The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture: Life Beneath the Level of the Marketplace

Waters takes us on a journey to the highlands of Scotland, the plains of America, and the savannah of modern Tanzania to display the deep-rooted appeal of subsistence farming…. In a brilliant combination of historical sociology and modern anthropology, Waters forces us to re-examine the views of market theorists, and shows that converting subsistence agriculturalists to industrial life is not a matter of encouraging a smooth ‘take-off,’ but of wrestling with powerful attachments to a way of life. Breathing new life into classic views of the peasantry and industrial transition, Waters’s book should be required reading for development professionals and analysts of economic change. — Jack A. Goldstone, George Mason University

Tony Waters…sets out to give a general explanation…in this ambitious and passionately written book….Drawing upon a wide body of anecdotal and historical evidence, he makes a strong case….The book is recommendable….A book that is…greatly accessible and written in an enjoyable style…and whose final conclusions on development work are just remarkable. ― Journal Of Agrarian Change

This masterful and exhaustive analysis of the role of subsistence farming in a comparative historical and societal perspective is a powerful reminder to all developmentalists – on the left or the right – that social transformation is a long-winding and often painful process. Waters cleverly illustrates the similarities between contemporary Tanzania and historical Scotland and the United States teasing out why the prospect for a transformation to a fully fledged market economy is so much more difficult in the former place. At a point when there is growing interest in informal institutions and the role culture plays in development, this is a timely contribution of interest to the academic community as well as analysts and practitioners in the international development field. — Distinguished Professor Goran Hyden, University of Florida