John D. French's stimulating article, which explores the scope for comparing working-class leaders across time and space, is considered in this contribution by reference to my biography of August Bebel and with a particular focus on the following topics: a) historical actors as shaped by their own particular time and place; b) the importance of personal relationships and networks in making people who they are; c) the importance of psychological elements and the risk in interpreting them in retrospect – recovering them depends upon the sources available; d) how charisma reflects an interdependence between attribution and individual qualities; e) the importance of political milieux for the flourishing of individual working-class leaders; and f) the relationship between political work to both civil society and existing class relations. Using these approaches allows us to write cross-border and cross-temporal “embodied social biographies”, as suggested by French.

John D. French 的激动人心的文章探讨了跨时空比较工人阶级领袖的范围，在这篇文章中参考了我的 August Bebel 传记，并特别关注以下主题：a) 历史演员作为由他们自己特定的时间和地点塑造；b) 人际关系和人际网络在造就人的过程中的重要性；c) 心理因素的重要性和事后解释它们的风险——恢复它们取决于可用的资源；d) 魅力如何反映归因与个人品质之间的相互依存关系；e) 政治环境对于个别工人阶级领袖的繁荣的重要性；f) 政治工作与公民社会和现有阶级关系之间的关系。