Description
Book Synopsis Informed by Eric Wolf’s Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, published in 1969, this book examines selected peasant struggles in seven Latin American countries during the last fifty years and suggests the continuing relevance of Wolf’s approach. The seven case studies are preceded by an Introduction in which the editors assess the continuing relevance of Wolf’s political economy. The book concludes with Gavin Smith’s reflection on reading Eric Wolf as a public intellectual today.
Trade Review “Highly recommended.” • Choice
“This stimulating book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including those who want an accessible, well-written guide to peasant struggles and agrarian change in Latin America…. In a world of escalating inequality, precarity, and violence, such an approach to intellectual labour is more urgent than ever.” • Journal of Agrarian Change
“The book is quite unique… The concept is original and intriguing, and brings together an outstanding array of scholars to pursue the questions Eric Wolf raised in different Latin American cases.” • Avi Chomsky, Salem State University.
Table of Contents Introduction: Fifty Years of Peasant Wars in Latin America
Lesley Gill, Leigh Binford and Steve Striffler
Chapter 1. The Right Hand of the Party: The Role of Peasants in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution
Aaron Kappeler
Chapter 2. Rebellion, Revolution, and Reversal in Ecuador’s Countryside
Steve Striffler
Chapter 3. At the Crossroads of Power
Lesley Gill
Chapter 4. The Catholic Church, Peasants, and Revolution in Northern Morazán, El Salvador
Leigh Binford
Chapter 5. Peasants, Crime, and War in Rural Mexico
Casey Walsh
Chapter 6. Peasant Wars in Brazil
Cliff Welch
Chapter 7. Forgetting Peasants: History, “Indigeneity,” and the Anthropology of Revolution in Bolivia
Forrest Hylton
Afterword: Reflection: Reading Eric Wolf as a Public Intellectual Today
Gavin Smith
Index
