Rural communities / rural life Books

Book SynopsisA cunning killer turns a wedding into a wake...Any wedding is a big deal in the County Cork village of Kilbane, but with a local lad marrying a famous fashion model at Kilbane Castle, there’s no talk of anything but the upcoming nuptials. Siobhán O’Sullivan and her five siblings have their plates full catering the three-day affair from their bistro. But the celebratory mood suddenly turns sober when the best man is found murdered in the woods.For Siobhán, the tragic turn is more than grist for the gossip mill. Her beau, Macdara Flannery, is the prime suspect – and she intends to clear his name. Now, like the bride walking down the aisle, Siobhán needs to watch her step. For as she gets closer to unveiling the truth, the murderer is planning a very chilly reception for her.An enthralling cosy village mystery set in County Cork, perfect for fans of Clare Chase and Margaret Mayhew.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2024Eye-opening and persuasive' SUNDAY TIMESBrilliant I loved it' KIT DE WAALThoughtful, moving, honest' CAL FLYN*Winner of The Lakeland Book of the Year 2024*Work in the countryside ties you, soul and salary, to the land. But often those who labour in nature have the least control over what happens there.Why have our rural industries been replaced by tourism? Why can''t people stay living in the places they grew up? In this beautifully observed book, Rebecca Smith traces the stories of foresters and millworkers, miners, builders, farmers and pub owners, to paint a picture of the working class lives that often go overlooked. This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the countryside.Trade Review‘[An] intelligent, multifaceted exploration of working-class life in the British countryside’Independent ‘Smith beautifully stitches together the beauty, tragedy and comedy that underpins rural communities today making her book a fascinating history lesson’The Scotsman ‘The politics of land ownership and rural economics are complex and Smith deserves credit for grappling with some of this territory within an accessible and thought-provoking narrative. There’s much to enjoy in Rural’The Herald ‘Smith is uniquely positioned to harvest the stories of rural and ex-rural working-class communities and turn them into something approaching magic. Rural ascends to beauty because it manages something more than simple reportage … This book is tender, glowing, vitally important stories whispered into an ear’Kirstin Innes, Press and Journal ‘A brilliant book about another side of working-class life, not a tower block in sight. Clever and honest, tackling slavery, loss and aspiration with humour and candour. I loved it’Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon ‘A wonderful book, beautifully conceived … So immediate and clearly seen, so gracefully and gently written … It is such a valuable thing’Adam Nicolson, author of Life Between the Tides ‘A thoughtful, moving, honest book that questions what it means to belong to a place when it can never belong to you … Timely and illuminating’Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment ‘Tenderly reveals the precarious lives that underpin the beauty and the wealth of our countryside. Essential reading for lovers of the land and its people’Katherine May, author of Wintering ‘A vital, questing book about the often misunderstood past, hard present-day, and possible futures of rural life in the UK’Dan Richards, author of Outpost

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Book SynopsisA richly recounted memoir of growing up in an Irish farming community in the 1940sA love of Ireland and the Irish is what shines through this little memoir. Growing up amongst the fields, woods and characters of a farming community near Cork, Kathleen Iggulden depicts a world that is both immediate and real, yet belongs to a now-distant past. Here is a pony and trap to church every Sunday, evenings full of fiddle, flute and song, and new shoes and clothes twice a year. Kathleen''s childhood in the 1930s involved two or three generations - her parents, her brother and sisters, as well as the daily lives of farmworkers and craftsmen, friends and relations. She beautifully chronicles rural celebrations and forgotten practicalities of country life - all painted with a sensitive touch and a freshness of observation. She saw her people as intensely polite, decent and innocent, with humour and music always ready. She saw them as poets, and poetry as the highe

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Book SynopsisAn insightful case study about the effects of capitalism on the indigenous experience in northern ArgentinaTrade Review'Silences of Dispossession offers a timely account of indigenous struggles around soybean expansion in post-neoliberal Argentina. Eloquent and engaging, Biocca confronts colliding responses to agrarian transformations in light of histories and memories of dispossession, resistance, and negotiations with the State.' -- Paola Canova, author of 'Frontier Intimacies: Ayoreo Women and the Sexual Economy of the Paraguayan Chaco' (University of Texas Press, 2020)'In an important contribution to development and peasant studies, Biocca argues that whether rural people resist or acquiesce to dispossession depends on local rationalities. Comparing two groups of Indigenous rural peasants in the Argentine Chaco, she demonstrates the importance of collective memory, previous engagement with capitalist regimes, and aspirations for inclusion.' -- Nancy Postero, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California San Diego'An important contribution to a growing body of research centering Indigenous communities in Argentina' -- 'NACLA'Table of Contents1. Indigenous Peoples, Agribusiness and the Post-Neoliberal State in Argentina 2. Accumulation by Dispossession and the Everyday Life of Indigenous Peoples 3. Living on the Edges of the Periphery 4. Resistance on the Edge: the Case of the Qom People in Pampa del Indio 5. Acquiescence on the edge: the Case of Moqoit People in Las Tolderías 6. The Actually Existing Agency of Subaltern Groups

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Book SynopsisAn important record of ancient fishing traditions along Britain’s coastal fringes, now rapidly dying out

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Book SynopsisA wonderfully nostalgic and entertaining novel of village life from the bestselling author of VILLAGE SCHOOL.''The story of the village goes back a long, long time, and it still goes on. I have listened to my neighbours'' accounts of tales long ago, and with what unfailing curiosity I observe the happenings of today!''From an unusual weight-loss recipe found in an old notebook - and used with alarming consequences - to the queen of copycats who drives her neighbour mad with anger, OVER THE GATE is a hugely entertaining collection of tales from Fairacre, past and present.Miss Read, the schoolmistress, continues to attract odd stories and village folklore, and retells them with her characteristic compassion and humour.

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Book SynopsisThe material lives of rural upcountry women improved dramatically by midcentury-yet in becoming middle class, Walker concludes, the women found their experiences both broadened and circumscribed.Trade ReviewAn engaging study... For upcountry southern women, the years 1919-1941 were indicative of the economic, political, and social chaos existing throughout segregated America... Walker capably demonstrates how families were forced by the limitations of race and class to choose situations that provided little or no real opportunity, but she also brilliantly illustrates how some rural people were able to adapt to change. -- Valerie Grim Journal of American History Voices of ordinary women who experienced extraordinary changes resonate in Melissa Walker's incisive study of twentieth-century transformations of southern agricultural communities. -- Elizabeth D. Schafer H-SAWH, H-Net Reviews Melissa Walker has done an admirable job of mining oral interviews, TVA records, letters, diaries, and farming magazines to piece together the story of how women contributed to the family income... Walker deftly negotiates the intersection of race, class, and gender. -- Gaul Graham Journal of East Tennessee History Walker shows how women adapted to rapid change with courage, strength, creativity, and persistence... Walker's fine regional study will be useful to historians of women, the South, Appalachia, rural life, and labor issues. A valuable addition to the growing number of works on women in the early-twentieth-century South. -- Suzanne Marshall History: Reviews of New Books Historian Melissa Walker provides an account of changes in women's labor practices and economic activity in the upcountry South during the inter-war years... Readable, credible, and well-researched. -- Shaunna L. Scott Journal of Appalachian Studies The theme of the study is to show how the status of farm women changes from 1919-1941 in a period of economic crisis. Changing from a region of subsistence farming to one of commercial farming and interference by government action during the depression and New Deal years, women learned to cope... [Walker's] descriptions of rural ways and beliefs are true to form. -- Cline E. Hall South Carolina Historical Magazine Walker does a particularly good job of emphasizing the ambivalence that upcountry farm women felt about leaving the farms... All We Knew Was to Farm makes an extremely important contribution to rural literature by gendering the transformation of the upland South. -- Rebecca Sharpless Georgia Historical Quarterly Walker provides a much needed account of the South that should be of interest to all those who study the twentieth century. -- Kathleen Mapes Journal of Social History 2005Table of ContentsContents:List of Figures List of Tables AcknowledgementsIntroduction: "All We Knew Was to Farm" 1. Rural Life in the Upcountry South: The Scene in 1920 2. Making Do and Doing Without: Farm Women Cope with the Economic Crisis, 1920-1941 3. "Grandma Would Find Some Way to Make Some Money": Farm Women's Cash Incomes 4. Mixed Messages: Home Extension Work among Upcountry Farm Women in the 1920s and 1930s 5. Government Relocation and Upcountry Women 6. Rural Women and Industrialization 7. Farm Wives and Commercial Farming 8. "The Land of Do Without": The Changing Face of Sevier County, Tennessee, 1908-1940 Epilogue: The Persistence of Rural ValuesAbbreviations Notes Bibliographical Essay Index

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a comprehensive overview of mental health in rural America, with the goal of fostering urgently needed research and honest conversations about providing accessible, culturally competent mental health care to rural populations. Grounding the work is an explanation of the history and structure of rural mental health care, the culture of rural living among diverse groups, and the crucial A's and S: accountability, accessibility, acceptability, affordability, and stigma. The book then examines poverty, disaster mental health, ethics in rural mental health, and school counseling. It ends with practical information and treatments for two of the most common problems, suicide and substance abuse, and a brief exploration of collaborative possibilities in rural mental health care. Trade Review"This text covers all major aspects of mental health in rural America. It will be a valuable resource to undergraduate and graduate students and faculty focused on mental health services, as well as to program managers who are planning future services for rural areas."Ron Manderscheid, PhD, executive director, The National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors and The National Association for Rural Mental Health, adjunct professor, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsAbout the Author Acknowledgments Preface Introduction 1. What Defines Rural and Frontier, and Why Are They Important? 2. Rural Mental Health Policy and Parity 3. Obstacles to Treatment - The Four "A's" and an "S": Accessibility, Availability, Acceptability, Affordability, and Stigma 4. The Structure of Rural Mental Health Care: State, County, Town, Village. 5. Understanding the Culture of Rural Living 6. Agricultural Roots of Rurality 7. Disaster Mental Health 8. Poverty 9. Types of Mental Health Practitioners and Their Scopes of Practice 10. Treatment Philosophies and Models 11. Issues in Rural Practice 12. The 3 "R’s" of Schools in Rural Areas: Reassurance, Responsibility, and Resolution 13. Substance Abuse in Rural Areas 14. Suicide in Rural Areas 15. A Day in the Life of a Rural Mental Health Practitioner 16. The Rural Economy in Transition 17. Technological Innovations in Rural Mental Health Services 18. Looking Forward: Collaborative Possibilities Mental Health Organizations Recommended Reading Index

