Local Subversions of Colonial Cultures ─ Commodities and Anti-Commodities in Global History

This book brings together original, state-of-the-art historical research from several continents and examines how mainly local peasant societies responded to colonial pressures to produce a range of different commodities. It shows how they were able to subvert these processes and establish viable alternative livelihoods. In particular, it introduces the fresh concept of the 'anti-commodity', to indicate local, sustainable forms of production steeped in values other than simply economic ones. The book will appeal to readers eager to find out more about the histories of some familiar items of everyday consumption such as rice, cotton, sugar and tobacco, as well as to those with a keen interest in the histories of African, Asian and Caribbean societies. Finally, it offers new directions in both historical and contemporary research on the continents beyond Europe.

Sandip Hazareesingh is Research Fellow in the History Department at the Open University, UK. He is the author of The Colonial City and the Challenge of Modernity (2007), and is currently researching the interactions between peasant livelihoods, colonial policies, climate and environment in nineteenth and twentieth century western India.

Harro Maat is Sociologist and Historian of Agricultural Science and Technology at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation group of Wageningen University, Netherlands. His main focus is on crop improvement in the colonial period and current (bio)technologies for international development in India, South-East Asia and Africa.