Peru: Letters from Shepherds’ union bulletin

Peasants And Poverty, A Study of Haiti by Mats Lundahl. London: Croom Helm; New York: St Martin's Press; 1979. Pp. 699; £19.95

Rural Sociology in the Soviet Union. Its History and Basic Concepts by Terence M. Cox: London: C. Hurst &; Co., 1979. Pp. 106, £7.50.

Peasant Farming in Muscovy by R. E. F. Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Pp. xii + 289, 11 plates. £10.50

Rural Rebels: A Study of Two Protest Movements in Kenya by A. Wipper, Nairobi, London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Pp. xiv + 363. £7.25.

Food Aid and the Developing World by Christopher Stevens, London: Croom Helm, 1979. Pp. 224. £9.95

Research in Economic Anthropology: a research annual Volume 2, edited by George Dalton. Connecticut: Jai Press Inc., 1979, Pp. xi + 390.     

A comment on Meillassoux and some notions about an agricultural state

Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750–1911 by Wang Yeh‐chien. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973. Pp. xiii + 172, 36 tables, 7 figures.

An Estimate of the Land‐Tax Collection in China, 1753 and 1908 by Wang Yeh‐chien. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973. Pp. xi + 57, 27 tables.

Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism and Lineages of the Absolutist State by Perry Anderson. New Left Books, 1974; pp. 304, £5.00 and pp. 573, £8.50.

Contrasting Communities: English Villages in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Margaret Spufford. Cambridge University Press, 1974. Pp. xxiii + 374, maps, tables, graphs; £7.70.     

Where angels fear to tread?: ‘Third world women’ and ‘development’

Male Bias in the Development Process, edited by Diane Elson. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991. Pp.viii + 215. £29.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 7190 2555 9

Gender, Development and Identity: An Ethiopian Study, by Helen Pankhurst. London: Zed Books, 1992. Pp.216. £29.95 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 157 9 and 158 7

Where Women are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India, by Kalima Rose. London: Zed Books, 1992. Pp.286. £32.95 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 083 1084 X

In debates between feminists from South and North it has been argued that Western feminists implicitly disparage ‘third world women’ by representing them as ‘sexually oppressed’. Further, it has been argued, ‘third world women's’ political struggles are trivialised when these women are discursively homogenised. It is argued here that while there is some truth in these assertions. Southern feminists should beware of cultural ‘fundamentalism’. However, their emphasis on the importance of socio‐cultural analysis is applauded, especially if we are to understand Southern economic contexts. Socio‐cultural analyses do not lead away from economic issues: they provide more explanatory variables and more complex models.     

Popular literature in seventeenth‐century England

This article is an extended review of Margaret Spufford's Small Books and Pleasant Histories, an account of the English chapbook. It argues that while Spufford has made an interesting attempt to penetrate the world of seventeenth‐century English popular culture, she is, in the final analysis, unsuccessful. Spufford's account of the chapbook is compared with recent work on other popular literary forms, and it is suggested that Small Books and Pleasant Histories does not always ask the right questions.

Small Books and Pleasant Histories. Popular fiction and its readership in seventeenth‐century Englandby Margaret Spufford. London: Methuen, 1981. Pp. xxi + 275, Index; £14.95 (hardback).     

Plantations and modes of exploitation

Persistent Poverty. Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World by George L. Beckford. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1972. Pp. xxvii + 303, Index; £3.45 (hardback) and £1.40 (paperback).     

We are all hybrids now: The dangerous epistemology of post‐colonial populism

This review article considers the political effects of the construction by postcolonial/postmodern theory of an emancipatory project embodying an alternative modernity. It is argued that, in the case of the north Indian peasantry, what is perceived as a subaltern hybridity entails a paradoxical combination: namely, science‐driven technology with an irrational, pre‐scientific worldview. The latter elements, according to postcolonial theory, correspond not just to an authentically indigenous knowledge emanating from an undifferentiated ‘people’ but also to the way in which in non‐Western societies resist the continuing dominance exercised by erstwhile colonial masters through a system of Enlightenment/Western values. Epistemologically, however, such a backwards‐looking critique of science, technology and development has much in common with the discourse of the political right.

Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India, by Akhil Gupta. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xv + 407. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 2243 7

Rivalry and Brotherhood: Politics in the Life of Farmers in Northern India, by Dipankar Gupta. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp.230. £12.99 (hardback). ISBN 019564 1019

Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism: The Return of the Agrarian Myth, by Tom Brass. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000. Pp.xii + 380. £18.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 71468000 1     

Old conservatism in ‘new’ clothes

This review article considers two books about development theory and practice informed by what is variously referred to as an ‘impasse'/'post‐impasse'/'post‐Marxist’ framework. The latter, its adherents maintain, is a new approach to development that transcends economic reductionism and instead recognises/celebrates cultural ‘difference’, ‘diversity’ and ‘choice’. By contrast, it is argued here that many of the allegedly ‘new’ claims/arguments advanced by the postmodern ‘impasse’ are those traditionally made not just by populism but also by conservatism.

