The Social History of Agriculture

The Social History of Agriculture
Author: Christopher Isett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2016-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442209682

This innovative 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, Christopher Isett and Stephen Millerargue that people, rather than markets, have been the primary agents of agricultural change. Exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time and analyzing their activities in the wider contexts of markets, states, wars, the environment, population increase, and similar factors, the authors emphasize how larger social and political forces inform decisions and lead to different technological outcomes. Both farmers and elites responded in ways that impeded economic development. Farmers, when able to trade with towns, used the revenue to gain more land and security. Elites used commercial opportunities to accumulate military power and slaves. The book explores these tendencies through rich case studies of ancient China; precolonial South America; early-modern France, England, and Japan; New World slavery; colonial Taiwan; socialist Cuba; and many other periods and places. Readers will understand how the promises and problems of contemporary agriculture are not simply technologically derived but are the outcomes of decisions and choices people have made and continue to make.

The Origin of Capitalism

The Origin of Capitalism
Author: Ellen Meiksins Wood
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-02-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1784787787

How did the dynamic economic system we know as capitalism develop among the peasants and lords of feudal Europe? In The Origin of Capitalism, a now-classic work of history, Ellen Meiksins Wood offers readers a clear and accessible introduction to the theories and debates concerning the birth of capitalism, imperialism, and the modern nation state. Capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce. Rather, it is a late and localized product of very specific historical conditions, which required great transformations in social relations and in the relationship between humans and nature.

The Palgrave Handbook of Management History

The Palgrave Handbook of Management History
Author: Bradley Bowden
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9783319621135

The coronavirus pandemic of 2019-20 and its associated global economic collapse has bluntly revealed that decision makers everywhere are ill-equipped to identify the innovative capacities of modern societies and, in particular, deploy managers to harness such capabilities. Getting the problem of management right is a voyage to the heart of human experience. Indeed, the perennial questions that haunt our existence almost invariably prompt answers that invoke conceptions of work, transformative effort and realisation of ideas. One way or another, all such endeavour requires management. It is often overlooked that more than any other discipline, management history brings into focus humanity’s most pressing questions. At the time of writing, these queries come with a disquieting urgency. What is management? How do its modern methods differ from those in pre-industrial societies? How does the management that emerged in Western Europe and North America in the nineteenth century differ from forms practiced in the twentieth? In what ways do Asian, African and South American societies have distinctive managerial philosophies? Perhaps most importantly, what don’t we know or don’t do very well? It is to these fundamental questions that the Palgrave Handbook of Management History speaks. The work’s 63 chapters – authored by 27 of the world’s leading management and business thinkers – explore virtually every aspect of management globally as well as across millennia. The series explores the theoretical contributions of classical Western business and management scholars (Adam Smith, Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo, Peter Drucker, Alfred Chandler, etc.) as well as commentaries from critical theorists such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Hayden White. The Handbook is also practical. For example, its content addresses the day to day experience of management in ancient Greece and Rome as well as the contemporary approaches of China, France, South Africa, India, Denmark, Australia, South America, New Zealand and the Middle East. In short, the Palgrave Handbook provides students of economics, management, business theory and practice, and critical studies with a single comprehensive and in-depth point of reference.

Labour Regime Change in the Twenty-First Century

Labour Regime Change in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Tom Brass
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2011-09-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004210407

The object is to assess the validity, in the light of current economic development, of the epistemology structuring different historical interpretations linking capitalism, unfreedom and primitive accumulation. Conventional wisdom is that – regarding the incompatibility between capitalism and unfreedom –an unbroken continuity links Marxism to Adam Smith, Malthus, Mill and Max Weber. Challenging this, it is argued Marxism accepts that, where class struggle is global, capitalist producers employ workers who are unfree. The reasons are traced to the conceptualization by Smith of labour as value, by Hegel of labour as property, and by Marx of labour-power as commodity that can be bought/sold. From this stems the free/unfree distinction informing the process of becoming, being, remaining, and acting as a proletariat.

Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe

Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe
Author: Robert S. Duplessis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1997-09-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521397735

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, the long-established structures and practices of European agriculture and industry were slowly, disparately, but profoundly transformed. Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe, first published in 1997, narrates and analyzes the diverse patterns of economic change that permanently modified rural and urban production, altered Europe's economy and geography, and gave birth to new social classes. Broad in chronological and geographical scope and explicitly comparative, the book introduces readers to a wealth of information drawn from thoughout Mediterranean, east-central, and western Europe, as well as to the classic interpretations and current debates and revisions. The study incorporates scholarship on topics such as the world economy and women's work, and it discusses at length the impact of the emergent capitalist order on Europe's working people.

Marx, Durkheim, Weber

Marx, Durkheim, Weber
Author: Kenneth L. Morrison
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2006-07-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780761970569

`This is an excellent introduction to classical social theory. For most students it is the only book on the subject that they will need. The expositions are clear and comprehensive, outlining with almost alarming clarity ideas with which many of us have to struggle′ - Alan Bryman, The Management Centre, University of Leicester This is a thoroughly revised, expanded version of the best selling student text in classical social theory. The book provides an authoritative, accessible undergraduate guide to the three pivotal figures in the classical tradition. Readable and stimulating, the book explains the key ideas of these thinkers and situates them in their historical and philosophical contexts. The student gains an immediate understanding of what is distinctive and relevant about these giants of sociology. The book includes a glossary with over 150 entries. For a decade, the book has been required reading on undergraduate degree programmes. This new edition, refines the material, extends the analysis and enhances our appreciation. It is a nugget in its field.

A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, C. 1295-1344

A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, C. 1295-1344
Author: Judith Bennett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 168
Release: 1999
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This history of medieval village life is told through the experiences of Cecilia Penifader, a peasant woman who lived on one English manor in the early fourteenth century. This truly unique book offers a wealth of insight into medieval peasant society, bringing many of the characteristics of a time and a people to life. Short and readable, it is an ideal text for undergraduate teaching, suitable for courses in Western civilization, medieval history, women's history, and English history.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx
Author: Karl Marx
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 1986
Genre: Communism
ISBN: 9780521338325

A selection of Karl Marx's most important writings are contained in this volume. It was designed as a companion to Elster's "An introduction to Karl Marx" but may be used alone.