Remembering peasants : a personal history of a vanished world Cover Image

Book

Remembering peasants : a personal history of a vanished world / Patrick Joyce.

Joyce, Patrick, 1945- (author.).

Summary:

"A landmark new history of the peasant experience, exploring a now neglected way of life that once encompassed most of humanity but is vanishing in our time. For over the past century and a half, and still more rapidly in the last seventy years, the world has become increasingly urban, and the peasant way of life--the dominant way of life for humanity since agriculture began well over 6,000 years ago--is disappearing. In this new history of peasantry, social historian Patrick Joyce aims to tell the story of this lost world and its people, and how we can commemorate their way of life. In one sense, this is a global history, ambitious in scope, taking us from the urbanization of the early 19th century to the present day. But more specifically, Joyce's focus is the demise of the European peasantry and of their rites, traditions, and beliefs. Alongside this he brings in stories of individuals as well as places, including his own family, and looks at how peasants and their ways of life have been memorialized in photographs, literature, and in museums. Joyce explores a people whose voice is vastly underrepresented in human history and is usually mediated through others. And now peasants are vanishing in one of the greatest historical transformations of our time. Enlightening, timely, and vitally important, this book commemorates an extraordinary culture whose impact on history--and the future--remains profoundly relevant" -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781668031087
ISBN: 1668031086
ISBN: 9781668031094
ISBN: 1668031094
Physical Description: xv, 384 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2024.
Copyright: ©2024

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	The Vanishing -- What Is a Peasant? -- The Church of the Peasants: Society -- Lives: The House -- The World: The Lark That Sees into Heaven -- God: I Have Created the Vermin and the Birds for People to Prosper -- Suffering and Its Redress: The Devil in Our Purses -- They Remember -- We Remember -- Time Accumulates, 2022.