Beyond the Impasse: New Directions in Development Theory, edited by F.J. Schuurman. London: Zed Books, 1993. Pp.ix + 233. £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 2109

Rethinking Social Development: Theory, Research and Practice, edited by D. Booth. Harlow: Longman Scientific & Technical, 1994. Pp.ix + 319. £19.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 582 234972     

Book reviews

Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels against Modernity in Late Imperial China, by Roxann Prazniak. Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Pp.xiii + 305. £50/US$69 (hardback); £18.95/US$24.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8476 9006 7 and 9007 5

Images of the Medieval Peasant, by Paul Freedman. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. Pp.xix + 459. £37.50/US$65 (hardback); £13.95/US$22.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8047 3372 4 and 3373 2

’Ir aigen libertet’: Waldburg, Habsburg und der bäuerliche Widerstandan der oberen Donau 1590–1790, by Martin Zürn (Oberschwaben ‐ Geschichte und Kultur 2). Tubingen: Bibliotheca Academica, 1998. Pp.814. DM78 (hardback). ISBN 3 928471 15 5

Economics of Marketable Surplus Supply: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis for China by Ping Zong and John Davis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Pp.xiv + 206. £42 (hardback). ISBN 1 84014 335 5

Cadres and Kin: Making a Socialist Village in West China, 1921–1991 by Gregory A. Ruff. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp.xix + 249. £30AJS$49.50 (hardback). ISBN 08047 3377 5     

Book reviews

Moral Economy and Popular Protest: Crowds, Conflict and Authority, edited by Adrian Randall and Andrew Charlesworth. Basingstoke/New York: Macmillan/St. Martin's Press, 2000. Pp. xiv + 280. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 333 67184/0 312 22592 X.

French Peasant Fascism: Henry Dorgeres's Creenshirts and the Crises of French Agriculture, 1929–1939, by Robert O. Paxton. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp.xii + 244. US$45 (hardback). ISBN 0 19 511188 5 and 89 3.

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries: Models, Methods and Policy, edited by Lawrence Haddad, John Hoddinott and Harold Alderman. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, on behalf of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Pp.xii + 341. US$66 (cloth). ISBN 0 8018 5572 1

The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy, by Neil Harvey. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 292. £34 (hardback): £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 2209 9 and 2238 2

Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980–1995, edited by Steve J. Stern. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xiv +532 pages. £44 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 2201 3 and 2217 X

Services and Quality of Life in Rural Villages in the Former Soviet Union: Data from 1991 and 1993, by David J. O'Brien, Valerie V. Patsiorkovski, Larry D. Dershem, Alessandro Bonanno and Charles Timberlake, Lanham, MD and Oxford: University Press of America, 1998. Pp.289. Hb. ISBN 0 7618 0954 6. No price.

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James.C. Scott. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 445. US$35 (hardback). ISBN 0 300 07016 0

Kinship, Honour and Money in Pakistan: Subsistence Economy and the Effects of International Migration, by Alain Lefebvre. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. Pp.xiv + 303. £40. ISBN 0 7007 0984 3

Controlling Misbehaviour in England, 1370–1600, by Marjorie Keniston McIntosh (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 289. £40/US$59.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 521 62177 1     

Ireland 1785–1795

The Changing Peasantry of Eastern Europe by Joseph Obrebski, edited by Joel &; Barbara Halpern. Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976. Pp. 102. $11.25 (cloth), $5.95 (paper).

The Green Flag, Polish Populist Politics, 1867–1970, by Olga A. Narkiewicz. Croom Helm Ltd., London, 1976, Pp. 313. (index and bibliography). £7.95.

Agrarian Reform and Peasant Organisation on the Ecuadorian Coast, by M. R. Redclift, University of London, Institue of Latin American Studies Monographs 8, London: The Athlone Press, 1978, Pp. xi 186, £8.

Jhagrapur: Poor Peasants and Women in a Village in Bangladesh by Jenneke Arens and Jos van Beurden, Amsterdam, 1977. Pp. 189. Np.

Wort und Begriff ‘Bauer’. Zusammenfassender Bericht über die Kolloquien der Kommission für die Altertumskunde Mìttel‐ und Nordeuropas edited by Reinhard Wenskus, Herbert Jankuhn and Klaus Grinda. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &; Ruprecht, 1975. Pp. 262. DM 69.00.     

