Introduction : issues, theory, and methods -- Explaining regional differences in economic organization across Europe -- The new institutional economics, field systems, and economic change -- Rural institutions and agrarian change in England -- Rural institutions and agrarian change in the...

The origins of peasant-friendly research in Germany -- The movement for peasant-friendly plant-breeding, 1880-1905 -- Research, development and extension at the South German stations -- Success breeds trouble: the controversy over public-sector breeding, 1902-1933 -- The fate of peasant-friendly...

In agricultural history, specialisation is usually considered as progress, turning peasants into market-orientated farmers and allowing them to escape from self-sufficiency. Recent developments in the field of productivist agriculture and the recent rise of alternative agriculture cast doubt on...