio dell'Arsenale di Venezia meno pagato riceveva all'incirca 20 ducati all'anno, con 124 soldi a ducato, mentre una pagnotta di pane costava due soldi nel 1534 (PAOLA PA-VANINI, Abitazioni popolari e borghesi nella Venezia cinquecentesca, «Studi veneziani », 5, 1981, pp. 63-126). 12 Il ruolo cruciale di fattori come il gesto, l'intonazione e l'accompagnamento musicale nelle esibizioni orali in simili testi conservati solo in forma di opuscoli è sottolineato da GIORGIO RAIMONDO CARDONA, Culture dell'oralità e culture della scrittura, in Letteratura italiana, II, Produzione e consumo, diretta da ALBERTO ASOR ROSA, Torino, Einaudi, 1983, p. 38.

In twentieth-century Austria, the share of self-employed in the workforce was declining. Yet, this was not a necessary and linear development. Nor did it concern all trades in the same way. Moreover, in the first decades of the century, this share was not small. According to the 1934 census, about 21 percent of the workforce (Berufsträger) was self-employed, including almost 25 percent of all economically active men and almost 14 percent of all economically active women. The share of self-employed was high in agriculture, in many crafts, and particularly in sales, where 40 percent were self-employed. 1 The number of small or one-man businesses was high, 2 and competition was fierce. 3 However, the categories of the census did not refer to homogeneous and clearly distinguished groups. Self-employment could be performed and perceived in quite different ways. It could be a consequential step in an occupational career. It couldperhaps at the same timebe a possibility to deal with difficulties of finding employment or with limited employability. 4 Yet, starting one's own business was not always easy at all. This paper deals with struggles over the possibilities and terms of taking on a trade. It focusses on trades with little or no requirements with respect to formal qualification, capital, or location.

Mobile and marginal, street sellers tend to disappear from the historical record, yet they played a very important part in the dissemination of cheap print from the earliest days of Italian publishing. They operated in the most central spaces of Italian cities such as Venice and Florence, selling cheap printed pamphlets, fliers, and images alongside other small consumer goods. They helped to make print accessible to a wide audience, often engaging in oral hawking or performance that could reach beyond the confines of the fully literate minority. However, these sellers occupied an ambiguous position in Italian cities, more often welcomed by customers and audiences than by guilds and government authorities. The increasing restrictions on print peddlers introduced in the era of the Counter-Reformation reflect the efforts of civic and religious authorities to grapple with the contemporary challenges of a burgeoning print market.

الآن ساده ترین کار کارمند اداره شدن است که پشت میز بنشینی و سر ماه هم حقوق بگیری؛ ولی مشکل ترین کار این است که کسی در مترو از این طرف به آن طرف بیاید و به مردم هم التماس کند که کالایش را بخرند تا زندگیش بچرخد؛ در حالی که ترس از مسئولین برای بیرون کردن آنها نیز همواره جزو لاینفک شغل آنها به حساب می آید.

Conference at the GHI Washington, May 7-9, 2015. Co-sponsored by the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies at the University of Southern California. Conveners: Paul Lerner (University of Southern California), Anne Schenderlein (GHI Washington), Uwe Spiekermann (GHI Washington). Participants: Olivier Baisez (Université Paris 8, VincennesSaint-Denis), Michael Berkowitz (University College London), Aleisa Fishman (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington), Andrew Godley (University of Reading), Felix Heinert (Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung, Marburg), Anna Holian (Arizona State University), Roger Horowitz (Hagley Museum and Library), Ruth Leiserowitz (GHI Warsaw), Anja Meyerrose (Kalaidos University, Zurich), Jerry Z. Muller (Catholic University of America, Washington), Riv-Ellen Prell (University of Minnesota), Gideon Reuveni (University of Sussex), Nils Roemer (University of Texas at Dallas), Hizky Shoham (Bar-Ilan University), Kerri...

Die Studie untersucht, wie in der Habsburgermonarchie bzw. Österreich von 1880-1938 neue Vorstellungen und Hierarchien von Arbeit erzeugt, verhandelt und durchgesetzt wurden. Statt einen bestimmten Begriff von Arbeit zu postulieren, werden Auseinandersetzungen über Arbeit und Lebensunterhalt zum Gegenstand gemacht. Ausgangspunkt sind umstrittene Praktiken und Erwerbstätigkeiten, die meist wenig einträglich und unsicher, manchmal auch verboten sowie mit einem hohen Maß an Mobilität verbunden waren: vom Wanderhandel und-gewerbe, über das Umherziehen zur Arbeitssuche bis hin zum Betteln und Vagabundieren. Zur Geschichte von Arbeit gehört auch all das, was im Laufe der Zeit als Nichtarbeit oder als nicht "richtige" Arbeit verstanden wurde. Die Autorin rekonstruiert vielfältige Interaktionen und bezieht dabei auch systematisch die Perspektiven jener mit ein, die sich auf solche umstrittene Weisen ihren Lebensunterhalt organisierten.