Peasant and Nation offers a major new statement on the making of national politics. Comparing the popular political cultures and discourses of postcolonial Mexico and Peru, Florencia Mallon provides a groundbreaking analysis of their effect on the evolution of these nation states. As political history from a variety of subaltern perspectives, the book takes seriously the history of peasant thought and action and the complexity of community politics. It reveals the hierarchy and the heroism, the solidarity and the surveillance, the exploitation and the reciprocity, that coexist in popular political struggle.

With this book Mallon not only forges a new path for Latin American history but challenges the very concept of nationalism. Placing it squarely within the struggles for power between colonized and colonizing peoples, she argues that nationalism must be seen not as an integrated ideology that puts the interest of the nation above all other loyalties, but as a project for collective identity over which many political groups and coalitions have struggled. Ambitious and bold, Peasant and Nation both draws on monumental archival research in two countries and enters into spirited dialogue with the literatures of post-colonial studies, gender studies, and peasant studies.

Florencia E. Mallon is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin. She is the author of The Defense of Community in Peru's Central Highlands: Peasant Struggle and Capitalist Transition, 1860-1940 (1983) and the coeditor of Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor and the Capitalist World-System in Africa and Latin America (1992).

"An ambitious comparative history. . . . Peasant and Nation breaks new ground in bringing together peasant politics, state-making, and the nation. It is innovative in its theoretical formulations, its sensitive analysis of texts in their contexts, and its accounts of how Mallon herself struggled to make sense of historical sources. . . . It gives a renewed relevance to the past and helps us to make sense of the present. Mallon's work is outstanding in both counts."—Latin American Studies

"A major contribution both to the theory of state formation and nationalism and to nineteenth-century Latin American historiography. Inspired by postmodernist and poststructuralist perspectives, Mallon demonstrates the role of popular political culture and local struggles in forging the regional and national alliances that at times fostered and at other times distorted the formation of 'modern' nation-states. . . . [This book] is meticulously researched and will no doubt form the point of departure for future investigations of nationalism, the consolidation of the nation-state, and social movements in Latin America. . . . Superbly written."—Contemporary Sociology

"A benchmark in Latin American studies, which presents the right blend of discourse analysis with a sophisticated examination of the political economy of the agrarian sector. . . . The originality of Mallon's conceptualization lies in the notion of communal hegemony, partly inspired by, but going beyond, Raymond William's interpretation of Gramsci. That concept allows one to look at hegemony as a process involving ongoing contestation and tensions involving class, gender, age, and ethnicity at the local level. . . . Mallon has carried out an archeological excavation of alternate visions of nationalism and liberalism, long buried by the official discourse of national history."—Canadian Journal of History

"An interesting and controversial contribution to our understanding of nation-state formation. . . . Lucidly written, with [Mallon] displaying admirable skill in dissecting the complex political interactions in both Mexico and Peru. . . . [She] provides an excellent example of the comparative method, a rare occurrence on such level of detail for Latin America. All in all, this book will serve to promote debate among Latin Americanists over peasant ideology, postmodern methods, and the comparative approach for many years to come."—Journal of Social History

"An ambitious book, which, by turns, enlightens [and] provokes. . . . The book offers an interesting, if episodic, comparison of two major countries, correctly contrasting the forms and consequences of peasant mobilization. It also provides a corrective to analyses . . . which either patronize peasants (as illiterate clods, motivated by empty bellies) or romanticize peasant communities (as seamless, solitary little utopias)."—Times Literary Supplement

"Mallon's sophisticated study offers a comparison of the nineteenth-century peasant movements in geographically divergent areas of Latin America. . . . Richly rewarding for scholars of world revolutions, peasant movements, and gender studies."—Choice

"A watershed analysis—the new political history of Latin America begins here."—John Tutino, Georgetown University

"Florencia Mallon's analysis of peasant politics and state formation in Latin America compels us to rethink the relationship between the 'national' and the 'popular.' In particular, she questions the concept of 'community' in a way that scholars of subaltern histories elsewhere will find enormously helpful."—Dipesh Chakrabarty, Director of the Ashworth Centre for Social Theory, University of Melbourne, Australia

Winner, Bryce Wood Book Award, Latin American Studies Association>