Peasantry to capitalism1995
Western Östergötland in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography)
by Göran Hoppe
How do peasants, producing mainly for themselves, become capitalist farmers, producing largely for sale? How far are peasants, anyway, involved in other pursuits besides subsistence farming, such as industry and dealing? What happens to farm sizes, farming practices, the farm family, farm workers, non-farming activities and the relationships between cultivators and other people, in the countryside and the town, in the process of this transition? How far does it vary from region to region?
Is it inherent in the peasantry, or must it be instigated by landlords, towns, or the state?
These are some of the questions addressed by Goran Hoppe and John Langton in this study of regional change in Sweden. The authors have carefully combined theories about the transition from peasantry to...