The social history of agriculture : from the origins to the current crisis / Christopher Isett and Stephen Miller.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Isett and Miller argue that people rather than markets have been the primary agents of agricultural change, exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time.

Settled agriculture: the ancient origins of community, state, and empire ; From antiquity to the eve of agrarian capitalism: peasants and dynastic states ; Agrarian capitalism in the early modern world: divergence in Eurasia ; Malthusian limits in the early modern world: peasants and markets ; The new world: planters, slaves, and sugar ; American farming: Agrarian roots of U.S. capitalism ; New imperialism: colonial agriculture in the age of capitalism ; Socialist agriculture: collectivization in three countries ; Late development: state-led agrarian change after World War II ; Corporate agriculture: comparing Brazil and the United States.