Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century [Paperback]

Eric R. Wolf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0806131969 | ISBN-13: 978-0806131962

"Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century provides a good short course in the major popular revolutions of our century--in Russia, Mexico, China, Algeria, Cuba, and Viet Nam--not from the perspective of governments or parties or leaders, but from the perspective of the peasant peoples whose lives and ways of living were destroyed by the depredations of the imperial powers, including American imperial power."–New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (September 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806131969
• ISBN-13: 978-0806131962
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tallent in mixing history and anthropology, May 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

Wolf's treatment of a so ideological subject, peasant wars, shows all the tallent and capacity of a intellectual who worked mainly in the US, although he was born in Austria. This fact helps us to understand a littlle more of his work as an anthropologist aware of the importance of a renewed history. Eric Wolf left Europe after an experience in the nazi's concentration camp in World War II. In this camp, he met and had classes with Norbert Elias. Some people say this is a fundamental fact on Wolf's career, because, as we can see, the problematic of power undergoes all along his opus. In Peasant Wars, Eric, worried about the US involvement in the Vietnam conflict, tries to understand how peasant people get involved with revolution. In order to understand this fact, Eric studies six cases of peasant revolution in the twentieth century: Mexico, Russia, Nigeria, China, Vietnam and Cuba. As the analysis goes through, we can almost smell the tallent of Eric, because although he were a marxist, the study don't fall in dogmatism. This book is essential to all the people who wants to understande the contemporary world.

Marcos Mota, Department of History, University of Brasilia