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     

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     

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     

Holy Motherhood: gender,dynasty, and visual culture in the later Middle Ages ELIZABETH L'ESTRANGE

The following books are reviewed.

Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: the rise of Women's political culture, 1830-1900 KATHRYN KISH SKLAR, 1995 New Haven: Yale University Press. xviii + 436 pp., ISBN 0 300 05912 4, $25

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: her progress toward utopia with selected writings CAROL FARLEY KESSLER, 1995 Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. xi +316 pp., ISBN 0 8156 2644 4, hardback, £27.50, ISBN 0 8156 2644 5, paperback, £15

Always a Sister: the feminism of Lillian D. Wald DORIS GROSHEN DANIELS, 1995 New York: The Feminist Press. x +207 pp., ISBN 1 55861 113 4, paperback,$12.95

Good Enough Mothering? Feminist Perspectives on Lone Motherhood ELIZABETH BORTOLAIA SILVA (Ed.), 1996 London: Routledge. ix + 241 pp., ISBN 0 415 12889 7, hardback, £47.50, ISBN 0 415 12890 0, paperback, £14.99

The Case for Women in Medieval Culture ALCUIN BLAMIRES, 1997 Oxford: Clarendon Press. viii + 279 pp., ISBN 0 19 818256 2, £40.00

Midwives, Society and Childbirth: debates and controversies in the modern period HILARY MARLAND &; ANNE-MARIE RAFFERTY (Eds), 1997 London: Routledge. xiii + 278pp., ISBN 0 415 13328 9, hardback, £50.00

Black British Feminism: a reader HEIDI SAFIA MIRZA (Ed.), 1997 York: Routledge. xiv + 297pp., paperback, £14.99

Dear Laughing Motorbyke: letters from women welders of the Second World War MARGARETTA JOLLY (Ed.), 1997 London: Scarlet Press. x + 174pp., paperback, £9.99

Women, Guerrillas, and Love: understanding war in Central America ILEANA RODRÍGUEZ, 1996 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. xxv + 183pp., $19.95

The New Woman: fiction and feminism at the fin-de-siécle SALLY LEDGER, 1997 Manchester: Manchester University Press. vii + 216pp., ISBN 0 7190 4092 2, hardback, £35, ISBN 0 7190 4093, paperback, £13.99

Single Mothers in an International Context: mothers or workers? SIMON DUNCAN &; ROSALIND EDWARDS (Eds), 1997 London: UCL Press. ix + 285 pp., ISBN 1 85728 791 6, paperback, £13.95

Moving the Goalposts: a history of sport and society since 1945 MARTIN POLLEY, 1998 London: Routledge. xii + 236 pp., ISBN 0 415 14217 2, paperback, £12.99

Imagining Home, Gender, ‘Race’ and National Identity, 1945-64 WENDY WEBSTER, 1998 London: UCL Press. 240 pp., ISBN 1 85728 350 3, hardback, £40.00, ISBN 1 8572 8 3511, paperback, £12.95

Faces of Feminism: an activist's reflections on the Women's Movement SHEILA TOBIAS, 1997 Oxford: Westview Press. xvi + 332 pp., ISBN 0 8133 2842 X, hardback, £17.95     

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.     

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     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

The Hammonds: a marriage in history STEWART A. WEAVER, 1999 Stanford: Stanford University Press viii + 349 pp., ISBN 08047 3242 6, hardback, £30 (US$49.50)

Centering Women: gender discourses in Caribbean slave society HILARY McD. BECKLES, 1999 Oxford: James Currey; Kingston: Ian Randle; Princeton: Markus Wiener. xxv + 211 pp., ISBN 976 8123 78 8, £15.95

Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt: a sourcebook JANE ROWLANDSON (Ed.), 1998 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xviii + 406 pp., ISBN 0 521 58212 1, hardback, 0 521 58814 4, paperback

Contesting Politics: women in Ireland, north and south YVONNE GALLIGAN, EILIS WARD & RICK WILFORD (Eds), 1999 Boulder: Westview Press. xv + 278 pp., ISBN 0 8133 3417 9, £17.50

Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: women on Texas cotton farms, 1900–1940 REBECCA SHARPLESS, 1999 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. xxiii + 319 pp., ISBN 0 8078 2456 9, hardback, 0 8078 4760 7, paperback, $19.95

Cato's Tears and the Making of Anglo-American Emotion JULIE ELLISON, 1999 Chicago: University of Chicago Press. xi + 229 pp., ISBN 0 226 20595 9, hardback, $28, 0 226 20596 7, paperback, £11.50

Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the powerful women of early Hollywood CARI BEAUCHAMP, 1997 Berkeley: University of California Press. 475 pp., ISBN 0 520 21492 7, paperback, £11.50

Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: two women's travel narratives of the 1790s DEIRDRE COLEMAN, 1999 London: Leicester University Press. xviii + 247 pp., ISBN 0 7185 0150 0, £17.99

With Women';s Eyes: visitors to the New World, 1775–1918 MARION TINLING, 1999 Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. xvii + 207 pp., ISBN 0 8061 3050 4, £24.50

Broken Silence: voices of Japanese feminism SANDRA BUCKLEY, 1997 Berkeley: University of California Press. xix + 382 pp. ISBN 0 520 08513 2, hardback, 0 520 08514 0, paperback

Conversations in Cold Rooms: women, work and poverty in nineteenth-century Northumberland JANE LONG, 1999 Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Royal Historical Society, Boydell Press. xii +241 pp., ISBN 0 86193 340 4, £40.00

Women in Espionage: a biographical dictionary M.H. MAHONEY, 1993 Santa Barbara: ABC–CLIO. xiii + 253 pp., ISBN 0 87436 743 3, £24.95

In Obedience to Instructions: FANY in the SOE in the Mediterranean MARGARET PAWLEY, 1999 Barnsley: Leo Cooper. xiii + 178 pp., ISBN 0 85052 633 7, £19.95

Enslaved Daughters: colonialism, law and women's rights SUDHIR CHANDRA, 1998 Delhi: Oxford University Press. xi + 249 pp.

English Sexualities, 1700–1800 TIM HITCHCOCK, 1997 Basingstoke: Macmillan. ix + 172 pp., ISBN 0 312 165373–0, hardback, 0 312 16574 9, paperback.

Secret Sexualities: a sourcebook of seventeenth and eighteenth century writing IAN McCORMICK (Ed.), 1997 London: Routledge. ix + 262 pp., ISBN 0 415 13953 8, hardback, £45, 0 415 13954 6, paperback.

Tradition and Liberation: the Hindu tradition in the Indian women's movement CATHERINE A. ROBINSON, 1999 Richmond: Curzon. x + 230 pp., ISBN 0 7007 1143 0.     

Educating Women: schooling and identity in England and France, 1800–1867 CHRISTINA DE BELLAIGUE; Rousseau's Daughters: domesticity,education and autonomy in modern France JENNIFER J. POPIEL

The following books are reviewed.

Women and Gender in Early Modern Wales MICHAEL ROBERTS &; SIMONE CLARKE (Eds), 2000 Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 320 pp., ISBN 0 7083 1550 X, paperback, £14.99; 0 7083 1580 1, hardback, £35.00

Women in Scotland c. 1100–c. 1750 ELIZABETH EWEN &; MAUREEN M. MEIKLE (Eds), 1999 East Linton: Tuckwell Press. 282 pp., ISBN 0 86232 046 2, £14.99

Gendering Scottish History: an international approach TERRY BROTHERSTONE, DEBORAH SIMONTON &; OONAGH WALSH (Eds), 1999 Glasgow: Cruithne Press. xxi + 280 pp., ISBN 1 873448 18 X, hardback, £20.00; 1 873448 16 3, paperback, £10.95

Women, Sexuality and War PHILOMENA GOODMAN New York: Palgrave. xii + 164 pp., ISBN 0 333 76086 7, £42.50

Revealing New Worlds: three Victorian women naturalists SUZANNE LE-MAY SHEFFIELD, 2001 London: Routledge. ISBN 0 415 2706 9, hardback, £65.00

‘Wicked’ Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa Dorothy L. Hodgson &; Sheryl A. McCurdy, 2001 Oxford: James Currey. xiii + 325 pp., ISBN 0 85255 695 0, hardback, £40.00; 0 85255 654 4, paperback, £16.95

‘I Will Not Eat Stone’: a women's history of colonial Asante Jean Allman &; Victoria Tashjian, 2000 Oxford: James Currey. xlvi + 255 pp., ISBN 0 85255 691 8, hardback, £40.00; 0 85255 641 1, paperback, £15.95

‘We Women Worked So Hard’: gender, urbanization and social reproduction in colonial Harare, Zimbabwe, 1930–56 TERESA A. BARNES, 1999 Oxford: James Currey. xlv + 204 pp., ISBN 0 85255 686 1, hardback, £40.00; 0 85255 636 5, paperback, £16.95

Women and Modernity in Weimar Germany: reality and representation in popular fiction VIBEKE RÜTZOU PETERSEN, 2001 Oxford: Berghahn Books. xvi + 184 pp., ISBN 1 57181 154 0, hardback, £20.00; 1 57181 789 1, paperback, £13.95