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Book SynopsisLooking for a fresh start? Welcome to Butterbury... A delightfully heartwarming story, perfect for fans of Holly Hepburn and Cathy BramleyStep into the magic of Lantern Square...Hannah went from high flyer in the city to business owner and has never looked back. In the cosy Cotswold village of Butterbury she runs Tied up with String, sending handmade gifts and care packages across the miles, as well as delivering them to people she thinks need them the most. But when her ex best-friend Georgia turns up and wants in on the action, will Hannah be willing to forgive and forget? With her business in jeopardy she needs to maintain the reputation she''s established, and discover who she can trust... Meanwhile, a mysterious care package lands on her own doorstep at Lantern Cottage. Who is trying to win her heart - and will she ever be willing to give it away?***Readers have fallen in love with Lantern Square:''Such a perfect gift of a book!''''Another fabulous read filled with happiness and friendship''''Set in the most picturesque little village and an absolute joy to read''''What a beautiful story filled with happiness, comedy and lovely characters''''My favourite type of book - a heart-warming tale of friendship, romance and community spirit''''Lantern Square sounds a wonderful place to live in and heal your heart''

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Book SynopsisMany people living in rural areas face hardship but the UK's welfare system is poorly adapted to meet their needs, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and cutbacks exacerbating pressures. This book combines person-based and place-based approaches to tackling rural poverty.Trade Review"Getting ‘under the skin’ of hidden poverty benefits from qualitative research approaches. This volume succeeds admirably in this regard, providing an important addition to a research area neglected because of its hiddenness." Town Planning ReviewTable of ContentsForeword by Professor Sir Howard Newby 1. Introduction 2. Poverty and social exclusion in rural Britain: a review 3. East Perthshire: an accessible rural area in Scotland 4. Harris: an island area of Scotland 5. The North Tyne valley, Northumberland: a remote area of England 6. Rural poverty in a pandemic: experiences of COVID-19 7. Changing sources of support: precarity, conditionality and social solidarity 8. Conclusions and policy implications

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Book SynopsisThe key reference guide to rural crime and rural justice, this encyclopedia includes 85 concise and informative entries covering rural crime theories, offences and control. It is divided into five complementary sections: • theories of rural crime; • rural crime studies; • rural criminal justice studies; • rural people and groups; • rural criminological research. With contributions from established and emerging international scholars, this authoritative guide offers state-of-the-art synopses of the key issues in rural crime, criminology, offending and victimisation, and both institutional and informal responses to rural crime.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Theories of Rural Crime 1. Introduction to Part 1 - Matt Bowden 2. Civic Community Theory - Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Matt Bowden 3. Classical Theories and Contemporary Legacies - Joseph F. Donnermeyer 4. Cultural Criminology and Representations of Rural Crime - Karen Hayden 5. Environmental and Green Criminology - Rob White 6. Feminist Theory - Mandy Hall Sanchez 7. Late Modernity, Surveillance and Securitisation - Matt Bowden and Artur Pytlarz 8. Left Realism - James Windle 9. Male Peer Support Theory - Walter DeKeseredy 10. Primary Socialisation Theory - Joseph F. Donnermeyer 11. Rational Choice, Routine Activity and Situational Crime Prevention - Vania Ceccato 12. Safety and Security Studies - Gorazd Meško and Andrej Sotlar 13. The Anthropocene and Criminological Theory - Clifford Shearing, Emiline Smith and Jared Walters Part 2: Rural Crime Studies 14. Introduction to Part 2 - Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Alistair Harkness People and Crime 15. Abuse Against Children, the Elderly and Within Families - Sarah Wendt 16. Consumer Fraud - Cassandra Cross 17. Corporate and State Crimes - Victoria E. Collins 18. Cybercrime and Security - Qingli Meng and Joseph F. Donnermeyer 19. Dark Tourism - Jenny Wise 20. Drugs and Public Health - Katinka van de Ven and Natalie Thomas 21. Druge Use and Dependence - Anke Stallwitz 22. Genocide - Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira and Brandon Moore 23. Hate Crime - Rachel Hale and Melina Stewart-North 24. Modern Slavery and Cross-border Transportation of People - Richard Byrne 25. Resource Extraction: Crime impacts - Callie D. Shaw and Rick Ruddell 26. Rogue Farmers- Robert Smith 27. Technology and Interpersonal Violence - Bridget Harris 28. Tourism, Crime and Rurality - Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Alistair Harkness 29. Violence Against Farmers - Anni Hesselink 30. Violence Against Women - Walter S. DeKeseredy 31. Violent Extremism- Rachel Hale Property and Other 32. Acquisitive Farm Crime - Kyle Mulrooney and Alistair Harkness 33. Animal Rights and Activism - Jarret S. Lovell 34. Blood Sports- Angus Nurse 35. Cross-border Livestock Theft - Willie Clack 36. Drug Cultivation, Manufacture and Movement - Ralph A. Weisheit 37. Food Crime - Allison Gray 38. Heritage Crime - Louise Nicholas 39. Illegal Hunting and Trespass - Alistair Harkness, Kyle Mulrooney and Matthew Box 40. Organised Crime - Robert Smith 41. Trophy and Big Game Hunting - Angus Nurse 42. Water Crimes - Gorazd Meško and Katja Eman 43. Wildfires: Causation and Prevention - Janet Stanley and Belinda Young 44. Wildlife Crime: Trafficking and Poaching - Rob White Part 3: Rural Criminal Justice Studies 45. Introduction to Part 3 - Jessica René Peterson Law Enforcement 46. Anti-social Behaviour: Police-community Relationship - Andrew Wooff and Larissa Engelmann 47. Discretion and Informal Sanctions - Jessica René Peterson 48. Law Enforcement Misconduct - John Liederbach, Chloe Ann Wentzlof and Philip Matthew Stinson 49. Police Engagement with Rural Farming Communities - Cameron Whiteside, Ann Brennan and Kyle Mulrooney 50. Policing Rural Small-island Developing States - Danielle Watson and Casandra Harry 51. Policing the Rural Global South - Tariro Mutongwizo 52. Public Order Policing - David Baker 53. Re-assurance Policing in Rural Communities - Larissa Engelmann and Andrew Wooff 54. Rurality, Cultures and Policing - Richard Yarwood Courts and Corrections 55. Community Corrections - Dawei Zhang, Jessica René Peterson, Alistair Harkness and Joseph F. Donnermeyer 56. Court Reform Challenges in Rural Jurisdictions - Alyssa M. Clark 57. Desistence from Crime - Rachel Hale 58. Informal and Decolonised Alternative Criminal Justice - Zahidul Islam 59. Jails and Prisons - Rick Ruddell 60. Judicial Policies and Procedures - Alyssa M. Clark 61. Populism and Punitiveness - Kyle Mulrooney and Jenny Wise 62. Post-release, Re-entry and Recidivism - Kyle C. Ward 63. Punishment and Rurality - Rosemary Gido 64. Restorative Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence - Ziwei Qi Access to Justice and Responses to Crime 65. Access to Justice - Rachel Hale 66. Access to Legal Representation - Andrew L.B. Davies and Shelby Peck 67. Closure of Law Enforcement Stations - Christian Mouhanna 68. Crime Prevention - Tarah Hodgkinson 69. Technology: The Pros and Cons for Addressing Rural Crime - Jessica René Peterson Part 4: Rural People and Groups 70. Introduction to Part 4: Cassie Pedersen 71. Anti-government Groups and Militias - Joseph DeLeeuw 72. Indigenous and First Nation Peoples - Juan Tauri 73. LBTIQA+ Identities - Cassie Pedersen 74. Lifestyle and Amenity Migration - Nick Osbaldiston 75. Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs - Mark Lauchs 76. People with Disabilities - Marg Camilleri 77. Rural Enclaves and Minority Groups - Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Cassie Pedersen 78. Rural Folk Crime - Rob White 79. Tropes of Rural Offenders and Victims - Belinda Morrissey and Kristen Davis 80. Working Tourists - Donna James 81. Youth and Youth Subcultures - Matthew D. Moore Part 5: Rural Criminological Research 82. Introduction to Part 5 - Alistair Harkness and Joseph F. Donnermeyer 83. Africa - Willie Clack and Emmanuel Bunei 84. Antarctica - Rebecca Kaiser and Rob White 85. Asia - Alistair Harkness, Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Qingli Meng 86. Europe - Gorazd Meško and Matt Bowden 87. North America - Denisse Roman Burgos, Rick Ruddell and Joseph F. Donnermeyer 88. Oceania - Alistair Harkness, Kyle Mulrooney and Danielle Watson 89. South America - Vania Ceccato and Monica Perez

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Book SynopsisThe fourth novel in a historical series that began with the International Booker-shortlisted The Unseen "Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway's experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving" David Mills, Sunday Times"Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . . One of Norway's greatest writers on the working class" Times Literary SupplementA childless island is no island at all.Ingrid Marie Barrøy has returned to the island that bears her name, bringing up her daughter with the other children that came with the war, who will someday raise their own children until an island that was empty is singing once more with life.And soon another will arrive, a child of the war and an orphan of the peace, whom Ingrid will fight to make her own, and whose interests may, in time, collide with those of certain others on the island, forcing her to make a choice she will long regret.The sea brings the island all it has - herring for salting, eider ducks for down - but Ingrid knows, has alwaysknown, that one day it may wish to take something back. But until that day, she continues to live by one simple truth:There is no limit to what you can do with an island, the imagination sets the only limits, as with the sea.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don ShawReviews for The Unseen"Even by his high standards, his magnificent new novel The Unseen is Jacobsen's finest to date, as blunt as it is subtle and is easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work . . . Rendered beautifully into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner" Charlie Connelly, New European."A profound interrogation of freedom and fate, as well as a fascinating portrait of a vanished time, written in prose as clear and washed clean as the world after a storm" Justine Jordan, Guardian"The subtle translation, with its invented dialect, conveys a timeless, provincial voice . . . The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial Times.

