Agricultural History Review, Volume 67 Part 1 (2019), p. 151

The book is an attempt to describe the main advances that have taken place in the study of contemporary Spanish agrarian history, as well as the challenges that the discipline faces in the near future. The editors took the interesting (and in my opinion wise) decision of inviting young academics to present their contributions, choosing authors who received their doctorates after the year 2000. Although the decision could initially sound controversial, the reasons behind their choice are convincingly explained by the editors. The volume contains 311 pages (368 including a detailed bibliography) divided in thirteen chapters that vary both in the approaches followed and the themes analysed.

Summarizing briefly the content, in chapter one the editors explain the developments in agrarian history in contemporary Spain, with a special emphasis on the institutional and epistemological turning point that came at the turn of the century. The chapter is an excellent piece of work required to understand the current state of agrarian history in Spain, and how internal and particularly external factors have had an influence on the development of the discipline. As mentioned above, it also provides an explanation of their decision to include in the volume the contributions from young academics. In chapter two Fernández Mier moves beyond contemporary history, to explain how the use of archaeology and its recent improvements could be used by historians to study agrarian systems in times when traditional sources did not exist. In chapter three Collantes focuses on the concept of the food system and its use by agrarian historians, proposing that the three main epistemological schools that have covered this field could find common ground here. Chapters four and five present case studies, the first one by Martín-Retortillo with a study of agrarian output and productivity in Europe between 1950 and 2005, and the second by Serrano González with the analysis of water resources and their use in Spain since 1850. Living standards in rural areas is the focus of chapter six, where García Montero explains how the existing literature has measured historical welfare levels in the countryside. In chapter seven Beltrán Tapia introduces the role of the commons and their importance in the agrarian world, particularly in Spain. Chapter eight presents the third case study of the book, where Medina-Albadalejo focuses on the history and economic impact of cooperatives in Spanish agriculture in the twentieth century. In chapter nine Cabana Iglesia presents the importance of understanding the role of women in the rural world and the lines that could be followed in future research. The connection between political changes like democratization and the countryside is described by Herrera González de Molina in chapter ten, and developing the theme of the connection between the rural world and politics, Cabo presents a long term view of the evolution of agrarian parties in Europe in chapter eleven. In chapter twelve Lanero Táboas summarizes the main literature on agrarian reforms in Western Europe between 1945 and 1960, extending the analysis for Spain until 1987. Finally, the book concludes with Botella Rodríguez’s chapter on the main problems and challenges faced in the rural world in Latin America, including also a comparison with other countries in East Asia.

The book contains, in practically all the chapters, a summary of the literature in each one of the topics covered (particularly detailed in the case of chapters twelve and thirteen). Three chapters (four, five and eight) take the form of case studies. This provides the reader with a generous description of the current state-of-the-art in a wide range of issues related to contemporary Spanish agrarian history. However, it is in the epistemological discussions and the examples given concerning the roads the discipline should follow where the best contributions are made. Very good examples of this are the chapters dealing with the role of archaeology, food systems, welfare levels and the commons, where the authors explain the potential that each one of the topics analysed has for agrarian historians, and the way they can overcome the problems that the traditional literature has encountered. This approach is, in my opinion, an excellent way to reach a wider audience, where the chapters clearly introduce the topic and the main contributions of the literature, and the methodological difficulties are addressed from an academically robust and convincing perspective.

The editors were very clear in the introductory chapter when they explained that the scope of the book went beyond a simple review of the literature, trying also to suggest an agenda for future research. I believe that in this sense and in general, the volume achieves their ambitious goal. Although not all the chapters are equally successful fulfilling this purpose, the book can certainly provides the reader with an excellent background and a clear road map for future studies in some of the most important and promising fields in contemporary agrarian history.