The Irish Women's History Reader ALAN HAYES &; DIANE URQUHART (Eds), 2001 London: Routledge. xi + 242 pp., ISBN 0 415 19914 X

The Routledge Historical Atlas of Women in America SANDRA OPDYCKE, 2000 New York: Routledge. 144 pp., ISBN 0 415 92138 4, £10.99

What American Women Did, 1789–1920 LINDA MILES COPPENS, 2001 Jefferson, NC: McFarland &; Company. ix + 259 pp., ISBN 0 7864 0899 5, £36.60

Favorite Dishes: a Columbian autograph souvenir cookery book CARRIE V. SHUMAN (Ed.), 2001 (reprinted from an 1893 edition) Champaign: University of Illinois Press. lxiii + 210 pp., hardback, $29.95; paperback, $15.00

Feminist Freikorps: the British voluntary women police, 1914–40 R.M. DOUGLAS, 1999 Westport: Praeger. xiv + 171 pp., ISBN 0 275 96249 0, hardback, US$58/£48.95     

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     

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).     

Classical Greek agriculture II: Two more alternative views

Since I published a review essay in this journal on the recent study of Classical Greek agriculture, focusing on two very different and even opposing attempts at synthesis [Cartledge, 1993], two further major studies in the same general field have appeared, again with different perspectives and conclusions. What one of them [Hanson, 1995] rightly calls the ‘veritable renaissance in research concerning ancient Greek agriculture and society’ shows no signs of premature ageing. Many fundamental questions, of course, remain unresolved, and are perhaps doomed to be irresolvable, but these two weighty (in all senses) tomes do seem to me to advance our understanding measurably and in potentially fruitful directions.

A Greek Countryside, by Michael H. Jameson, Curtis N. Runnels and Tjeerd van Andel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xviii + 654. £84.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8047 1608 0

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, by Victor Davis Hanson. New York: Free Press, 1995. $28.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 02 913751 9     

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     

Witchcraft and history

Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: studies in culture and belief JONATHAN BARRY, MARIANNE HESTER & GARETH ROBERTS (Eds), 1996 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xiv + 368 pp., ISBN 0-521-55224-9 hardback £40.00, ISBN 0-521-63875-5 paperback £15.00     

In Praise of smallholders

In this review article, Robert Netting's book, Smallholders, Householders. Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive Sustainable Agriculture ‐ the product of a lifetime of study and fieldwork by an American anthropologist, schooled in cultural ecology ‐ is considered. The book, which is essentially about adaptations to population increase in different ecological contexts, is dedicated to the defence of smallholders against both Right and Left. It is seen as having some several excellent qualities, not least the relevance of its central stress on ecology. But it is criticised, inter alia, for its attempt to explain land tenure by land use rather than social struggle. The absence of any awareness of Narodnik ecological thought on the peasantry is noted.

Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture, by Robert McC. Netting. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993. Pp.xiv + 389. £37.50 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 804 721 025 (pbk)     

Peasant and state in Mozambique

Merle Bowen's study focuses on the evolution of the ‘middle peasantry’ in both colonial and postcolonial Mozambique. In doing so, she successfully challenges long‐standing, if highly problematic, notions that the Mozambican economy consists of a ‘traditional’, subsistence‐oriented peasant sector with only nominal links to ‘modern’ forms of agriculture, the urban areas, and regional and international markets. At the same time, she usefully illuminates continuities in colonial and post‐independence agrarian policies and shows the ways in which the experience of smallholder agricultural co‐operatives under the Portuguese shaped the peasantry's perceptions of, and responses to, collective agriculture under Frelimo. However, the evidence in Bowen's case study does not necessarily sustain her central thesis that the post‐independence state, like its colonial predecessor, was ‘anti‐peasant’. This is one of several criticisms made of Bowen's text.

The State Against the Peasantry: Rural Struggles in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique, by Merle L. Bowen, Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2000. Pp.xiv + 256. US$65 (hardback); $19.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 8139 1910 X and 1917 7.     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

Between the lines: letters and diaries from elsie inglis's russian unit AUDREY FAWCETT CAHILL, 1999 Edinburgh: The Pentland Press. x + 372 pp., ISBN 1 85821 630 3, £17.00

For Freedom's Sake: the life of Fannie Lou Hamer CHANA KIA LEE, 1999 Urbana: University of Illinois Press, xvi + 225 pp. ISBN 0 252 02151 7

To Keep the Waters Troubled: the life of Ida B. Wells Linda O. McMurry, 1998 New York: Oxford University Press. xvi + 400 pp., ISBN 0 19 508812 3

