Here's one for all you aficionados out there of the history of socialism.
The design on this tea towel is based on a diagram produced for the annual congress of the Second International, the federation of socialist parties at the end of the 19th century. The fourth congress in 1896 was held in London. The diagram's authors, Social Democratic Party members Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein, were attempting to map out the course of progressive thought over the centuries and illustrate how it led up to (what they hoped would be) international unity, in their words the "May Day of the Proletariat". There was much bickering between European socialist parties at the time, and even within parties, so this was wishful thinking, to say the least. The diagram was originally printed in German, the most spoken native language of Second International members.
How many of the movements, great thinkers and currents of thought on this tea towel have you heard of?
