First Published 1975, The Latin American Peasant is not a historian’s book, the presentation is rather sociological in that it seeks to explain the working out of a process of social transformation and the social forces which are released by the pursuit of common interests by social entities such as classes and territorial groups, and the pursuit of a vision of livelihood by individuals and families. The peasant, in the sense of this book, is the agricultural producer and cottage craftsman of pre industrial and partially industrial societies, who produces for the provisioning of his own household, and for market exchange, and lives in land groups. The concept peasant, taken as equivalent of the word campesino or campones, does have both historical and geographical reality in the Latin American context. The book discusses important themes such as land labor institutions in Latin America; peasant action; the transformation of the estate; peasants and revolution in Bolivia; and peasant organization and peasant destinies. This this is an important book for scholars and researchers of Latin American sociology, rural sociology, historical sociology and sociology in general.

The essays in this collection examine agrarian transformation in Latin America and the role in this of peasants, with particular reference to Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Brazil and Central America. Among the issues covered are the impact of globalization and neo-liberal economic policies.

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.