Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism
The Return of the Agrarian Myth

Tracing the emergence and re-emergence of the agrarian myth in the past century the argument in this book is that at the centre of the discourse about the cultural identity of "otherness/difference" lies the concept of an innate "peasant-ness".

Following the rediscovery of 'popular culture' by postmodern theory, there has been an analogous shift in development debate about agrarian transformation, from 'peasantness'-as-economic-alienation to 'peasantness'-as-cultural-empowerment, leading in turn to an epistemological fusion between 'new' populist and 'new' right discourse.

Peasants, populism and the agrarian myth - the historical background. Part 1 Populist peasants: Trotskysm, Moism and populism in the Andes - Latin American peasant movements and the agrarian myth
socialism, populism and nationalism - tribal and farmers' movements in India. Part 2 Populist post-modernism: post-modernism and the "new" populism - the return of the agrarian myth
other who also return -the agrarian myth, the "new" populism and the" new" right. Part 3 Populist culture: popular culture, populist fiction(s) - the agrarian utopiates of A.V. Chayanov, Ignatius Donnelly and Frank Capra
nymphs, shepherds and vampires - the agrarian myth on film.