Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture 1800-2000 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

About this book

In the last two centuries agriculture has been an outstanding if somewhat neglected success story. Agriculture has fed an ever-growing population with an increasing variety of products at falling prices even as it has released a growing number of workers to the rest of the economy. This book a comprehensive history of world agriculture during this period explains how these feats were accomplished. Feeding the World synthesizes two hundred years of agricultural development throughout the world providing all essential data and extensive references to the literature. It covers systematically all the factors that have affected agricultural performance: environment accumulation of inputs technical progress institutional change commercialization agricultural policies and more. The last chapter discusses the contribution of agriculture to modern economic growth. The book is global in its reach and analysis and represents a grand synthesis of an enormous topic.