Series: Yale Agrarian Studies Series

Hearsay Is Not Excluded is a chronicle of natural history that argues the modern environmental crisis and rise in science scepticism co-developed with the rise of ever narrower scientific disciplines. For millennia, the field of natural history promoted a knowledgeable and unifying view of the world. In contrast, the modern rise of narrow scientific disciplines has promoted a dichotomy between...

James C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit. Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural...

A moving exploration of presence and place told through the stories of small-scale farmers who, despite intense adversity, continue caring for their land. "An excellent work of environmental writing. . . . I highly recommend this book."—Barn Raiser, "Our Readers' Favourite Books of 2023" Love for the Land explores the power and potential of people-place relationships. Through clear and compelling...

An unflinching investigation of the false promises of land sparing, exposing how its illusory successes mask the failures of green capitalism. For two decades, the concept of land sparing—the claim that agricultural intensification can spare land by preventing forest clearing for agricultural expansion—has dominated tropical forest conservation. Land sparing policies transform landscapes and livelihoods with the promise of reconciling agricultural...

A three-thousand-year history of the Yellow River and the legacy of interactions between humans and the natural landscape From Neolithic times to the present day, the Yellow River and its watershed have both shaped and been shaped by human society. Using the Yellow River as a case study in understanding the long-term effects of environmentally significant human activity, Ruth Mostern...

Trees Are Shape Shifters by Andrew S. Mathews explores the anthropogenic landscapes of Lucca, Italy, and how its people understand social and environmental change through cultivation. In Italy and around the Mediterranean, almost every stone, every tree, and every hillside show traces of human activities. Situating climate change within the context of the Anthropocene, Mathews investigates how people in Lucca...

Dust Bowls of Empire offers a profound reinterpretation of the Dust Bowl on the U.S. southern plains and its relevance for today. The 1930s witnessed a harrowing social and ecological disaster, defined by the severe nexus of drought, erosion, and economic depression that ravaged the U.S. southern plains. Known as the Dust Bowl, this crisis has become a major referent...

An exploration of life in the early medieval West, using pigs as a lens to investigate agriculture, ecology, economy, and philosophy. From North Africa to the British Isles, pigs were a crucial part of agriculture and culture in the early medieval period. Jamie Kreiner examines how this ubiquitous species was integrated into early medieval ecologies and transformed the way that...

Moving Crops and the Scales of History is a bold redefinition of historical inquiry based on the "cropscape"—the people, creatures, technologies, ideas, and places that surround a crop. Human efforts to move crops from one place to another have been a key driving force in history. Crops have been on the move for millennia, from wildlands into fields, from wetlands...

From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organised state society. For two thousand years, the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven...

A multidisciplinary environmental history of early China’s political systems, featuring newly available Chinese archaeological data The King's Harvest is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the transformation of lowland North China’s landscapes from diverse forests and steppes to farmland. He argues...

An imaginative history of the Kankakee River, told in reverse chronological order, that examines the ecological losses caused as people transformed the river and its wetlands The Kankakee River, whose waters gathered west of present-day South Bend, Indiana, and meandered through the loose sediment left by Pleistocene glaciers, used to drain one of the largest wetlands in North America. In...

A radical new reading of eighteenth-century British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus, which recovers diverse ideas about subsistence production and environments later eclipsed by classical economics. With the publication of Essay on the Principle of Population and its projection of food shortages in the face of ballooning populations, British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus secured a leading role in modern political and...

A definitive history of ideas about land redistribution, allied political movements, and their varied consequences around the world “An epic work of breathtaking scope and moral power, The Long Land War offers the definitive account of the rise and fall of land rights around the world over the last 150 years.” —Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and...

James C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit. A New Yorker Best Book of the Year "Informative, enjoyable, and provocative. . . . Scott's [prose] is dry, clear, and scalding with moral purpose." - Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post In Praise of Floods presents rivers, on a long view,...

A fascinating examination of "tuberous associations"—the economies, politics, and ecologies enabled by human-tuber interactions. The world is much more tuberous than most people know. From the millions of smallholder peasants cultivating tuber plants to the teams of scientists mapping potato genomic information to the industrial manufacturers selecting the best varieties for producing French fries, life unfolds in a tuber-enabled environment....

A captivating exploration of presence and place told through the stories and insights of small farmers who, despite intense adversity, continue caring for their land. Love for the Land investigates the power and potential of people-place relationships. Through clear and compelling prose, it elevates the virtues of imagination, affection, and fidelity—concepts promoted by farmer-writer Wendell Berry—and shows how they motivate...