A fresh interdisciplinary analysis of rural society and agrarian issues
 
This book presents an account of an intellectual breakthrough in the study of rural society and agriculture. Its ten chapters, selected for their originality and synthesis from the colloquia of the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University, encompass various disciplines, diverse historical periods, and several regions of the world. The contributors’ fresh analyses will broaden the perspectives of readers with interests as wide-ranging as rural sociology, environmentalism, political science, history, anthropology, economics, and art history.
 
The ten studies recast and expand what is known about rural society and agrarian issues, examining such topics as poverty, subsistence, cultivation, ecology, justice, art, custom, law, ritual life, cooperation, and state action. Each contribution provides a point of departure for new study, encouraging deeper thinking across disciplinary boundaries and frontiers.

“This volume is both demanding and rewarding. It transgresses disciplinary boundaries, supplementing disciplinary approaches to nationalism, tensions of empire, and postcolonial dilemmas. It has a great deal to offer researchers in agrarian societies undergoing processes of capitalist, colonial, and postcolonial change.”—Joan Vincent, Current Anthropology

“A distinctive and distinguished collection, this volume includes the best work from the most interesting agrarian scholars.”—James C. McCann, Boston University

James C. Scott (1936–2024) was Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale University. His many books include Seeing Like a State, The Art of Not Being Governed, and Against the Grain. Nina Bhatt has worked as rural sociologist for the World Bank in Nepal and Washington, D.C., and as micro-enterprise consultant for the Ford Foundation in India.