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Tiny Engines of Abundance

A History of Peasant Productivity and Repression
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Tiny Engines of Abundance offers a historical and comparative study of peasant productivity through vivid case studies from diverse regions such as England, Jamaica, Guatemala, Nigeria, and Kerala. The book highlights the remarkable efficiency of small-scale farmers who sustainably cultivate limited parcels of land to support their families and local markets. It challenges prevailing narratives that have, for two centuries, justified dispossession and industrial agriculture in the name of progress and modernity.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4199
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in the history of peasantry, rural development, agroecology, and food sovereignty.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Food production by small peasant farmers is both more productive and sustainable then food produced by corporate agriculture.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This book provides a historical and comparative perspective of peasant productivity using case studies portraying the extraordinary efficiency with which English cottagers, Jamaican ex-slaves, Guatemalan Mayan campesinos, Nigerian hill farmers, and Kerala hut dwellers obtained bountiful and diversified harvests from small parcels of land, provisioning for their families and often local markets.

These stories provide us with pictures of carefully limited needs, of sustainable livelihoods, and of resilient self-reliance attacked relentlessly and mercilessly in the name of capital, progress, development, modernity, and/or the state.

For two hundred years we have been told that the hundreds of thousands, or millions, or billions of hungry mouths require that peasants be dispossessed to allow more industrious farmers to feed them. This book helps make it clear how wrong we have been.

Handy's approach is original, and the book will engage people interested in the history of the peasantry, rural development, and the quest for food sovereignty.

Tiny Engines of Abundance offers insightful perspectives for those keen on understanding the dynamics of sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised by Miguel A. Altieri, emeritus professor of agroecology, the book is acclaimed for debunking the longstanding myth that industrial farming is necessary to feed the world. It compellingly illustrates how peasant livelihoods have been undermined and makes a strong case for food sovereignty. Essential reading for those concerned with agriculture and rural development.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781773635217

Publisher: Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 May 2022

Country: Canada

Imprint: Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 1.0mm

Width: 14.0mm

Height: 22.0mm

Weight: 198g

Pages: 160

About the Author

Jim Handy is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. He has written extensively on Guatemalan history and more generally on peasant economies, agrarian reform and political economy. He has been president of the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, which awarded him a Distinguished Fellow recognition in 2015, particularly for his contribution to graduate student training. He has received numerous teaching awards and the J.W. George Ivany Internationalization Award by the University of Saskatchewan.

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