This is the first world history of peasants. Peasants in World History analyzes the multiple transformations of peasant life through history by focusing on three primary areas: the organization of peasant societies, their integration within wider societal structures, and the changing connections between local, regional and global processes. Peasants have been a vital component in human history over the last 10,000 years, with nearly one-third of the world’s population still living a peasant lifestyle today. Their role as rural producers of ever-new surpluses instigated complex and often-opposing processes of social and spatial change throughout the world. Eric Vanhaute frames this social change in a story of evolving peasant frontiers. These frontiers provide a global comparative-historical lens to look at the social, economic and ecological changes within village-systems, agrarian empires and global capitalism. Bringing the story of the peasantry up through the modern period and looking to the future, the author offers a succinct overview with students in mind. This book is recommended reading to anyone interested in the history and future of peasantries and is a valuable addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in World History, Global Economic History, Global Studies and Rural Sociology.

In 2007, for the first time in human history, a majority of the world’s population lived in cities. However, on a global scale, poverty overwhelmingly retains a rural face. This book assembles an unparalleled group of internationally-eminent scholars in the field of rural development and social change in order to explore historical and contemporary processes of agrarian change and transformation and their consequent impact upon the livelihoods, poverty and well-being of those who live in the countryside. The book provides a critical analysis of the extent to which rural development trajectories have in the past and are now promoting a change in rural production processes, the accumulation of rural resources, and shifts in rural politics, and the implications of such trajectories for peasant livelihoods and rural workers in an era of globalization. Peasants and Globalization thus explores continuity and change in the debate on the ‘agrarian question’, from its early formulation in the late 19th century to the continuing relevance it has in our times, including chapters from Terence Byres, Amiya Bagchi, Ellen Wood, Farshad Araghi, Henry Bernstein, Saturnino M Borras, Ray Kiely, Michael Watts and Philip McMichael. Collectively, the contributors argue that neoliberal social and economic policies have, in deepening the market imperative governing the contemporary world food system, not only failed to tackle to underlying causes of rural poverty but have indeed deepened the agrarian crisis currently confronting the livelihoods of peasant farmers and rural workers. This crisis does not go unchallenged, as rural social movements have emerged, for the first time, on a transnational scale. Confronting development policies that are unable to reduce, let alone eliminate, rural poverty, transnational rural social movements are attempting to construct a more just future for the world’s farmers and rural workers.

Coffee from East Africa, wine from California, chocolate from the Ivory Coast - all those every day products are based on labour, often produced under appalling conditions, but always involving the combination of various work processes we are often not aware of. What is the day-to-day reality for workers in various parts of the world, and how was it in the past? How do they work today, and how did they work in the past? These and many other questions comprise the field of the global history of work – a young discipline that is introduced with this handbook. In 8 thematic chapters, this book discusses these aspects of work in a global and long term perspective, paying attention to several kinds of work. Convict labour, slave and wage labour, labour migration, and workers of the textile industry, but also workers' organisation, strikes, and motivations for work are part of this first handbook of global labour history, written by the most renowned scholars of the profession.

This practical handbook is designed to help anyone who is preparing to teach a world history course - or wants to teach it better. It includes contributions by experienced teachers who are reshaping world history education, and features new approaches to the subject as well as classroom-tested practices that have markedly improved world history teaching.

World's Greatest Historical Books: SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN/COLONIALISM IN INDIA/THE STORY OF TAJ MAHAL by Rajendra Prasad; Ram Chandra Pradhan; Jayprakash Chowksey: This extraordinary compilation brings together three significant historical works that delve into pivotal events and landmarks in Indian history. From the nonviolent resistance movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran to the exploration of India's colonial past and the enchanting tale of the Taj Mahal, these books offer profound insights into the nation's rich heritage and cultural heritage. Key Aspects of the Book "World's Greatest Historical Books: SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN/COLONIALISM IN INDIA/THE STORY OF TAJ MAHAL": Satyagraha in Champaran: Rajendra Prasad's account sheds light on the historic Satyagraha movement in Champaran, where Mahatma Gandhi employed nonviolent civil disobedience to support indigo farmers against oppressive British policies. Colonialism in India: Ram Chandra Pradhan provides an insightful exploration of India's colonial history, analyzing its impact on the nation's socio-political landscape and the struggle for independence. The Story of Taj Mahal: Jayprakash Chowksey's book weaves the captivating narrative of the Taj Mahal, unraveling its architectural brilliance and the love story behind this iconic monument. Rajendra Prasad, a prominent leader and statesman, was the first President of independent India. His involvement in the Champaran Satyagraha marked the beginning of his active participation in the freedom movement. Prasad's relentless pursuit of justice and equal rights earned him immense respect and admiration from the Indian masses. Ram Chandra Pradhan was a distinguished historian and author known for his extensive research on India's colonial era. His works contributed significantly to the understanding of British colonial policies and their repercussions on the Indian subcontinent. Pradhan's scholarly contributions earned him recognition both nationally and internationally. Jayprakash Chowksey was a renowned writer and historian, passionate about preserving India's cultural heritage. Through his book on the Taj Mahal, Chowksey brought to life the romantic tale behind the world-renowned monument, enchanting readers with its historical and architectural significance.