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Book Synopsis'This is a rich, beautiful and deeply moving book' GEORGE MONBIOT'I loved this book' CLOVER STROUDOnce Upon a Raven's Nest is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency.Born in 1955 to a poor family in Devon Thomas refused to conform. His fierce independence, recklessness and contrariness led not only to scrapes and self-inflicted dangers but to a life enriched by the love of women. Catrina Davies came to know him in his last years and has given his life and times in his own words, creating a rich, pungent language in a knowing, poetic and poignant voice.We learn of his accumulation of engines, tools and guns, the complexity of his connection to nature, the animals he loved and his desire to hunt them. He recounts the terrible consequences of his fatal attraction to risk and machinery which led to his being paralysed for the last years of his life, confined to a wheelchair, hopelessly dependent but still watching, noticing, recording, loving the world.The narrative is interwoven with a sequence of factual entries that chart the impending climate catastrophe and the consequences of our collective choices to ignore the warning of an environment on the verge of collapse.Once Upon A Raven's Nest is an unforgettable history of a life that is almost lost and an account of the destruction man has wrought on the earth in the time that Hedley worked the land.'Stunning. Urgent. Unforgettable' TANYA SHADRICK'This has the unmistakable smell of a classic' CHARLES FOSTERTrade ReviewThis is a rich, beautiful and deeply moving book. I read it in one sitting, then was sorry that I had not drawn it out for longer, as I enjoyed it so much. -- George MonbiotFrom the wonderfully evocative title to the heart-rending yet spirit-lifting conclusion, Catrina examines, with great empathic power, how colossal forces work on the individual. In one man, we are shown vast epochal change; in him, we see the concerns and defiance and activities that were once considered as solely the province of gods. A brilliant and necessary book. -- Niall GriffithsStunning. Urgent. Unforgettable. Through this complex and loving portrait of a rural working man, Catrina Davies gives voice to all that has been lost and damaged in his lifetime, ours. She is a true successor to John Berger in writing with love and anger on behalf of threatened species and communities. -- Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for SleepOnce Upon a Raven's Nest is a genuinely captivating tale of rural-lore - told through the thrilling narrative of one man's life; a good ol' country boy, a right character whose scraps and scrapes litter the pages. Chainsaws and tractors and torn love affairs fill the book, as Tommy's story is laid bare in a series of episodes and fractured snapshots carefully scattered within a timescale of environmental decline. There is a tough, brutal beauty here in Davies' depiction of the ways of the British countryside but love, and delight and the best of humanity, too. -- James CantonOriginal and powerful, I loved this book. This is a beautiful, powerful and truly original book which is nature writing at it's truest and finest. -- Clover StroudThis has the unmistakable smell of a classic. Davies has restored my flagging faith in the ability of language to tell the unvarnished truth. Here's a book worthy of Exmoor ravens and rivers and of the big, bold, dignified story it tells. I have no higher praise. * Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild, Being a Human and Being a Beast *There is a raw energy here which is very appealing. Exmoor very rough and very ready. Pulses with life at every turn. Expertly told, the fragmentary collision Of lives and a planet, deer, salmon, trees, tractors and a chainsaw or two. Exmoor verbatim as you never seen it before. Outdoors means out doors. -- James CrowdenSuperb . . . listen to Tommy, recorded or scripted by Davies, and something gripping and honest emerges . . . a vivid picture of nature in the raw. * Spectator *It is a beguiling, earthy tale of a lost world, one rarely examined in print. Hedley's outlandish yarns about brawling and risk-taking mix with stories that reveal his complex relationship with nature. * Independent (April Book of the Month) *A tremendous book, both gritty and lyrical and often darkly funny * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisUsing the narratives of women who use(d) drugs, this account challenges popular understandings of Appalachia spread by such pundits as JD Vance by documenting how women, families, and communities cope with generational systems of oppression. Prescription opioids are associated with rising rates of overdose deaths and hepatitis C and HIV infection in the US, including in rural Central Appalachia. Yet there is a dearth of studies examining rural opioid use. RX Appalachia explores the gendered inequalities that situate women’s encounters with substance abuse treatment as well as additional state interventions targeted at women who use drugs in one of the most impoverished regions in the US.Trade Review"At its very core, Rx Appalachia is a call to action for all of us to expand our consciousness of how poliitcal, social, and physical enviroments impact opiod use disorder. What do we do after we read it? Well, that is up to us." —Journal of Appalachian Studies "Lesly-Marie Buer's Rx Appalachia is a compelling account of substance abuse in Central Appalachia that at last puts race and gender at the forefront of analysis. Buer, a harm reductionist and medical anthropologist, offers a layered portrait of the lives led by women who use drugs and their experiences navigating treatment programs too often shaped by punitive impulses than evidence-based research. A rare book that combines a powerful systemic critique within humanely-rendered stories of coping and survival, Rx Appalachia is a clear and accessible primer about the people and places now synomous with America's new addiction crisis." —Elizabeth Catte, author of What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and Pure America "Lesly-Marie Buer’s ethnographic study RxAppalachia examines what happens to women and mothers who use drugs and get caught up in the intertwined therapeutic, rehabilitative, and often punitive practices of public and private addiction recovery programs including drug courts. Buer analyzes the entangled dimensions of care and cruelty, domination and love, family and community, and the discursive and disciplinary techniques that are involved in so-called “rehabilitation” efforts. What good such programs might do is often undercut by inadequate funding and by their tendency to ignore or worsen the stereotypes and the structural and systemic inequalities, constraints, and violence their clients face on a daily basis—often within the programs themselves. The ethnographic site of this brilliant book is Appalachia but it is a must-read for scholars, practitioners, students, concerned citizens, and clients everywhere." —Dwight B. Billings, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Kentucky "Reproductive Justice demands that we provide parents who use drugs with sufficient resources such as housing and access to comprehensive reproductive health care, knowing that parents' well-being is intrinsically linked to that of their children. Dr Buer makes a strong case for why tax dollars spent on policing and incarceration are harmful and no substitute for adequate social supports and basic human rights. This book makes the case for why we can't simply wait on the state to rectify the many injustices that plague the lives of people and especially women in Appalachia - we must take care of each other now." —Anna Carella, Co-Director, Healthy and Free Tennessee "In this riveting account, Buer defies the media version of the opioid crisis in Appalachia, a story of overnight villains and victims. She listens to the women who for years have navigated punitive and highly gendered and racialized state policies, deeply unequal social structures, and state divestment. She asks women who use drugs--who have been told over and again how to “fix” themselves and to whose standards--what they believe they need for themselves and their caring networks of family and friends. Their refreshing narratives intertwine with Buer’s careful contextualization to produce a bold vision for harm reduction in Appalachia. A necessary book for those seeking to understand the opioid crisis and the broader political economy of which it is part." —Jessica Wilkerson, author of To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice "In the midst of the latest drug scare focused on opioids, pregnant women have once again become the objects of state surveillance and control. Lesly-Marie Buer's book arrives just in time to provide information needed to evaluate and challenge government responses that focus on separating families and fixing mothers rather than the economic, social and public health policies that undermine women's health and lives. With moving accounts by mothers of their desperate efforts to do whatever it takes to get their children back and revelations of sometimes shocking state action – including compelled religious education and prohibitions on needed medical treatment, this beautifully written book is a must read." —Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women "Anyone who does research or practice in rural communities affected by drug use will agree with my feeling that we have long needed this book. This deep ethnographic examination into the lives of women in Appalachia who use drugs serves a vital antidote to shallow representations of rural drug use in the age of the opioid epidemic. Buer is comprehensive in her approach to understanding not only the histories and inequities that contribute to drug use, but also the ways that the design of public health and social systems to address these health disparities inadvertently can harm those who they are meant to serve. While this book helps us to understand the larger inequities that have led us to here, it also begins to help us understand the path to move forward." —Claire Snell-Rood, author of No One will Let Her Live: Women's Struggle for Well-Being in a Delhi Slum

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Book Synopsis___________ A Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2022 A New Statesman Book of the Year 2022 ‘Fascinating… You’ll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle… than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.’Daily Mail ‘An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.’The Times ‘Boyd is an outstanding micro-historian.’iNews ___________ Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime. From the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Travellers in the Third Reich comes A Village in the Third Reich: an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, shining a light on the lives of ordinary people. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy and despair. Within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life – foresters, priests, farmers and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans and party members; village councillors, mountaineers, socialists, slave labourers, schoolchildren, tourists and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged ‘not worth living’. This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams – but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs. These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history. ___ ‘Exceptional... Boyd's book reminds us that even the most brutal regimes cannot extinguish all semblance of human feeling'Mail on Sunday ‘Masterly… [an] important and gripping book… [Boyd is] a leading historian of human responses in political extremis.’The Oldie ‘Gripping… vividly depicted… [a] humane and richly detailed book’ Spectator ‘Vivid, moving stories leave us asking "What would I have done?"’ Professor David Reynolds, author of Island Stories “An absorbing, thoroughly recommended read”Family Tree magazine ‘Laying bare the tragedies, the compromises, the suffering and the disillusionment. Exemplary microhistory.’ Roger Moorehouse, author of First to Fight ‘Compelling and evocative’All About History ’The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on Fortunately… with Fi and Jane ‘incredibly engaging’History of War magazine 'Intensely detailed, exhaustively researched and rendered in almost cinematographic detail, Julia Boyd's A Village In The Third Reich is deeply evocative, redolent of those times and truly revelatory. I learned so much. This is a book I will need to return to again and again, to relearn, refresh and remember. A triumph.' Damien Lewis, author of The Flame of ResistanceTrade Review‘A fascinating deep dive into one community as it experiences the rise and fall of Hitler.’ The Times ‘Boyd is an outstanding micro-historian.’ iNews ‘Masterly . . . [Boyd is] a leading historian of human responses in political extremis.’ The Oldie ‘Fascinating… You’ll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle… than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.’ Daily Mail ‘Exceptional... Boyd's book reminds us that even the most brutal regimes cannot extinguish all semblance of human feeling' Mail on Sunday ‘Gripping… vividly depicted… [a] humane and richly detailed book’ Spectator ’An absorbing, thoroughly recommended read’ Family Tree magazine ‘Compelling and evocative’ All About History ’The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on Fortunately… with Fi and Jane ‘incredibly engaging’ History of War magazine