The Agrarian question in Mexico: Debate in a Cul‐de‐Sac

The theme of this review essay is Mexico's unresolved agrarian question and the possibility of a distinct ‘Mexican Road’. Four books on the Mexican peasantry are considered: in turn, by John Gledhill, Jonathan Fox, Frank Cancian and Roger Bartra. They all deal with the relationships that connect that peasantry to the Mexican state within a tradition of rural development that has been punctuated and characterised by revolution and state‐building agrarian reform. It is argued that our understanding of the agrarian question in Mexico continues to be bogged down by unfocused monographs on the one hand (the books by the first three of the authors named) and schematic assumptions on the other (as exemplified by Bartra); and that much research needs to be done before the ‘Mexican Road’ can be seen as an accepted option among substantive agrarian alternatives. That research needs to appraise two assumptions frequently made: first, that the hacienda economy was pre‐capitalist; and secondly, that the agrarian programme in Mexico ushered in the rural transition to capitalism.

Casi Nada: A Study of Agrarian Reform in the Homeland of Cardenismo, by John Gledhill, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1991. Pp.xv + 420. NP. ISBN 968 7230 68 1

The Politics of Food in Mexico, by Jonathan Fox. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1993. Pp.xii + 280. $43.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8014 2716 9

The Decline of Community in Zinacantdn, by Frank Cancian. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. Pp.xxi + 300. $42.50 (hardback) ISBN 0 8047 2040 1

Agrarian Structure and Political Power in Mexico, by Roger Bartra. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp.xvii + 221. £37 (hardback); £12.50 (paperback) ISBN 0 80184 4398 7 and 4542 4     

The ‘other’ Agrarian transition? Structure,institutions and agency in sustainable rural development

This essay reviews some of the new literature on the transition to sustainable rural development (SRD). By considering various accounts of environmental degradation, its links with poverty and aspects of the agenda for SRD, the essay notes an ambiguity regarding the role of the state, which is held, in this literature, as culpable for environmental degradation, as well as given a substantial role, implicitly or explicitly, in making the transition to SRD. This ambiguity is shown via an analysis of the treatments written from historical, socio‐cultural and political economy perspectives, from which the essay draws the theme of state‐class relations, arguing a central position for these relations in SRD agendas. The essay concludes with an argument for a move to create a framework of analysis which takes into account not only public policy but also political economy and popular politics.

State, Society and the Environment in South Asia, edited by Stig Toft Madsen: Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Richmond, 1999. Pp.xi + 337. £40 (hardback). ISBN 0 7007 0614 3

Sustainable Rural Development, by Andrew Shepherd. Basingstoke and New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp.x + 294. £40 (hardback); £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 333 664 841 and 664 85X

Sustainability, Growth and Poverty Alleviation, edited by Stephen A. Vosti and Thomas Reardon. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Pp.xxii + 407. £45.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 8018 5607 8

River of Sorrow: Environment and Social Control in Riparian North India, 1770–1994, by Christopher V. Hill. Ann Arbor, MI: Association of Asian Studies (Monograph and Occasional Papers Series No.55), 1998. Pp.xii + 200. $33 (hardback). ISBN 0 924304 36 7

Forest Use and Management in Japan and India: A Comparative Study, by K.N. Ninan. Tokyo: Institute for Developing Economies (V.R.F. Monograph Series No.286), 1996. Pp.v + 123. NP (pb). No ISBN     

Excursions into political economy of health

S.M. Hillier and J. A. Jewell, Health Care and Traditional Medicine in China 1800–1982, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. Pp.xix + 452; £25.00.

D. Banerji, Poverty, Class and Health Culture in India (Vol.1), New Delhi: Prachi Prakashan, 1982. Pp.x + 309; Rs.100.

W.A. Zaman, Public Participation in Development and Health Programs: Lessons from Rural Bangladesh, London and New York: University Press of America, 1984. Pp.xix + 291; £15.15. (paperback).

J.K. van Ginneken and A.S. Muller (eds.), Maternal and Child Health in Rural Kenya: An Epidemiological Study, Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm, 1984. Pp.viii + 373; £15.95.

The expression ‘political economy of health’ has quite different implications to scholars working within differing paradigms. The range of interpretations is apparent from an overview of work in this field in recent years. Two studies of singular importance for the student of health politics and health care in Asia are singled out for detailed review: one on China, the other on India. The reviewer also raises the question as to how far health education has been seen in the radical tradition as contributory towards the process of politicisation in peasant societies: here the literature is more scattered and a deeper analysis would be well repaid.     

