Viva La Revolución? Reassessing Hobsbawm on peasants

Abstract

Examined critically here are the writings by Hobsbawm on peasants in Latin America. Eschewing participant/observation, his analyses missed crucial aspects of rural society in Peru during the pre-reform era, a consequence being the mistaken belief that production relations on latifundia were obstacles to economic growth and would therefore vanish once landlords were expropriated. Because they are compatible with capitalist development, however, these same unfree work arrangements continued into the post-reform era, but used now by rich peasant beneficiaries of the agrarian reform programmes carried out by the state.