Research Catalog

Title

The peasant cotton revolution in West Africa: Côte d'Ivoire, 1880-1995 / Thomas J. Bassett.

Author

Bassett, Thomas J.

Publication

Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xix, 243 p. : ill. , maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"The literature on Africa is dominated by accounts of crisis, doom and gloom, but this book presents one of the few long-running success stories. Thomas Bassett, a distinguished American geographer well known in the field of development, tells an unusual story of the growth of the cotton economy of West Africa, where change was brought about by tens of thousands of small-scale peasant farmers. While the introduction of new strains of cotton in francophone West Africa was in part a result of agronomic research by French scientists, supported by an unusually efficient marketing structure, this is not a case of triumphant top-down "planification". Employing the case of Cote d'Ivoire, Professor Bassett shows agricultural intensification to result from the cumulative effect of decades of incremental changes in farming techniques and social organization. A significant contribution to the literature, the book demonstrates the need to consider the local and temporal dimensions of agricultural innovations. It brings into question many key assumptions that have influenced development policies during the twentieth century."--Jacket.

Series Statement

African studies series ; 101

Uniform Title

African studies series 101.

Subject

• Cotton trade > Côte d'Ivoire > History
• Rural development > Côte d'Ivoire > Case studies

Genre/Form

• Case studies
• History
• Études de cas.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The collision of empires, 1880-1911 -- The uncaptured corvée, 1912-1946 -- Repackaging cotton, 1947-1963 -- Making cotton work, 1964-1984 -- "To sow to not to sow" : the extensification of cotton, gender politics, and rural mobilization, 1985-1995.

ISBN

0521783135

LCCN

^^^00031276^

OCLC

• 44083982
• SCSB-9999017

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library