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An overarching history of the origins, development, and application of agricultural innovation in the past, and of the paradigms and institutional frameworks in which they were developed throughout the twentieth century.
From the late nineteenth century onwards, rural societies and agrarian production across the world were profoundly transformed. Prior to the Second World War, technological innovations developed within an intensive organic framework and advanced largely in dialogue with existing producers. After the war, social engineering became the prevailing model in agricultural and rural policies almost everywhere. Modernisation was imposed from above, targeting so-called "archaic" or "anti-modern" peasants and farmers, who were pushed to produce ever-greater quantities of food, timber, and other raw materials through the expanded use of industrial and inorganic resources. Applied as a USA political programme in Asian, Latin American and African countries, this strategy became known as the "Green Revolution". Although it undermined rural societies and eroded the sustainability of agricultural production, it remained central to political agendas, leaving a difficult legacy for future generations.
This book analyses agrarian change and agricultural policies before and after 1945, highlighting the socio-economic and environmental consequences of these two very different periods in global agrarian history. Its diverse case studies span continents and political systems, considering topics from post-war reconstruction in the UK and Denmark to development policies in the Belgian Congo and post-fascist Ethiopia; from production projects in communist Hungary to agricultural transformations across the Southern Cone and India.
Chapter 6 is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND
From the late nineteenth century onwards, rural societies and agrarian production across the world were profoundly transformed. Prior to the Second World War, technological innovations developed within an intensive organic framework and advanced largely in dialogue with existing producers. After the war, social engineering became the prevailing model in agricultural and rural policies almost everywhere. Modernisation was imposed from above, targeting so-called "archaic" or "anti-modern" peasants and farmers, who were pushed to produce ever-greater quantities of food, timber, and other raw materials through the expanded use of industrial and inorganic resources. Applied as a USA political programme in Asian, Latin American and African countries, this strategy became known as the "Green Revolution". Although it undermined rural societies and eroded the sustainability of agricultural production, it remained central to political agendas, leaving a difficult legacy for future generations.
This book analyses agrarian change and agricultural policies before and after 1945, highlighting the socio-economic and environmental consequences of these two very different periods in global agrarian history. Its diverse case studies span continents and political systems, considering topics from post-war reconstruction in the UK and Denmark to development policies in the Belgian Congo and post-fascist Ethiopia; from production projects in communist Hungary to agricultural transformations across the Southern Cone and India.
Chapter 6 is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND
Price: $130.00
Pages: 386
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Series: Boydell Studies in Rural History
Publication Date:
03 March 2026
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837653317
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, Rural communities, Agricultural and rural economics
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
1. From rural modernities to agricultural modernisation: a new narrative
Miguel Cabo, Lourenzo Fernández Prieto and Juan Pan-Montojo
Part I. BRIDGES AND TRANSITIONS
2. Flow, stock, and epistemic change: using biotic and consuming mineral resources in agricultural production
Juri Auderset and Peter Moser
3. Inventing new seeds: genetics research and Iberian connections during the dictatorships
Dulce Freire
4. Racial productivism. Agrarian change under the Nazi regime in German-annexed Austria, 1938-1945
Ernst Langthaler
5. Agrarian parties in the twentieth century: rise and fall of an alternative modernity
Miguel Cabo
6. From the International Institute of Agriculture to the Food and Agriculture Organization
Federico D'Onofrio
Part II. AGRICULTURAL MODERNITIES AND MODERNISATION IN THEIR POLITICAL CONTEXTS
7. UK agriculture before and after the Second World War: agricultural policies and the adoption of new technologies, 1920-1970
Paul Brassley
8. The 'Green Evolution' in Denmark, 1930-1972
Thomas Christiansen
9. The 'Green Revolution' in the Red Zone: the case of socialist Hungarian agriculture
Zsuzsanna Varga
10. Reordering rural Congo. Agricultural development and the paysannats indigènes in the Belgian Congo, 1930s-1950s
Yves Segers
11. Back to the future: international agrarian development in Ethiopia and the legacy of Italian colonialism
Michele Sollai
12. New models for agriculture in the post-war American Southern Cone
Luis Ernesto Blacha
13. 'Taking risks to create value': agricultural modernisation and the making of 'Progressive' Indian farmers, 1947-1967
Madhumita Saha
Part III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MODERNISING LOGIC AFTER 1945
14. Agricultural modernisation from a biophysical point of view: Spain, c. 1900-2008
Manuel González de Molina
15. The 'modernisation' of agriculture in the global South after 1945: Green Revolution as 'American revolution'
Jonathan Harwood
16. US agricultural cooperation programmes in Latin America since World War II
Wilson Picado and José A. Fernández Molina
17. Gender and agricultural modernisation: agricultural extension in Spain and France in the 1960s and 1970s
Ana Cabana, Alba Díaz-Geada and Sylvain Brunier
18. Resisting the Green Revolution epic in Brazil and India
Poonam Pandey and Lidia Cabral
Index
INTRODUCTION
1. From rural modernities to agricultural modernisation: a new narrative
Miguel Cabo, Lourenzo Fernández Prieto and Juan Pan-Montojo
Part I. BRIDGES AND TRANSITIONS
2. Flow, stock, and epistemic change: using biotic and consuming mineral resources in agricultural production
Juri Auderset and Peter Moser
3. Inventing new seeds: genetics research and Iberian connections during the dictatorships
Dulce Freire
4. Racial productivism. Agrarian change under the Nazi regime in German-annexed Austria, 1938-1945
Ernst Langthaler
5. Agrarian parties in the twentieth century: rise and fall of an alternative modernity
Miguel Cabo
6. From the International Institute of Agriculture to the Food and Agriculture Organization
Federico D'Onofrio
Part II. AGRICULTURAL MODERNITIES AND MODERNISATION IN THEIR POLITICAL CONTEXTS
7. UK agriculture before and after the Second World War: agricultural policies and the adoption of new technologies, 1920-1970
Paul Brassley
8. The 'Green Evolution' in Denmark, 1930-1972
Thomas Christiansen
9. The 'Green Revolution' in the Red Zone: the case of socialist Hungarian agriculture
Zsuzsanna Varga
10. Reordering rural Congo. Agricultural development and the paysannats indigènes in the Belgian Congo, 1930s-1950s
Yves Segers
11. Back to the future: international agrarian development in Ethiopia and the legacy of Italian colonialism
Michele Sollai
12. New models for agriculture in the post-war American Southern Cone
Luis Ernesto Blacha
13. 'Taking risks to create value': agricultural modernisation and the making of 'Progressive' Indian farmers, 1947-1967
Madhumita Saha
Part III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE MODERNISING LOGIC AFTER 1945
14. Agricultural modernisation from a biophysical point of view: Spain, c. 1900-2008
Manuel González de Molina
15. The 'modernisation' of agriculture in the global South after 1945: Green Revolution as 'American revolution'
Jonathan Harwood
16. US agricultural cooperation programmes in Latin America since World War II
Wilson Picado and José A. Fernández Molina
17. Gender and agricultural modernisation: agricultural extension in Spain and France in the 1960s and 1970s
Ana Cabana, Alba Díaz-Geada and Sylvain Brunier
18. Resisting the Green Revolution epic in Brazil and India
Poonam Pandey and Lidia Cabral
Index