The social history of agriculture : from the origins to the current crisis
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The social history of agriculture : from the origins to the current crisis
Rowman & Littlefield, c2017
- : hbk
- : pbk
Available at 7 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
-
University Library for Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo図
pbk612:I695010974235
Note
Includes bibliographical references(p.357-374) and index
Maps: ix-xiv
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This innovative text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Christopher Isett and Stephen Miller argue that people, rather than markets, have been the primary agents of agricultural change. Exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time and analyzing their activities in the wider contexts of markets, states, wars, the environment, population increase, and similar factors, the authors emphasize how larger social and political forces inform decisions and lead to different technological outcomes. Both farmers and elites responded in ways that impeded economic development. Farmers, when able to trade with towns, used the revenue to gain more land and security. Elites used commercial opportunities to accumulate military power and slaves. The book explores these tendencies through rich case studies of ancient China; precolonial South America; early-modern France, England, and Japan; New World slavery; colonial Taiwan; socialist Cuba; and many other periods and places. Readers will understand how the promises and problems of contemporary agriculture are not simply technologically derived but are the outcomes of decisions and choices people have made and continue to make.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Settled Agriculture: The Ancient Origins of Community, State, and Empire
Chapter 2: From Antiquity to the Eve of Agrarian Capitalism: Peasants and Dynastic States
Chapter 3: Agrarian Capitalism in the Early Modern World: Divergence in Eurasia
Chapter 4: Malthusian Limits in the Early Modern World: Peasants and Markets
Chapter 5: The New World: Planters, Slaves, and Sugar
Chapter 6: American Farming: Agrarian Roots of U.S. Capitalism
Chapter 7: New Imperialism: Colonial Agriculture in the Age of Capitalism
Chapter 8: Socialist Agriculture: Collectivization in Three Countries
Chapter 9: Late Development: State-led Agrarian Change after World War II
Chapter 10: Corporate Agriculture: Comparing the United States and Brazil
Conclusion
by "Nielsen BookData"