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Book Synopsis'Ruminative and enigmatic . . . powerful' Simon Armitage'Tenderly inquisitive . . . a powerful poetry of witness . . . full of discovery' Alycia Pirmohamed'Majella Kelly offers so much: ecstatic lyricism . . . emotional excavation and virtuosic skill' Kathryn Maris The astonishing poetry debut exploring hidden histories, mythical landscapes and self-discovery in the face of limits on women's bodily autonomyIn 2017, the presence of a mass grave was confirmed in a disused sewage system in Tuam, County Galway. In it were the bodies of infants - wards of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, where from 1925 to 1961 the children of unmarried women were sent to live their lives in the care of nuns. Their deaths were the result of a conservative culture which, under the influence of the Church, took a prurient interest in women's private lives and bodies.In The Speculations of Country People, her hauntingly lyrical debut collection, Majella Kelly reckons with that legacy. She traces the journeys of women in our own day, from controlling relationships to sexual reawakening and new happiness. The speculations of the title are in part those of gossip, the chatter of small communities everywhere; but they are also those of a local, very Irish mythos, in which pagan and Christian - and truth and legend - blend and blur.Here, then, are hares and selkies, a seductive 'master otter' of 'fabulous elegance' who might carry a woman away in the night; here is the last man on Omey Island; here a retired stuntman, dragging his bed of rusty nails along the beach. And here - quiet, against the beauty and loneliness of the Connemara landscape - are the little bones that wash up on shores or stick from the earth to speak of what has been.Trade ReviewThis tenderly inquisitive book . . . oscillate[s] between an intimate interiority . . . and a powerful poetry of witness. Along with its strong, lyrical voice, the book's sections are held together by evocative personifications of the natural world . . . Kelly attends carefully to the histories she writes about . . . [The section on the Tuam Mother and Baby Home] is a poetic inquiry, where skilful and moving language is a tool of investigation. Kelly probes at difficult questions of religion, legacy, grief, and the responsibility of memory and memorial. The poems are lucid with their remembering . . . full of discovery, [The Speculations of Country People gifts] us with the wisdom that the list of places we are from is not fixed, but rather textured with the continuous possibility of finding home in new people and new places -- Alycia PirmohamedMajella Kelly offers so much: ecstatic lyricism, historical fiction, genealogy, cultural observation, emotional excavation and virtuosic skill. Her poems have drive, empathy, pathos and joy -- Kathryn Maris

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Book SynopsisThe message of Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development is clear: livelihoods approaches are an essential lens on questions of rural development, but these need to be situated in a better understanding of political economy. The book looks at the role of social institutions and the politics of policy, as well as issues of identity, gender and generation. The relationships between sustainability and livelihoods are examined, and the book situates livelihoods analysis within a wider political economy of environmental and agrarian change. Four dimensions of a new politics of livelihoods are suggested: a politics of interests, individuals, knowledge and ecology. Together, these suggest new ways of conceptualizing rural and agrarian issues, with profound implications for both thinking and action.

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Book SynopsisOn March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compania de Santa Gertrudis - the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company - may have committed murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors. A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers' tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence.Trade Review'A searing, painful, poetic, simple, extraordinary book about a 1920 mine disaster. Remembering Grenfell – do we learn?' Philippe Sands----'A precise and devastating account that peers into the dark mouths of the El Bordo mine as if they were the gates of hell. In these pages, Yuri Herrera paints a portrait of poverty and neglect and reveals, once again, the way exploitation and abuse lurk at the source of all violence.' Alia Trabucco Zerán, author of The Remainder----‘A Silent Fury is a narrative rebellion against the archive of atrocity. Herrera subverts the archive, turns it against itself, upends its silencing mission and reveals within it the traces of corporate and governmental abuse, disregard and murder.’ John Gibler, author of I Couldn’t Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us----‘Like Life of a Klansman, Herrera’s book is a microhistory inspired by an absence in the archives. But where Ball enriches the record with context and speculation, Herrera conducts a crisp, matter-of-fact investigation. In quietly seething prose—ably translated by Lisa Dillman—he parses the evasive accounts of contemporary journalists, judges, mine administrators, and civil authorities, noting the implications of each elision and discrepancy. By the end, the “accident” looks more like homicide, a crime quickly covered up by local officials and company bureaucrats who barely saw their workers as human . . . The book is a gripping demonstration of how much can be unearthed from the omissions of official accounts.’ Julian Lucas, Harper’s Magazine----‘By bringing moral exactitude to a story long silenced for American profit, A Silent Fury joins that most vital of canons, the literatures of witness. Reading against the grain of official documents, defining what is there by what is not, Herrera bears witness to a crime that preceded his birth by 50 years.’ Washington Post----‘Herrera's quietly impassioned account has much to say to movements that now work to reclaim a buried past.’Boyd Tonkin, The i----‘At its heart, this is not a book about a mine or even a fire. It is about blame, and what powerful people do to make it disappear . . . This is a book that demands to be read.’ Oliver Balch, The Spectator----‘A story that resonates around the world today . . . and in this short book, Herrera tells it with a poetic concision and eye for detail, made all the stronger for the narrative’s measured pace of revelation.’ 5* New Internationalist----'The book reminded me, naturally, of the disaster that is unfolding around us at this moment [COVID, 2020]. Power doesn’t care about the powerless, Herrera shows us; he’s talking about miners a century ago but could as well be talking about a bartender today. Though often beautiful, A Silent Fury is not pleasurable reading; it is, nevertheless, essential.' Rumaan Alam, The New Republic----‘Herrera knows how to plot an intense plot and handle an original style, as capable of revealing a miserable and anguished social reality as well as elevating with poetry the humble and everyday life in order to reach symbolic proportions.’ Arturo García Ramos, ABC----‘What Yuri Herrera does is Literature, beyond genres or labels. He amply proves it again now, after five years of silence, with a fascinating story that reads like a novel.’ Matías Néspolo, El Mundo----‘With his characteristic sharp prose and exciting rhythm, Herrera is one of the most remarkable writers of Latin America. The El Bordo Mine Fire is an impeccable exercise of journalism.’ Jaime G. Mora, ABC Cultural----‘With his trio of books set in the narco-war borderlands, Herrera has shown that he’s a master of the short, tense fiction, and with A Silent Fury, he proves it further, this time venturing into a more historical mode.’ Remezcla----Booksellers on A Silent Fury----‘A plaque. A press release. A mislabeled photograph. Like a paleontologist drawing a beast from a jawbone, Herrera tells a story of greed, imperialism, and complicity from a few fragments of information. The El Bordo Mine Fire is just one almost forgotten tragedy but, like Rukeyser's Book of the Dead, the bright, poetic light Herrera shines on it with A Silent Fury, casting a shadow on our biggest questions.’ Josh Cook, Porter Square Books----‘Yuri Herrera's slim and devastating A Silent Fury documents the mining tragedy in Pachuca in 1920 and the government and mining company's attempts to cover up the deaths. There is no more relevant time to read about workers' fights for safety and justice in their workplace.’ Tom Flynn, Pilsen Community Books----‘Silence pervades this short book; that of the historical record; that of the the U.S. corporation that owned the mine; that of the survivors; and that of the dead. Herrera is haunted by the silence of the El Bordo mine fire,100 years after 87 miners died, and seeks to record the whispers of ghosts. In this, he is only partly successful, but by attempting to give voice to the silenced, hope is given breath.’ Chapter Books----‘Yuri Herrera explores the history of century-old mine disaster in a small Mexican town. Due to the owner’s influence, the historical record is dubious. Herrera’s investigation raises important questions about how the callousness of the powerful can ensure that a callous history is all that survives them.’ Keith Mosman, Powell's Books----‘Herrera gives voice to the story untold, to clarifying, devastating effect.’ Molly Moore, Book People----‘A Silent Fury is an astonishing piece of journalism. The story is about the El Bordo mine fire in Pachuca, Mexico, and how, when capital comes before workers, lives are too often lost, and justice too long unserved. My favorite book from Herrera yet, and that is an incredibly high bar to reach.’ Matt Keliher, Subtext----‘An astonishing combination of history, cultural anthropology, and journalism that sheds light on a previously forgotten mining disaster . . . and a good example of why we need more translated nonfiction.’ Lesley Rains, City of Asylum Bookstore

