In this book, Jan Douwe van der Ploeg draws on much of his life's work of long-term studies of modes of farming in different environments and his continuing analysis of the growth and resilience of peasant farming despite the rise of the globalization of food and farming systems and the emergence of what he terms ‘Empire’.

The book's 10 chapters explore the characteristics of peasants and peasant styles of farming; provide case studies of the dynamics of peasantry, entrepreneurial farming and global food Empires in Latin America and Europe; examine repeasantization in Europe, opportunities for territorial autonomy in food systems and issues of controllability; concluding with a synthesis of ideas about Empire and how the peasant principle relates to it.

Jan Douwe's notion of Empire functions more as a metaphor for this control rather than an analytical concept. However, the case studies elaborate the operation of Empire, illustrating the diffuse nature of power and complexity of agency which differentiate it from earlier forms of Empire rooted in the political and economic power of nation states.

The book is amply illustrated with diagrams, photographs, graphs and tables which generally are helpful aids to understanding. Some of the conceptual diagrams might have benefited from more systemic forms of presentation that convey the processes more clearly.

Jan Douwe's knowledge of the science of farming and food, both natural and social, is profound and he has an engaging way of writing about very complex issues. His powerful arguments for the qualities and persistence of peasant forms of production and livelihood have great merit in our view.