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The role of peasants in 20th century history
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Kathe Kollwitz, Charge, sheet 5 of the cycle Peasants War, 1902-1903
[Public Domain]
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The Last Peasant War — Violence and revolution in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe
by Jakub S Benes
Princeton University Press, £35
WHEN I first read the title of this book, I did a double take. I knew of peasant wars in the Middle Ages and of leaders like Wat Tyler and Thomas Muntzer, but peasant wars in the 20th century? Surely the publisher had the date wrong?
Benes soon disabused me of my ignorance. In his introduction he points out that both conservative and Marxist historians have largely ignored the more recent revolutionary roles played by the peasantry.
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