Gender and Change: agency,chronology and periodisation ALEXANDRA SHEPARD & GARTHINE WALKER

The following books are reviewed.

Unequal Sisters: a multicultural reader in US women's history ELLEN CAROL DUBOIS &; VICKI L. RUIZ (Eds∥, 1990 New York: Routledge. xvi + 473pp, paperback £12.99, hardback £40.00

The Bluestocking Circle: women, friendship, and the life of the mind in eighteenth-century England SYLVIA HARCSTARK MYERS, 1990 Oxford: Clarendon Press. xvi + 342 pp., £35.00

Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 1650-1838 BARBARA BUSH, 1990 James Currey (London), in conjunction with Heinemann (Kingston) and Indiana University Press (Bloomington). v + 190pp., paperback £8.95, hardback £25.00.

The Muses of Resistance: labouring-class women's poetry in Britain, 1739-96 DONNA LANDRY, 1990 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. x + 325 pp., £30.00.

Theorizing Patriarchy SYLVIA WALBY, 1990 Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 229 pp., £10.95

Women in an Industrialising Society, 1750-1880 JANE RENDALL, 1990 Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 112 pp., £4.95

Women and Industrialisation: gender at work in nineteenth century England JUDY LOWN, 1990 Cambridge: Polity Press. xi + 260pp., £27.50

Women and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-45 BARBARA JANCAR-WEBSTER, 1990 Denver: Arden Press. xvi + 227 pp., hardback $26.50, paperback $16.95

Getting Smart: feminist research and pedagogy within the postmodern world PATTI LATHER, 1991 London: Routledge. xv + 212 pp., £30.00

Not a Passing Phase: reclaiming lesbians in history, 1840-1985 LESBIAN HISTORY GROUP, 1989 London: The Women's Press. 264 pp., £7.95

Women in Early Modern Ireland MARGARET MACCURTAIN &; MARY O. DOWD, 1991 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. x + 340pp., £35.00

The Best Type of Girl: a history of girls. independent schools GILLIAN AVERY, 1991 London: André Deutsch. xiii + 410 pp., £20.00

Women of the New Mexico Frontier, 1846-1912 CHERYL J. FOOTE, 1990 Niwot: University Press of Colorado. xviii £ 198 pp., $19.95

Feminism and the Family in England, 1880-1939 CAROL DYHOUSE, 1989 Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 204 pp., hardback £29.50, paperback £7.50

Women Engravers PATRICIA JAFFE, 1990 London: Virago Press. 128 pp., many illustrations, £9.99     

Rural impasse in Asia: With and without revolution

Jan Breman, Control of Land and Labour in Colonial Java: A Case of Agrarian Crisis and Reform in the Region of Cirebon during the First Decades of the 20th Century, Verhandelingen of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology (Leiden), No. 101, Dordrecht, 1983. Pp.xi + 159; F1.40,‐.

William Hinton, Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village, New York: Random House, 1983. Pp.xxxiv + 785; $25 (cloth); London: Secker & Warburg, 1983. Pp.xxxix + 785; £25 (cloth); £15.95 (paperback)

In this review article, two books are considered: Jan Breman's Control of Land and Labour in Colonial Java and William Hinton's Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village. They are taken as exemplary discussions of some basic problems faced by densely populated areas in Asia. Indonesia reveals how futile agrarian reforms are where the basic social, political and economic structures are kept intact; China teaches us that even where successful social revolution has taken place the problems remain formidable.     

Before and after Mau Mau in Kenya

Paul Collier and Deepak Lal, Labour and Poverty in Kenya, 1900–1980, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. Pp.296. £27.50.

Tabitha Kanogo, Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, London: James Currey, 1987. Pp.206. £25 and £8.95.

David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau, 1945–1953, London: James Currey, 1987. Pp.304. £25 and £8.95.

The author discusses three books on Kenya. Tabitha Kanogo's Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau and Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau by David Throup examine why there was agrarian revolt in Kenya during the 1940s and 1950s. This article raises questions about tragedy and community, the two key ideas upon which the two books rest. Another text, Labour and Poverty in Kenya, 1900–1980 by Paul Collier and Deepak Lal, proponents of the new liberal attack on development, is also reviewed. It is argued that Collier and Lal fail to grasp the basis of state intervention to support schemes of peasant production.     

The manifesto of the North American anti‐fascist alliance,New York,august 26, 1926

Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South, By Ira Berlin. New York: Pantheon Books, 1974. xxi, 423 pp. $15.00.

Rights of Union Members and the Government. By Philip Taft. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1975. xv, 348 pp. $14.95.

