Transforming Peasants, Property and Power

A central element in the formation of Eastern European state socialism, the collectivization of agriculture touched the lives of many more citizens than the transformations in industry. Despite its profound long-term socio-political implications, the process of land collectivization has not been subject to comprehensive research. The product of an interdisciplinary project, this book fills this lacuna in the academic literature: a highly integrated, theory-driven collective work of leading historians, anthropologists, sociologists and literary critics from the US, the UK, Hungary and Romania. The book analyzes the campaign of collectivization in Romania, between 1949 and 1962. Parallel to presenting national policies and practices (i.e., property legislation, and political debates), field research explores in case studies, working across a broad span of communities and experiences, what types of new peasant-state relations were formed through collectivization.