Gail Kligman, Katherine Verdery, Peasants under siege: The Collectivization of Romanian Agriculture, 1949-1962
Gail Kligman and Katherine Verdery’s latest volume, entitled “Peasants under siege: The Collectivization of Romanian Agriculture” is a remarcable one in their field of study. Based on extensive research efforts, it is a solid and dense structure, very rich in data, containing detailed analyses onto which the authors build their arguments, in the end offering a comprehensive image of the process of collectivization in Romania. The book has two main quests. On the one hand, Kligman and Verdery follow the way in which both rural communities and the communist party-state are shaped as they interact in the process of transition from private to collective agricultural property. On the other, they reveal the changes in peasants’ identities which are linked to the afore mentioned process.
Keywords: peasants, collectivization, Romania, communist party, cadres, private property, collective property