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2022 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize Shortlisted for the Premio Valle-Inclan prize for its translation Through war and its aftermaths, a woman fights to keep her daughters safe. Like peasants through the ages, she desperately slashes and burns in order to make a place for her children to return to. A country girl sees her village sacked and her beloved father disappeared. She is taken to the mountains to join the guerrillas, who force her to give up the baby she conceives. Surviving the rebellion, and now a woman, she sets out to find her daughter, travelling across the Atlantic with meagre resources. She returns to a community in which civilians, the militia and the ex-guerrilla fighters have to live together in a society riddled with distrust, fear and hypocrisy. Hernandez's narrators have the level gaze of ordinary women reckoning with extraordinary hardship. Denouncing the ruthless machismo of combat with quiet intelligence, Slash and Burn creates a suspenseful, slow-burning revelation of rural life in the aftermath of political trauma.Trade Review'An intensive reading experience . . . What Slash and Burn - named after a method of agriculture both destructive and regenerative - shows is the difficulty of creating a new life after war or other trauma.' John Self, The Guardian----'A brilliant evocation of civil war and its bitter legacy.' Lucy Popescu, The Observer----'Slash and Burn investigates with brilliance and compassion the depth of desolation, violence and loss the civil conflict inflicted on a scarred society.' Morning Star----'This is a book that uses indirect narration to create accounts that are both detailed and expansive, putting the personal first but speaking for the collective and from a more vulnerable part of society, really demonstrating the multi-layered meaning of being a survivor.' Sounds and Colours----'An indictment of the inherent misogyny of war and an homage to the women who tirelessly fight for justice and survival on all fronts. But hers is not simply a literature of denunciation, for in the same pages she shows, with fierce heart, the ways women refuse to be crushed, the sometimes broken ways they manage to take care of each other and struggle to survive.' John Gibler----'Extraordinary and utterly gripping, a work of brutally profound beauty and universal significance.' Philippe Sands----'What does it truly mean to be at peace following a war? Slash and Burn is a deeply thoughtful and empathetic examination of how a civil war is inherited, and how it affects subsequent generations of women. Stylistically brave and thematically bold, it is essential, necessary reading for understanding the transition from combatant to civilian, and what historical and national trauma look like on a personal level.' Julianne Pachico----'After reading far too many books about the Central American guerrilla told by and about men, I welcome this terrific novel that delves into the stories of women who come of age during and after war. In Slash and Burn, the aspirations, labour and education of women, as well as motherhood, love, reconciliation and exile, are tied together in sharp, profound prose you can't stop reading.' Lina Meruane----'It is astonishing that someone can write in such a clean and transparent way about a turbulent past. Claudia Hernandez's prose is the controlled breathing of someone who knows that memory is another battlefield. Claudia Hernandez, like her protagonists, lucid and tough women, knows how to cross these battlefields. Slash and Burn confirms that she is one of the best writers in our language.' Yuri Herrera----'Claudia Hernandez is one of the most groundbreaking short story writers from Central America, with a way of approaching the story that is closer to Virgilio Pinera o Felisberto Hernandez than to the realist tradition. Her five story collections prove this. Now, with her first novel, Claudia Hernandez takes on a new challenge: telling the recent history of El Salvador through three generations of women scarred by civil war, poverty and emigration. A pulsating feminine universe, full of energy and courage, despite the permanent threat of violence that surrounds it. An intense and moving novel, and a very intriguing way of storytelling that will captivate the reader.' Horacio Castellanos Moya----'Slash and Burn is an incisive look into the lasting wounds of El Salvador's Civil War. It is a tale of generational healing and resilience centred on its women. Hernandez is a calm, cutting voice on how what is broken must be put back together.' Ryan Gattis----'Slash and Burn reimagines the country through the voices of mothers, daughters and wives. The female gaze cuts sharp in this retelling.' Gabriela Aleman----'Claudia Hernandez's extraordinary novel Slash and Burn has an embattled, unsentimental narrative style, with swift shifts of point of view to voices that are often telling her characters what isn't possible, and a future tense that dramatizes the (im)possibilities for her and her family. Slash and Burn is destined to become a classic.' Mauro Javier Cardenas----'There is a surreal, dreamlike quality to this challenging story. . . it abounds with memories of violence told in a third person bordering on the first, both because of the randomness of events depicted and the naivety and warmth of the language that recounts the almost childlike aspects of the war, always through eyes and a voice that are, above all, feminine.' The Spanish Bookstage, "Weekly Choice"

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Book SynopsisOne beautiful September day, three sixty-six-year-old men convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the 1960s. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today - Lincoln's a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher and Mickey an ageing musician. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since 1971: the disappearance of their friend Jacy. Now, decades later, the distant past interrupts the present as the truth about what happened to Jacy finally emerges, forcing the men to reconsider everything they thought they knew about each other. Shot through with Russo's trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are also introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader's heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga of how friendship's bonds are every bit as constricting and rewarding as those of family.For both longtime fans and lucky newcomers, Chances Are is a stunning demonstration of a highly-acclaimed author deepening and expanding his remarkable body of work.Trade ReviewCleverly paced, Russo's latest novel folds page-turning suspense into an unhurried, warmly observed portrait of friendship in later life. * Mail on Sunday *His stories are omnisciently narrated in a tone of sardonic understanding of human folly, which places him in the house of American style on a polished mezzanine between John Updike and Anne Tyler...Chances Are, a rare mix of the tense and tender, should gain Russo further literary acclaim. -- Mark Lawson * Guardian *There's much to enjoy in Richard Russo's typically nuanced portrait of three childhood friends...[a] fine-grained exploration of troubled, small-town masculinity...Russo's prose is so quietly melodious you can almost hear it singing. * Daily Mail *An eloquent excavation of long-buried secrets. * Observer *totally engrossing...Humane and beautifully crafted, it provides further compelling evidence of Russo's prestige as a contemporary American writer. * Sydney Morning Herald *...chances are awfully good that you'll lap up this gripping, wise and wonderful summer treat. * Boston Globe *Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo balances suspense with comedy in this gripping tale. * Time *Richard Russo is often compared to Dickens, to whom he clearly owes a debt, but the ghost hovering over his fabulous new novel, Chances Are, feels more like Sam Shepard...Next to Colson Whitehead's new book, there's not a better paced summer read -- John Freeman * Literary Hub *...blends everything we love about this author with something new...Vintage Russo...No one understands men better than Russo, and no one is more eloquent in explaining how they think, suffer and love. * Kirkus (starred review) *Russo's hallmark themes - the intricacy of male friendships, one-sided love, the collision of the past with the present - are on full display * New York Times *...a brisk story with memorable characters and smart things to say about loss and missed opportunities. * Minneapolis Star Tribune *...there's heart and beauty on every page. * USA Today *Richard Russo can write like Edith Wharton leavened with a touch of David Lodge. * The Economist *A writer of great comedy and warmth, Russo's living proof that a book can be profound and wise without aiming straight into darkness. * USA Today *Perhaps if it was pointed out that here was a US writer who stood somewhere between Anne Tyler at her darkest and Russell Banks, with an occasional hint of Richard Ford at his least bleak, perhaps Russo would become as widely read as he deserves to be. * Irish Times *No one writing today captures the detail of life with such stunning accuracy. -- Annie Proulx

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a poignant account of the current policy approaches to self-determining sex and gender in the UK and beyond, showing how legal, medical and pedagogical policy developments are interconnected, and how policy is affected by transgender and diverse gender experiences and activism.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The scope of sex/gender embodiment and self-determination Chapter 2. The desire for (political) self-determination Chapter 3. Medical governance and governing the healthcare assemblage Chapter 4. (Self-)determining trans, sex/gender expansive and intersex people Chapter 5. Self-determination in school cultures Concluding Remarks

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Set in the 1920s, this marvellously sensitive autobiography recreates the varied community of Nairn, with its fishermen and townsfolk, its crofters and its prosperous upper-middle-classes. Nairn has witnessed many of the triumphs and tragedies of Scottish history, and these are recalled with intuitive understanding. But it is also the scene of David Thomson''s formative years when he suffered an eye injury which nearly blinded him and shaped his whole future.Winner of the McVitie''s Prize and the first NCR Book Award For Non-Fiction

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Book SynopsisYou hear a lot these days about innovation and entrepreneurship and about how good jobs in tech will save our cities. Yet these common tropes hide a stunning reality: local lives and fortunes are tied to global capital. You see this clearly in metropolises such as San Francisco and New York that have emerged as superstar cities. In these cities, startups bloom, jobs of the future multiply, and a meritocracy trained in digital technology, backed by investors who control deep pools of capital, forms a new class: the tech-financial elite. In The Innovation Complex, the eminent urbanist Sharon Zukin shows the way these forces shape the new urban economy through a rich and illuminating account of the rise of the tech sector in New York City. Drawing from original interviews with venture capitalists, tech evangelists, and economic development officials, she shows how the ecosystem forms and reshapes the city from the ground up.Zukin explores the people and plans that have literally rooted digital technology in the city. That in turn has shaped a workforce, molded a mindset, and generated an archipelago of tech spaces, which in combination have produced a now-hegemonic innovation culture and geography. She begins with the subculture of hackathons and meetups, introduces startup founders and venture capitalists, and explores the transformation of the Brooklyn waterfront from industrial wasteland to innovation coastline. She shows how, far beyond Silicon Valley, cities like New York are shaped by an influential triple helix of business, government, and university leaders--an alliance that joins C. Wright Mills''s power elite, real estate developers, and ambitious avatars of academic capitalism. As a result, cities around the world are caught between the demands of the tech economy and communities'' desires for growth--a massive and often--insurmountable challenge for those who hope to reap the rewards of innovation''s success.Trade ReviewZukin's work mainly provides a fascinating insight into a city in transition... Zukin's book can convince us to make cities sustainable, not only physically but also in a social sense. * Wouter J. Verheul, Delft University of Technology, TESG *There are many ways agglomeration serves to create value through innovation. However, Zukin goes beyond the typically described positive effects, in particular efficient knowledge diffusion, to recognize the negative social and economic effects. * S. J. Gabriel, CHOICE *I found the book particularly interesting for those scholars dealing with innovation and entrepreneurship in a rather quantitative manner, since it may help them to better comprehend the interesting stories behind innovative entrepreneurship, which too often risk being hidden by the 'cold' numbers of econometrics. * Luca Grilli, Regional Studies *Sharon Zukin's Innovation Complex proves once again that she is one of the most astuteobservers of American cities. For decades, innovation and the tech industry were thought to be the province of the suburbs. But Zukin shows how and why innovation and startup companies have come back to the city en masse and the economic contradictions that the rise of the urban innovation complex brings. * Richard Florida, author ofThe Rise of the Creative Class *With a keen eye and a sly sense of irony, Sharon Zukin takes us behind the doors of the startups, venture capital firms, business incubators, co-working spaces, and coding camps that have made New Yorka major hub of what she aptly dubs 'The Innovation Complex.' Beneath the technical wizardry and relentless boosterism of this new world, Zukin sees reasons to be skeptical about its promises to deliver a better life for us all. * Joshua B. Freeman, author of Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World? *In The Innovation Complex, Sharon Zukin masterfully reveals how New York City-of all places-pivoted to tech and established an ecosystem rivaling Silicon Valley.In the process, she helps us understand cities, the startup world, and the economic tensions that come with progress. * Steven Levy, author In the Plex and Facebook: TheInside Story *Sharon Zukin deftly argues in The Innovation Complex that tech capitals do not simply bubble up from a primordial soup of young entrepreneurs' inventions. They are made through ideas, norms, and narratives as well as by policies and investments. Zukin takes us on a tour of the specific places and activities that make up the New York City innovation complex-hackathons, meetups, innovation districts, tech campuses, boot camps, and co-working spaces. What we come to see is the political process of innovation itself and how this process reconfigures cities. The result is a nuanced and critical look at the costs that a tech boom exacts on cities and citizens. * Gina Neff, University of Oxford, author of Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries *Table of Contents1. Imagining Innovation 2. Hackathons and the Spirit of the New Capitalism 3. Meetups: Leveraging the Community 4. Accelerators, Startups, and the Circulation of Capital 5. The VC Office and the Concentration of Capital 6. Brooklyn's "Innovation Coastline" 7. Pipelines: Talent, Meritocracy, and Academic Capitalism 8. "The Address of Innovation" 9. Author's Note: On Methods and Journeys

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Book SynopsisOn the basis of his new fieldwork done in south Gujarat between 2004 and 2006, Jan Breman critically analyses the historical roots of the ongoing subordination of the rural poor in what has come to be recognised as a booming economy.

