The First Social Democracy

This long-awaited book is truly wonderful. Not only is it complete and surefooted, drawing evidence from archives that have only become accessible since Jones began his research, but also, most importantly, it bears the commanding voice and stylistic grace of a venerable scholar. Jones presents a coherent, clear, and convincing story of the Republic and makes persuasive arguments about the successes and failures of Georgian Social Democracy. – Ronald Grigory Suny, author of Stalin: Passage to RevolutionA masterful study that restores Georgia’s short-lived Democratic Republic to its rightful place in the history of political thought. With lucid scholarship and remarkable depth, Jones uncovers how Georgian leaders crafted an indigenous model of democratic socialism that blended European ideals of pluralism and parliamentarism with anticolonial aspirations for self-determination. The First Social Democracy is an essential contribution to modern political history—erudite, empathetic, and profoundly relevant to contemporary debates about democracy, sovereignty, and social justice. – Alexander Mikaberidze, author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global HistoryStephen Jones offers a masterful account of how the world’s first social democracy took shape on Europe’s periphery. Drawing on a remarkable range of Georgian sources, Jones deftly and convincingly portrays Georgia’s Social Democrats as idealists, innovators, and pragmatists who forged a version of socialism fundamentally different from Bolshevism. Essential reading for scholars of Russia and Eurasia, socialism, and modern politics. – Michael A. Reynolds, author of Shattering EmpiresIn the crowning achievement of a decades-long career, Stephen Jones has written the definitive history of the first independent Georgian state in the modern era as well as the world’s first experiment in social democracy. Combining his deep knowledge of the Caucasus with a keen global perspective, Jones shows how Georgians managed to build a new kind of republic even as they contended with colonial legacies, interethnic tensions, economic shortcomings, and treacherous geopolitics. – Erik R. Scott, author of Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War WorldThe Democratic Republic of Georgia demonstrated that it was possible both to reject Western imperialism and to be politically and culturally oriented toward the West. Accessibly written and evocative, The First Social Democracy recovers from obscurity one of the most humane post–WWI experiments in self-rule. – Jakub S. Beneš, author of The Last Peasant WarThis book was forty years in the making, and it shows. One of the world’s leading historians of contemporary Georgian history and politics, Jones has produced a meticulously researched and deeply insightful account of Georgia’s first republic, the first social democracy in Europe. A must-read for people who study Georgia and the Caucasus or who are interested in the early development of social democracy. – Neil MacFarlane, coauthor of Human Security and the UN: A Critical History

Stephen F. Jones is Professor Emeritus of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Mount Holyoke College and Professor of Modern Georgian History at Ilia State University, Georgia. He is the founder of the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center at Harvard and the author of Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 and Georgia: A Political History Since Independence.