A history of world agriculture : from the Neolithic Age to the current crisis

"A History of World Agriculture" provides a grand narrative of ten thousand years of human ingenuity and a penetrating analysis of the rise of agriculture and its handmaid - civilization itself.

Coverage is panoramic and breathtaking. From the Near East and Egypt to China, the Americas and medieval and modern Europe, this book traces the rise of agriculture and examines the tapestry of the social and economic structures it nurtured.

Most critically, the authors, looking through the lens of the current global poverty crisis, turn the spotlight of history on the present and future to show how this extraordinary wealth of knowledge, tradition and natural variety - developed over 500 generations - is now endangered by today's mechanized and globalized corporate agriculture.