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Book SynopsisAfter 1949 the Chinese Communists carried out land reform, the collectivization of agriculture, and the formation of people's communes. The new economic and political organizations that emerged have made peasant life more comfortable and secure, but many economic and status differentials and traditional customs remain resistant to change. Focusing on rural Kwangtung province, William L. Parish and Martin King Whyte examine the rural work-incentive system, village equality and inequality, rural health care and education, marriage customs, and the position of women, among other topics, to determine what and how much of the traditional Chinese ways of life is left in Communist China.

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Book SynopsisFair Trade promises to raise living standards in developing countries through:- worldwide minimum prices for commodities- support for democratically governed cooperatives- requirement of minimum wages and safety standards for workers- training to help producers improved quality and develop business skills- encouragement of eco-friendly practices- third-party certificationIn contrast to the free trade status quo, Fair Trade relies on informed consumers to choose more direct supply chains that minimize the role of middlemen, offering economic justice and social change as a viable and sustainable alternative to charity. But does it work?Fair Trade from the Ground Up documents achievements at both the producer and the consumer ends of commodity chains and assesses prospects for future growth. From Guatemalan coffee farmers to student activists on U.S. college campuses, the stories of individuals inform April Linton's analysis. Drawing on studies by social scientists and economists, as wellTrade Review". . . an intriguing and informational read for anyone who is involved or interested in the fair trade movement." * Contemporary Sociology *"This volume provides a rich, detailed framework for examining and discussing fair trade and the sustainability it encourages across the developed and developing worlds. Highly recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Fair Trade from the Ground Up 2. Fair Trade Coffee in Guatemala 3. How Do Producers Spend the Social Premium? 4. Selling and Buying Fair Trade 5. Fair Trade Activisim in the United States 6. A Fair Trade University 7. Growing Fair Trade Notes References Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisConsiders the interrelated careers of three significant nineteenth-century writers who have never been extensively studied together

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Book SynopsisA journey into the experiences of incarcerated women in rural areas, revealing how location can reinforce gendered violenceIncarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned. Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women's experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as the Western frontier. Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women's perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that coTrade Review"A unique, readable, lengthy study of female incarceration in the Wyoming women's prison, one of 67 state women's prisons in the US." * Choice *

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Book SynopsisThe East Country is a work of creative nonfiction in which the acclaimed nature writer Jules Pretty integrates memoir, natural history, cultural critique, and spiritual reflection into a single compelling narrative. Pretty frames his book around Aldo Leopold and his classic A Sand County Almanac, bringing Leopold's ethicthat some could live without nature but most should notinto the twenty-first century. In The East Country, Pretty follows the seasons through seventy-four tales set in a variety of landscapes from valley to salty shore. Pretty convinces us that we should all develop long attachments to the local, observing that the land can change us for the better.Trade ReviewI'm in step with Prof Jules Pretty. Who wouldn't be, when he rightly recognises the link between a healthy natural world and good mental health in humans – and trumpets the message? Like him, I love getting outdoors to feel the sun (and rain) on my skin and notice the different rhythm. You could say I've bought the T-shirt along with the waterproof walking boots and warm coat. * The East Anglian Daily Times *His celebration of the landscape incorporates memoir and poetry, natural history and spiritual reflection, but also a critique of where current policies are leading us. ‘Nature will carry on regardless,’ he suggest. ‘It is just that we might not.’ -- Matthew Reisz * Times Higher Education *Table of ContentsPreface A Geographic Locator January 1. The Winter Hesitation 2. One Glossy Ibis and Many Ticks 3. Winter Gales and Beliefs 4. Walk the Line 5. The Weight of a Snipe 6. The Old Battlefield February 7. Paths and Prints in Snow 8. Closing Time 9. To Iken 10. Saturation 11. The Box Valley March 12. Disturbing Hints of Spring 13. The Beach Crows 14. Some Spring for Celandine 15. Blackthorn Days 16. The Blue Light of Spring April 17. Two Buzzards 18. The Long Night of Hope 19. Mystery Solved 20. Nightingales and Green Men 21. Sailors' Reading Room 22. The Assington Elms May 23. The Owl and the Sun 24. The Bat and the Wild 25. Time Travel 26. Since Records Began 27. Bells in the Cow Parsley Section 28. Encounters 29. The Northern Sky 30. All Four Margins June 31. Magic in the Thicks 32. The Lost Shore 33. Hollyhock Summer 34. A Submission 35. Lay-Bys of the A12 36. The Cottage Hospital 37. Come Back the Wild 38. Anniversary July 39. Village Edgelands 40. Nature at a Nuclear Power Station 41. Digging for Victory 42. Under Another Atomic Sky 43. Heat Wave August 44. Pause for Ragwort 45. The End of the Road 46. Nightwalk 47. Soon, the Departure 48. The Tinker's Cottage 49. The Turn September 50. The Path 51. Mud Birds 52. Angels in the Back Lanes 53. Season of Mist and Fire 54. In Memoriam 55. The Rhythym of Farm Names October 56. Insect Life 57. A New Anniversary 58. Things and Doubt 59. Alarm Call 60. The Sands of Another Summer 61. Wait for the End November 62. Bonfire Night 63. At First, Silence 64. The Night Hours 65. Leaf Fall and Mists 66. Beach Fishermen and Water Sprites 67. Much Can Change in a Short Time 68. Passing Years December 69. A Marsh Murmuration 70. Poor Man's Heaven 71. Dark and Wet at Solstice 72. Pruning and Planning 73. Dark and Wet, Again 74. An East Wind Crossing the New Year Acknowledgments Notes by Tale Bibliography List of Photographs

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Book SynopsisTen percent of the world's population lives on islands, but until now the place and space characteristics of islands in criminological theory have not been deeply considered. This book addresses issues of how, and by whom, crime is defined in island settings, informed by the distinctive social structures of their communities.

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Book SynopsisSince the late 1960s, individuals rebelling against societal norms have embraced intentional communities as a means to manifest their ideals. This book combines archival research and an ethnographic approach to reveal the transformative potential of these communities.

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Book SynopsisMaría Sánchez is obsessed with what she cannot see. As a field veterinarian following in the footsteps of generations before her, she travels the countryside of Spain bearing witness to a life eroding before her eyes—words, practices, and people slipping away because of depopulation, exploitation of natural resources, inadequate environmental policies, and development encroaching on farmland and villages. Sánchez, the first woman in her family to dedicate herself to what has traditionally been a male-dominated profession, rebuffs the bucolic narrative of rural life often written by—and for consumption by—people in cities, describing the multilayered social complexity of people who are proud, resilient, and often misunderstood.Sánchez interweaves family stories of three generations with reflections on science and literature. She focuses especially on the often dismissed and undervalued generations of women who have forgone education and independence to work the land and tend to family. In doing so, she asks difficult questions about gender equity and labor. Part memoir and part rural feminist manifesto, Land of Women acknowledges the sacrifices of Sánchez’s female ancestors who enabled her to become the woman she is.A bestseller in Spain, Land of Women promises to ignite conversations about the treatment and perception of rural communities everywhere.Trade ReviewPraise for Land of Women"A passionate and touching book...Land of Women may be a small book, but it is mighty. It gives a voice to rural women and speaks truths long hidden." — Christian Science Monitor"Sánchez’s prose is both lyrical and nebulous, resulting in a deep, personal cultural history that digs into areas not often discussed...a moving feminist account of women’s historical roles in rural communities." — Foreword Reviews"Writer and veterinarian María Sánchez celebrates the women of her world, quiet workers of an ultrapatriarchal campaign. As indispensable as they are invisible. As omnipresent as they are silent. In this feminist and poetic manifesto, Sánchez draws on her own history to measure how much the earth is also a woman’s affair.” — Le Monde“This book does not talk about the women who will fill the city streets. It speaks of a rural feminism . . . that remembers the strong and wise women who worked the land without raising their voices.”​ ― Time Out“Narrated with agility, lucidity, forcefulness, and tenderness. There is knowledge, pride, vitality, and fantastic energy in this memoir about the women who, against the tide of history, didn’t leave their family homes or their land, the ones who stayed with their men (or without them) in the rural area, the ones who resisted the exodus to the cities.”​ — El País​ “Land of Women is a beautiful tribute to the genealogy of women who came before, women with hands that molded the earth and who were part of the earth.”​ — El Heraldo de Aragón“María Sánchez asks us to consider the silent contribution of women in rural areas free from nostalgia, bucolic sentiments, and prejudice.”​ — El Mundo“María Sánchez recovers the trace of the women in her life—in her learning, in the field, and in the home. As with the feminist movement, she turns our attention to that which was invisible to us until now.”​ — Zenda“Land of Women launches a harangue against urban snobbery: no more stigmatizing the people of the countryside and ignoring their workers.”​ ― Eldiario“Sánchez’s ferocity echoes Elena Ferrante.”​ — Aysmptote“An expression of intimate and familiar memory endowed with a great poetic strength.”​ — ABC Sevilla“An essential [book] that focuses on the compelling need to expand feminist discourse so that it affects not only women in big cities but also those in rural areas. It deserves to be read by everyone. After all, there’s still soil under the concrete.”​ ― La Vanguardia“With Land of Women, María Sánchez has become an essential writer to read.”​ — El Cultural“Faced with a feminism that is highlighted through social media, María Sánchez knows that outside the cities, agriculture is an assumption without consideration. She gives feminist voice to the field.”​ — El CulturalLand of Women urges us to reconnect with the rural world, especially its women, and to tell our stories free of shame.”​ — ABC Cultura“An epic book—political, pure, and sincere. There are few books as necessary as this.”​ — El Confidencial“Land of Women is personal and unique—a book that cannot be defined under any one label. A book that is born from mourning. A book of trial and vindication. A book of intimate and collective memory.”​ — Anna María Iglesia “Land of Women is simultaneously everything I do not know and everything I love: my midwife great-grandmother, my literature teacher grandmother, my historian mother, them, me, us, all different, together.”​ — Luna Miguel “Rooted in our landscape, suffused with tenderness and courage, Sánchez gives voice to all of those anonymous figures who work and nourish the fields.”​ — Cristina Sánchez-Andrade“This is more than a book. It’s a piece of the earth, of the land, of life itself.”​ — Aleix Costa“Land of Women is truth: truth and caring, truth and vigor, truth and consciousness, truth and reality.”​ — Sergio Sancor