An unprecedented undertaking by academics reflecting an extraordinary vision of world history, this landmark multivolume encyclopedia focuses on specific themes of human development across cultures era by era, providing the most in-depth, expansive presentation available of the development of humanity from a global perspective. Well-known and widely respected historians worked together to create and guide the project in order to offer the most up-to-date visions available. A monumental undertaking. A stunning academic achievement. ABC-CLIO's World History Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive work to take a large-scale thematic look at the human species worldwide. Comprised of 21 volumes covering 9 eras, an introductory volume, and an index, it charts the extraordinary journey of humankind, revealing crucial connections among civilizations in different regions through the ages. Within each era, the encyclopedia highlights pivotal interactions and exchanges among cultures within eight broad thematic categories: population and environment, society and culture, migration and travel, politics and statecraft, economics and trade, conflict and cooperation, thought and religion, science and technology. Aligned to national history standards and packed with images, primary resources, current citations, and extensive teaching and learning support, the World History Encyclopedia gives students, educators, researchers, and interested general readers a means of navigating the broad sweep of history unlike any ever published.

A detailed reconstruction of peasant society in early modern Germany, focusing on the lands of the Benedictine monastery of Ottobeuren. Based on a mass of archival data, the book argues that the German rural economy performed much better than has previously been believed.

This collection of essays, first published in 1986, provides an exciting introduction to modern German agrarian history. The essays offer a revised account of the agricultural sector in an industrial Germany, and provide an extensive methodological, conceptual and thematic range. This collection challenges accepted interpretations, suggests some alternatives and at the same time offers a context in which new questions can be posed and answers can be sought.

This volume brings together 25 defining texts in global history. These pieces cover approaches to the subject from antiquity to the present century and, taken together, show the development of the discipline, providing a solid historiographical, theoretical and methodological overview that will be invaluable for students. The collection gives a unique sense of how, at different times, in different cultural circumstances, students of the past have approached the problems of encompassing the world in a single narrative or theory. This is a reader with an implicit story to unfold. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto tracks how a global understanding of history originated in prophetic writings, how the “Renaissance discovery of the world” multiplied the opportunities for historians to think about history globally, how scientific investigations of change came to exert influence and inspire new thinking among global historians, how “culture wars” ensued between advocates of scientistic and culturalist models and how changing contexts in the 20th century produced new thematic approaches to the world as a whole. Each part is introduced, setting it in context and explaining the impact of its subject matter on the discipline, as well as the relations between the texts and their place in the overall development of global history.

In The Postcolonial State in Africa, Crawford Young offers an informed and authoritative comparative overview of fifty years of African independence, drawing on his decades of research and first-hand experience on the African continent. Young identifies three cycles of hope and disappointment common to many of the African states (including those in North Africa) over the last half-century: initial euphoria at independence in the 1960s followed by disillusionment with a lapse into single-party autocracies and military rule; a period of renewed confidence, radicalization, and ambitious state expansion in the 1970s preceding state crisis and even failure in the disastrous 1980s; and a phase of reborn optimism during the continental wave of democratization beginning around 1990. He explores in depth the many African civil wars--especially those since 1990--and three key tracks of identity: Africanism, territorial nationalism, and ethnicity. Only more recently, Young argues, have the paths of the fifty-three African states begun to diverge more dramatically, with some leading to liberalization and others to political, social, and economic collapse--outcomes impossible to predict at the outset of independence. "This book is the best volume to date on the politics of the last 50 years of African independence."--International Affairs "The book shares Young's encyclopedic knowledge of African politics, providing in a single volume a comprehensive rendering of the first 50 years of independence. The book is sprinkled with anecdotes from his vast experience in Africa and that of his many students, and quotations from all of the relevant literature published over the past five decades. Students and scholars of African politics alike will benefit immensely from and enjoy reading The Postcolonial State in Africa."--Political Science Quarterly "The study of African politics will continue to be enriched if practitioners pay homage to the erudition and the nobility of spirit that has anchored the engagement of this most esteemed doyen of Africanists with the continent."--African History Review "The book's strongest attribute is the careful way that comparative political theory is woven into historical storytelling throughout the text. . . . Written with great clarity even for all its detail, and its interwoven use of theory makes it a great choice for new students of African studies."--Australasian Review of African Studies