The Hundred Million Dollar Pay Off. By Douglas Caddy. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974. $8.75.

Mother Jones—The Miners’ Angel: A Portrait. By Dale Fetherling. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1974. 263 pp. $11.85

A Guide to the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. Compiled and edited by Warner W. Pflug. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1974. 195 pp. $8.95.

MAN!: An Anthology of Anarchist Ideas, Essays, Poetry and Commentaries. Edited by Marcus Graham. London: Genfuegos Press, 1974. 638 pp. £7.00 ($17.00), paperback £ 3.25p ($8.00).

Confrontation at Winnipeg: Labour, Industrial Relations, and the General Strike. By David Jay Bercuson. Montreal and London: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1974. pp. x, 227.

English Hunger &; Industrial Disorders: A Study of Social Conflict During the First Decade of George III's Reign. By Walter James Shelton. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973. ix, 226 pp. $15.00.

Edwardian Radicalism, 1900–1914: Some Aspects of British Radicalism. Edited by A.J.A. Morris. Boston: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1974. x, 277 pp. $18.00.

Les Ouvriers en grève. By Michelle Perrot. Paris: Mouton, 1974. 2 volumes. 900 pp.

The Import of Labor: The case of the Netherlands. By Adriana Marshall. Rotterdam: Rotterdam University Press, 1973. 177 pp.

The Chinese Worker. By Charles Hoffmann. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1974. xi, 252 pp. $15.00.     

Classical Greek agriculture: Recent work and alternative views

When the economic basis of a great civilisation is at issue, historians are bound to disagree strongly, and controversy can only be intensified when the available primary evidence is inadequate in both quantity and quality. Such is the case with the recent study of agriculture in the ancient Greek world. The two very different general books under review here nicely complement each other both in scope and approach, and provide an excellent introduction to the many unresolved, and too often irresolvable, questions concerning the ideology and practice, political, economic, social and religious, of ancient Greek agriculture.

Ancient Greek Agriculture: An Introduction, by Signe Isager and Jens Erik Skydsgaard. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Pp.x + 234. £40 (hardback). ISBN 0 415 00164 1

Land and Labour in the Greek World, by Alison Burford. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp.x + 290. £28.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 8018 4463 0     

Rural living conditions in pre‐liberation China: A survey of three recent studies

The degree of poverty and immiseration among China's rural population prior to 1949 has been a subject of much debate for many years. Three authors ‐ Brandt (1989), Faure (1989) and Huang (1990) ‐ have rekindled the debate by their diverse conclusions in their new books. While each of the studies have their conceptual and argumentative flaws, taken as a group they reveal that conditions in pre‐Liberation China were extremely complex and varied. As a result, the notion of making categorical statements regarding pre‐Liberation China loses credibility.

Commercialization and Agricultural Development: Central and Eastern China 1870–1937, by Loren Brandt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xiii + 232. £30.00/$42.50 (hardback). ISBN0521 371961

The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350–1988, by Philip C.C. Huang. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. Pp.xiv + 421. $49.50 (hardback); $16.95 (paperback). ISBN 0847 1787 and 1788 5

The Rural Economy of Pre‐Liberation China: Trade Increase and Peasant Livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, 1870 to 1937, by David Faure. Hongkong: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp.xiv + 283. £22.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 19 582707 4     

Community,citizenship and the maligned state in modernising mexico

The fashion for ‘subaltern studies’ has taken researchers back to the archive and field in search of social agents both marginalised and forgotten. In Mexico this has entailed an exacting task of reconstructing the lives of Indians and peasants on the remote frontiers of state influence. The books reviewed here are worthy examples of this project. They offer illuminating glimpses of the ways in which such semi‐autonomous societies experienced the extension of state rule as modern Mexico emerged painfully as a nation. If they are to be faulted it is in the emphasis they place on ‘the People's’ resistance to assimilation, implicitly heroic, whilst casting a rather contemporary light, often explicitly pejorative, on to the efforts of those other agents whose efforts were directed at the creation of a uniform citizenship.

Wandering Peoples: Colonialism, Ethnic Spaces, and Ecological Frontiers in Northwestern Mexico, 1700–1850, by Cynthia Radding. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1997. Pp.xx + 403. £57.50 (hardback); £17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 1907 1 and 1899 7

Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution, and Gender on Mexico's Northern Frontier, by Ana Maria Alonso. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1995. Pp.xi + 303. $45 (hardback); $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8165 1511 5 and 1574 3

Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930–40, by Mary Kay Vaughan. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1997. Pp.xiii + 262. $45 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8165 1675 8 and 1676 6