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Book SynopsisGenetically modified crops have become a key element of development strategies across the Global South, despite remaining deeply controversial. Proponents hail them as an example of ‘pro-poor’ innovation, while critics regard them as a threat to food sovereignty and the environment. The promotion of biotechnology is an integral part of ‘new Green Revolution for Africa’ interventions and is also intimately linked to the rise of ‘philanthrocapitalism,’ which advances business solutions to address the problem of poverty. Through interviews with farmers, policymakers and agricultural scientists, Jacqueline Ignatova shows how efforts to transform the seed sector in northern Ghana – one of the key laboratories of this ‘new Green Revolution’ – may serve to exacerbate the inequality it was notionally intended to address. But she also argues that its effects in Ghana have been far more complex than either side of the debate has acknowledged, with local farmers proving adept at blending traditional and modern agricultural methods that subvert the interests of global agribusiness.Trade ReviewIgnatova’s important book illuminates profound problems with public-private partnerships that skirt democratic accountability and empower wealthy interests at the expense of local communities. But it’s not a despairing account: she centres Ghanaian activists and policy-makers who are pioneering a new type of philanthropy, one emphasizing interdependency and social justice over anti-democratic efforts to privatize seed commons. A revelatory and insightful study. * Professor Linsey McGoey, University of Essex, UK *Like a combine through a field of genetically modified maize, Jacqueline Ignatova cuts through the rhetoric surrounding the 'Green Revolution for Africa' to reveal the underlying power, politics and inequities that shape agricultural development in contemporary Ghana. Full of rich empirics and analytical insights, this book is essential reading for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of how public-private partnerships and philanthropy-driven initiatives are reshaping smallholder agriculture across the African continent. * Marcus Taylor, Associate Professor & Head of Department, Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of abbreviations Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Green Revolution discourse, structural adjustment, and the “enabling environment” for agribusiness Chapter 2: Philanthrocapitalism and the politics of public-private partnerships Chapter 3: Biocapital, “pro-poor” biotechnology, and legislative changes in the seed sector Chapter 4: Technological savior or terminator gene? Biotechnology, food security, and the political economy of hype Chapter 5: Experts, entrepreneurs, and the “last mile user” Interlude: On “mixing” Chapter 6: Neocolonial anxieties Conclusion

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Book SynopsisDeep in the Somerset countryside, the Combe Pomeroy village library hosts a monthly book club.Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.Judy Leigh is back with her unmistakable recipe of friendship and fun, love and laughter. The perfect feel-good novel for all fans of Dawn French, Dee Macdonald and Cathy Hopkins.Readers love Judy Leigh:‘Loved this from cover to cover, pity I can only give this 5 stars as it deserves far more.’‘The story’s simply wonderful, the theme of second chances will resonate whatever your age, there’s something for everyone among the characters, and I do defy anyone not to have a tear in their eye at the perfect ending.’‘With brilliant characters and hilarious antics, this is definitely a cosy read you'll not want to miss.’‘A lovely read of how life doesn't just end because your getting old.’‘A great feel-good and fun story that made me laugh and root for the characters.’Praise for Judy Leigh:‘Brilliantly funny, emotional and uplifting’ Miranda Dickinson'Lovely . . . a book that assures that life is far from over at seventy' Cathy Hopkins bestselling author of The Kicking the Bucket List'Brimming with warmth, humour and a love of life… a wonderful escapade’ Fiona Gibson

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Book SynopsisEthnography in the Raw describes the author's encounters with the Philippine family into which he has married, his wife's friends and acquaintances, and their lives in a remote rural village in the rice basin of Luzon, about 130 miles northeast of Manila. The book links detailed descriptions of his Philippine family with cultural practices such as circumcision, marriage and cockfights combined with theoretical musings on the concepts of sacrifice, social exchange, patron-client relations, food, and religious symbolism. It is both anthropological fieldwork in the raw,' and an incisive analysis of contemporary Philippine society and culture.

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Book SynopsisThis study aims to assess the skills and training needs of rural youth in Cambodia and to develop recommendations on how to foster their access to decent employment. The needs assessment was conducted in the provinces of Kampong Chhnang, Battambang and Kampong Cham. The study highlights the limited decent employment opportunities that currently exist along various agricultural value chains in rural Cambodia. Poverty and the structural problems of the agricultural sector are the main barriers for youth in accessing decent rural employment. A substantial enhancement of the education system, combined with the provision of appropriate training services to ensure successful school-to-work transition, is seen as necessary to tackle these challenges. A well-balanced policy mix reflecting national and local circumstances can boost employment opportunities and create an environment that enables rural youth. Building on previous research on agriculture in Cambodia, this study argues that agricultural transformation requires promotion of agribusiness enterprises, support to community-managed farmer organizations and promotion of agropreneurs, as well as investment in agricultural and rural development, particularly in infrastructure, energy, water, education and health. Moreover, as most young people entering agriculture are self-employed and work as small-scale farmers, training in rural areas should focus on the skills required to be self-employed.

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Book SynopsisIn a companion volume to their highly acclaimed book Overcoming the Odds, Emmy E. Werner and Ruth S. Smith continue their longitudinal study of approximately five hundred men and women who were born in 1955 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. A third of these individuals had been considered at risk because of birth complications, parental mental illness, family dysfunction, and adverse early conditions such as poverty. Werner and Smith examine the long-term impact of these influences on the individuals'' later adaptation to life.Drawing on data collected by a team of psychologists, pediatricians, social workers, and public health nurses across four decades, Werner and Smith chronicle the development of these men and women from birth to midlife: infancy, early and middle childhood, late adolescence, and early and middle adulthood. Their book focuses on protective factors within the individual, the extended family, and the community that allowed most of the men and women to be sucTrade Review"This is a very readable narrative account, thanks to the authors' decision to place all tables, figures, and statistical information in an appendix. Highly recommended; all levels."—Choice, February 2002"In a remarkable odyssey spanning some forty years, Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith seek answers to two fundamental questions: (a) what are the long-term effects of adverse perinatal and early child-rearing conditions on an individuals physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development at midlife? and (b) what factors may serve as buffers against such early childhood adversities' . . . Werner and Smith . . . detail midlife outcomes for specific high-risk subgroups of individuals during adolescence. . . . The reader learns of the remarkable power of recovery by midlife for most of these troubled or learning-disabled teens. . . . The third and four decades of life had opened many new opportunities and possibilities."—Jane Kroger, University of Tromso, Contemporary Psychology, 48:5, 2003"Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience, and Recovery is a remarkable opportunity for all of us to see the development of resilience and coping systems in the underprivileged children of Kauai. Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith's scholarship and clarity provide a firm base for understanding the psychodynamics of these processes and lead us to opportunities for intervention."—T. Berry Brazelton, M.D."For decades no student of resilience could afford to miss Emmy Werner's pioneering study of the children of Kauai. This book offers the next important chapter in that project, and it tells an important story about what it means to be human, struggling to become whole in the face of adversity. It is a story both sobering and inspiring."—James Garbarino, author of Parents Under Siege: Why You are the Solution, Not the Problem, in Your Child's Life and Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Development at Cornell University"This is a remarkable book about a remarkable study describing life and development over forty years. The authors have identified risk and protective influences which contribute to the development paths of individuals as they move from childhood into midlife. Importantly, the message is one of hope."—Barbara Keogh,University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisA collection of previously untranslated writings by Henri Lefebvre on rural sociology, situating his research in relation to wider Marxist workOn the Rural is the first English collection to translate Lefebvre’s crucial but lesser-known writings on rural sociology and political economy, presenting a wide-ranging approach to understanding the historical and rural sociology of precapitalist social forms, their endurance today, and conditions of dispossession and uneven development. In On the Rural, Stuart Elden and Adam David Morton present Lefebvre’s key works on rural questions, including the first half of his book Du rural à l’urbain and supplementary texts, two of which are largely unknown conference presentations published outside France. On the Rural offers methodological orientations for addressing questions of economy, sociology, and geography by deploying insights from spatial political economy to decipher the rural as a terrain and stake of capitalist transformation. By doing so, it reveals the production of the rural as a key site of capitalist development and as a space of struggle. This volume delivers a careful translation—supplemented with extensive notes and a substantive introduction—to cement Lefebvre’s central contribution to the political economy of rural sociology and geography. Trade Review"On the Rural is a remarkable collection. Lefebvre wrote as a historian, a sociologist, a geographer, a political-economist, and a philosopher. This makes for challenging reading at times but there are also brilliant passages that will goad readers on to the next page. "—Cleveland Review of BooksTable of ContentsFrom the Rural to the Urban and the Production of SpaceStuart Elden and Adam David MortonNotes on TranslationAcknowledgments1. Introduction to From the Rural to the Urban (1969)2. Problems of Rural Sociology: The Peasant Community and its Historical-Sociological Problems (1949)3. Social Classes in Rural Areas: Tuscany and the mezzadria classica (1950)4. Perspectives on Rural Sociology (1953)5. Social Relations, Population Phenomena, and Labor Problems in the Agricultural Sector of Underdeveloped Countries (1954)6. The Village Community (1956)7. The Theory of Ground Rent and Rural Sociology (1956)8. The Marxist–Leninist Theory of Ground Rent (1964)9. Introduction to the Psychosociology of Everyday Life (1960)10. The New Urban Complex: Lacq-Mourenx and the Urban Problems of the New Working Class (1960)11. Experimental Utopia: For a New Urbanism (1961)12. The Valley of Campan: A Study in Historical Sociology (1963)Publication HistoryIndex

