Historia Agraria, 89 ■ Abril 2023 ■ pp. 281-313 ■ DOI 10.26882/histagrar.089r10b © 2023 The Author(s) 281 Eric Vanhaute Peasants in World History New York and Abingdon, Routledge, 2021, x + 146 pp. P easant studies thrived in the 1970s and 1980s as an interdisciplinary field enlivened by debates that pitched Marxist frameworks against neo- classical economics, and structuralism against historical narratives. There were seemingly endless discussions about how to define peasants, about the economic ratio- nality of peasant farming, and about whether peasants were a backward or pro- gressive political force. From the 1990s on- wards, however, interest in peasant studies faded. Marxist intellectual frameworks were largely abandoned, and postmod- ernism led to disillusionment with the use- fulness of defining types of societies or groups of people and comparing widely ranging chronological and geographical lo- cations. Peasants themselves seemed to be disappearing: the UN announced that ur- ban dwellers outnumbered the rural in- habitants on a global level in 2007. What then, is the relevance of peasant studies to history in 2023? Peasants in World History makes a strong case for the importance of the his- tory of peasants to many current debates and fields of research. Peasants might no longer be the majority of the world’s po- pulation, but population growth means their absolute numbers are greater than ever before. Demands from students to de- colonise the curriculum can be met exa- mining the history of the peasantry, the neglected and disempowered majority of the world’s population, through great swa- thes of history, and across Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well Europe. In this book, the old debates are largely left to one side and ignored. Instead, peasant studies is po- sitioned within global history and concerns such as food security and environmental crisis are placed at the forefront. The scope of this book is enormous and its approach