Telling Women's Lives: narrative inquiries in the history of women's education KATHLEEN WEILER & SUE MIDDLETON (Eds), 1999 Buckingham: Open University Press. x + 166 pp., ISBN 0335 20173 3, paperback, £16.99

Remaking Women: feminism and modernity in the Middle East LILA ABU-LUGHOD (Ed.), 1998 Princeton: Princeton University Press. xi + 287 pp., ISBN 0 691 05792 3, paperback

Women's Writing of the First World War: an anthology ANGELA K. SMITH (Ed.), 2000 Manchester: Manchester University Press. xii + 340 pp., ISBN 0 7190 5072 3, hardback, 0 7190 5073 1, paperback     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

Kateryn parr: the making of a queen, SUSAN E. JAMES, 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. 480 pp., ISBN 1 84014 683 4, £47.50

Mary Queen of Scots: romance and nation JAYNE ELIZABETH LEWIS, 1998 London: Routledge. 260 pp., ISBN 0 415 11480 2, hardback, £45; ISBN 0 415 11481 0, paperback, £15.99

Exile: a memoir of 1939 BRONKA SCHNEIDER, 1998 (Erika Bourguignon & Barbara Hill Rigney, Eds) Columbus: Ohio State University Press. xxi + 132 pp., ISBN 0 8142 0808 8

Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-18 CHERYL R. JORGENSEN-EARP, 1999 Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. 400 pp., ISBN 0 8386 3788 4, hardback, £38.00

Women in Britain since 1900 SUE BRULEY, 1999 Basingstoke: Macmillan. vii + 227 pp., ISBN 0 333 61838 6

Working Out Gender: perspectives from labour history MARGARET WALSH (Ed.), 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. xi + 235 pp., ISBN 0 7546 0058 0

The Contest for Social Science: relations and representations of gender and class EILEEN YEO, 1996 London: Rivers Oram Press. xx + 396 pp., ISBN 1 85489 068 9, £30

Girls and Women, Men and Boys: gender in Taradale, 1886-1930 CAROLINE DALEY, 1999 Auckland: Auckland University Press, viii + 216 pp., ISBN 1 86940 211 1, NZ$39.95

Politics and Society: the Journals of Lady Knightley of Fawsley, 1885-1913 PETER GORDON (Ed.), 1999 Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society. x + 535 pp., ISBN 0 901275 61 1, hardback, £20

Reading Witchcraft: stories of early English witches MARION GIBSON, 1999 London: Routledge. 242 pp., ISBN 0 415 20646 4, £14.99

Music and Gender PIRKKO MOISALA & BEVERLEY DIAMOND (Eds), 2000 Urbana: University of Illinois Press. xiii + 376 pp., ISBN 0 252 06865 3, $24.95

Parrot Pie for Breakfast: an anthology of women pioneers JANE ROBINSON, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xiv +177 pp., ISBN 0 19 288020 9, paperback, £8.99

Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990 SUSAN KINGSLEY KENT, 1999 London: Routledge. xii + 364 pp., ISBN 0 415 14742 5, £14.99

The Diary of Elizabeth Richards 1798-1825: from the Wexford Rebellion to family life in The Netherlands MARIE DE JONG-IJSSELSTEIN (Ed., with an Introduction by Kevin Whelan), 1999 Hilversum: Verloren. 171 pp., ISBN 90 6550 169 X, Fl. 35.26/Euro 16.00

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: comet of the Enlightenment ISOBEL GRUNDY, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxiii + 680 pp., ISBN 1 19 811280 0, £30

Defining the Victorian Nation: class, race, gender and the Reform Act of 1867 CATHERINE HALL, KEITH MCCLELLAND & JANE RENDALL, 2000 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xiii + 303 pp., ISBN 0 521 57653 9     

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     

Property and proper chastity: Women's land rights in South Asia today

Bina Agarwal's ambitious and wide‐ranging book, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), is reviewed. Agarwal's argument is that women in South Asia should have the same land rights as men. She considers, in detail, the pervasiveness with which such land rights are absent (although they do exist in certain limited areas), why this is so, and the means by which such rights might be obtained. Among the issues raised are: the need for women's organisations at the village level, whether legislation on its own can confer genuine rights (the answer is ‘no'), how control of women's sexuality connects with male control of land, and regional differences within India (especially between North and South). The book is seen to be a magisterial study of high quality. The one criticism made of it is the implication of Agarwal's theoretical discussion that gender ideologies are determined by economic causes. This is contested.

A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, Bina Agarwal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp.xxii + 572. £60 (hardback); £24.95 (paperback). ISBN 81 85618 63 1 and 64 X.