Peasants, Capitalism, and the Work of Eric R. Wolf: Reviving Critical Agrarian Studies [Paperback]

Fifty years after the publication of Eric Wolfs celebrated Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, this book offers a much-needed critical assessment and update of Wolfs contribution to the study of the peasantry.

Introduction; 1 Wolfs Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century: A Critique; 2 Developing our Approach: Towards a Marxian Perspective after Wolf; 3 The Rise of Capitalism in England, and the Emergence of Core and Periphery in the Global Political Economy; 4 The Reform of the Corn Laws and the Emergence of the First or British Liberal Food Regime, 18401870; 5 The Emergence of the Second or Imperial Food Regime, 18701930; 6 Agrarian Capitalism and 'Core''Periphery' Dynamics from 1930 to the Present Day: Peasant Elimination in the North, Peasant Perpetuation in the South; 7 Conclusion: Wolf and the Revival of Critical Agrarian Studies

Fifty years after the publication of Eric Wolfs celebrated Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, and forty years after the publication of his path-breaking Europe and the People Without History, this book offers a much-needed critical assessment and update of Wolfs contribution to the study of the peasantry and its relationship to capitalism, the state, and imperialism.

This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of Wolfs premises, methodology, and understanding of the peasantry, and its relationship to the rise of capitalism and the modern state. The authors analyse Wolfs theoretical approach and, by building on his work in Europe and the People Without History especially, argue their own position concerning the dynamics of the peasantry in relation to capitalism, state, class, and imperialism. Further, the text aims to answer the agrarian question more widely, focusing on agrarian society and the political role of the peasantry in contested transitions to capitalism anl