Mark B. Tauger is Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University, USA. In 2016–2017 he was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has published on agriculture and famines and has won the Eric Wolf Prize of the Journal of Peasant History and the Wayne D. Rasmussen Award of the Agricultural History Society.

• Introduction 1. The origins of agriculture and the dual dependency 2. Agriculture in antiquity: The first great conflicts over land and freedom 3. Post-classical agriculture: Western serfdom, Eastern innovation 4. Early modern agriculture: Climate crises and servile oppression 5. Agriculture in the 19th century: Emancipation, colonialism, modernization 6. Early-20th-century agriculture: War, depression, authoritarianism, revolution 7. Rise and fall of the U.S.-centered world agriculture system after World War II 8. Agriculture in the late 20th to 21st centuries: Unprecedented production, unprecedented problems

Mark B. Tauger is Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University, USA. In 2016–2017 he was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has published on agriculture and famines and has won the Eric Wolf Prize of the Journal of Peasant History and the Wayne D. Rasmussen Award of the Agricultural History Society.

• Introduction 1. The origins of agriculture and the dual dependency 2. Agriculture in antiquity: The first great conflicts over land and freedom 3. Post-classical agriculture: Western serfdom, Eastern innovation 4. Early modern agriculture: Climate crises and servile oppression 5. Agriculture in the 19th century: Emancipation, colonialism, modernization 6. Early-20th-century agriculture: War, depression, authoritarianism, revolution 7. Rise and fall of the U.S.-centered world agriculture system after World War II 8. Agriculture in the late 20th to 21st centuries: Unprecedented production, unprecedented problems

Mark B. Tauger is Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University, USA. In 2016–2017 he was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has published on agriculture and famines and has won the Eric Wolf Prize of the Journal of Peasant History and the Wayne D. Rasmussen Award of the Agricultural History Society.

• Introduction 1. The origins of agriculture and the dual dependency 2. Agriculture in antiquity: The first great conflicts over land and freedom 3. Post-classical agriculture: Western serfdom, Eastern innovation 4. Early modern agriculture: Climate crises and servile oppression 5. Agriculture in the 19th century: Emancipation, colonialism, modernization 6. Early-20th-century agriculture: War, depression, authoritarianism, revolution 7. Rise and fall of the U.S.-centered world agriculture system after World War II 8. Agriculture in the late 20th to 21st centuries: Unprecedented production, unprecedented problems