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Book SynopsisThe first authoritative survey of the history of common land in Great Britain from the medieval period to present day. More than a million hectares of Britain has the status of common land, most of it consisting of semi-natural environments of mountain, moorland, wetland or heath. Formerly much more extensive, common land was, and in many places remains, an integral part of the pastoral economy. Even where it is no longer used by farmers, it plays an increasingly important role in modern life, as recreational space and for its value for nature conservation. This book provides for the first time an authoritative survey of the history of common land across all three nations of Great Britain from medieval times to the present day. It charts how commons have been viewed and valued across the centuries, how they have been used, and how their vegetation has changed, highlighting parallels and differences between the histories of common land in England, Scotland and Wales. It traces the distinctive legal status of common land and the management regimes which regulated the exercise of common rights; considers the role of commons as spaces for communal gatherings and as a resource for the poor; charts the loss of common land (but also its persistence) during the era of enclosure in the century 1760-1860; and explores the changing conceptions of the value and right use of commons since the nineteenth century, and the impact this has had on their ecological character. Eight case studies of individual commons illustrate the richness of common landscapes and their history at local level. They include crofters' common grazings in Sutherland, mountain commons in the Lake District and Snowdonia, lowland commons in Co. Durham, Herefordshire and the New Forest, turbary allotments in Lincolnshire, and the urban commons of Wimbledon and Putney Heath.Trade ReviewGood maps and figures accompany each [case study], and Winchester's background as an historical geographer is evident throughout the book in the well-thought-out illustrative material. Also to be commended are the excellent footnotes, which together with the Select Bibliography flag myriad place-specific studies. A marvellous study. -- Paul Stamper, University of Leicester * Landscapes *Winchester captures what we know of the origins of this much misunderstood but cherished category of land and then proceeds to chart people's interaction with it over several centuries. Winchester draws on his own expertise and the work of others to document a rich history. The book is beautifully illustrated with maps, photographs, and archival sources. Winchester reminds us that common land has always and will continue to mean different things to different people. -- Frances Kerner * Open Space *The author deserves much credit, however, for his skilful navigation of a subject which aroused passions and provoked controversy in the past and still does. This is an important book. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN *It stands alone as a singularly ambitious and impressive study, more detailed and comprehensive and wider ranging than anything that has come before. By combining an unrivalled range of material from the middle ages to the present and by offering a close, generous reading of existing work on British commons [...].Winchester's book will be the go-to reference for all those interested in every facet of common land. * AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Part I. Common Threads 1. Commons in the British Landscape 2. Custom and Law: The Genesis of Common Land 3. Managing Communal Resources 4. Commons as Communal Spaces 5. Living on the Edge: Commons and the Poor 6. The Age of 'Improvement': Privatisation and the Reconfiguration of Common Land 7. The Commons Reinvented 8. The Changing Face of Common Land since 1860 Part II. A Kaleidoscope of Common Landscapes: Eight Case Studies9. North Assynt Common Grazings, Sutherland 10. Nether Wasdale Common, Cumberland 11. Cockfield Fell, Co. Durham 12. Isle of Axholme Turbary Allotments, Lincolnshire 13. Llanllechid Mountain and Aber Mountain, Caernarvonshire 14. Bringsty Common and Bromyard Downs, Herefordshire 15. Ibsley Common and Rockford Common, New Forest, Hampshire 16. Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath, Surrey Conclusion: Common Ground Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMore than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton's Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China's revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, "Fanshan" is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. "Fanshen" continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China's complex social processes. This classic volume includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.Trade Review"One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution.... For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity." JOSEPH NEEDHAM, London Tribune "A vivid and compelling 'grassroots' account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself....[A] unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover." BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ, New York Times Book Review "Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both those of the Left and of the Right." C. P. FITZGERALD, The Nation "Fanshen is an important book.... It is an arresting narrative [on] the agonizing story of rural China in turmoil...told with a remarkable evenness of temper and a rare understanding of human weaknesses and strengths. The lessons of Long Bow village, so movingly and compassionately recorded...should be studied and restudied by all." C. T. HSU, Saturday Review"

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Book SynopsisToward a new history of caste and untouchabilityTrade Review"Reconsidering Untouchability overall stands as an authoritative challenge to conventional accounts of Dalit history." —American Historical Review"This engaging historiography of Dalit identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in northern India is a significant contribution to understanding the situation of the "untouchables" in Indian society as a whole." —Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies"Rawat's Reconsidering Untouchability is a valuable addition to [the] recent tradition of caste interpretation... [He] elicits from the history of the Chamars of... Uttar Pradesh a historiographical and sociological position which is both viable and distinctive, identifies new departures for a history of 'untouchability' itself, and defends the position from challenges." —Ssheej Hegde, Central University Hyderabad, H-Asia, H-Net Reviews, April 2012"Challenges and revises our understanding of the historical and contemporary role of dalits in Indian society. A pathbreaking book that rightfully restores the historical agency of and gives voice to dalits in north India." —Anand A. Yang, University of Washington"A timely and important contribution to the study of modern India. Rawat’s excellent and revisionist piece of Dalit history successfully overturns the stereotypical image of Chamars as leather-workers. It also helps us to understand why the ex-untouchables of north India came to invest in a politics of identity that challenged both nationalists and socialists alike." —Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago"Awarded the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences, Ramnarayan Rawat's Reconsidering Untouchability charts a new trajectory for scholarship on Dalitis in North India." —The Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Untouchable Boundaries: Chamars and the Politics of Identity and History1. Making Chamars Criminal: The Crime of Cattle Poisoning2. Investigating the Stereotype: Chamar Peasants and Agricultural Laborers3. Is the Leather Industry a Chamar Enterprise? The Making of Leatherworkers4. Struggle for Identities: Chamar Histories and Politics5. From Chamars to Dalits: The Making of an Achhut Identity and Politics, 192756Conclusion: Overcoming Domination: The Emergence of a New Achhut IdentityAppendix: Statistical TablesGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisEyferth charts the vicissitudes of a rural community of papermakers in Sichuan, tracing the changes in the distribution of knowledge that led to a massive transfer of technical control from villages to cities, from primary producers to managerial elites, and from women to men.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. This is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Live-in servants were a distinctive element of early modern society. They were typically young adults aged between 16 and 24 who lived and worked in other people's households before marriage. Servants tended to be employed for long periods, several months to years at a time, and were paid with food and lodging as well as cash wages. Both women and men worked as servants in large numbers. Unlike domestic servants in towns and wealthy households, rural servants typically worked on farms and were an important element of the agricultural workforce. Historians have viewed service as a distinct life-cycle stage between childhood and marriage. It brought both freedom and servility for young people. It allowed them to leave home and earn a living before marriage, whilst learning a range of agricultural and craft skills which reduced their dependence on their parents and increased their choice in marriage partners. Still, servants had limited rights: they were under the authority of their employer, with a similar legal status to children. In many countries the employment of servants was tightly controlled by law. Servants could demand their wages, and leave when the contract ended, but had to work long hours and had little say in their work tasksduring employment. While some servants effectively became family members, trusted and cared for, others were abused physically and sexually by their employers. This collection features a range of methodologies, reflecting the variety of source materials and approaches available to historians of this topic in a range of European countries and time periods. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the strong common themes that emerge from studying servants and will be of particular interest to historians of work, gender, the family, agriculture, economic development, youth and social structure. JANE WHITTLE is Professor of Rural History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: CHRISTINE FERTIG, JEREMY HAYHOE, SARAH HOLLAND, THIJS LAMBRECHT, CHARMIAN MANSELL, HANNE ØSTHUS, RICHARD PAPING, CRISTINA PRYTZ, RAFFAELLA SARTI, CAROLINA UPPENBERG, LIES VERVAET, JANE WHITTLETrade ReviewLinked by common themes and rigorous methodologies, the chapters of Servants in Rural Europe: 1400-1900 also constitute independent studies, each amply documented and illustrated by graphs, tables, and microhistories that will constitute an indispensable mine of data and ideas for specialists. * HISTOIRE SOCIALE/SOCIAL HISTORY *This book is a welcome contribution to the existing literature on the history of servanthood. * JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY *Taken together, the chapters provide an innovative analysis of the nature of live-in service within the agrarian economy and make a valuable contribution to early modern economic history. Scholars of women's history, economic history, and social history will find the articles particularly useful and insightful. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Servants in the Economy and Society of Rural Europe - Jane Whittle The Employment of Servants in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Coastal Flanders: A Case-Study of Scueringhe Farm near Bruges - Lies Vervaet The Institution of Service in Rural Flanders in the Sixteenth Century: A Regional Perspective - Thijs Lambrecht A Different Pattern of Employment: Servants in Rural England c.1500-1660 - Jane Whittle Female Service and the Village Community in South-West England 1550-1650: The Labour Laws Reconsidered - Charmian Mansell Life-cycle Servant and Servant for Life: Work and Prospects in Rural Sweden c. 1670-1730 - Christina Prytz Servants in Rural Norway, c.1650-1800 - Hanne Osthus Rural Servants in Eighteenth-Century Münsterland, Northwestern Germany: Households, Families and Servants in the Countryside - Christine Fertig Rural Servants in Eastern France 1700-1872: Change and Continuity over Two Centuries - Jeremy Hayhoe The Servant Institution during the Swedish Agrarian Revolution: The Political Economy of Subservience - Carolina Uppenberg Farm service and hiring practices in mid nineteenth-century England: The Doncaster Region in the West Riding of Yorkshire - Sarah Holland Dutch Live-In Farm Servants in the Long Nineteenth Century: The Decline of the Life-Cycle Service System for the Rural Lower Class - Richard Paping Rural Life-Cycle Service: Established Interpretations and New (Surprising) Data: The Italian Case in Comparative Perspective (Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries) - Raffaella Sarti Select Bibliography

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