{"product_id":"the-plantation-ideal-landscapes-of-extraction-in-mozambique-volume-18-paperback","title":"The Plantation Ideal: Landscapes of Extraction in Mozambique Volume 18 - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eWendy Wolford\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlantations have been the privileged tool of colonial rule and extraction in Mozambique for more than one hundred years despite never having delivered sustained economic or social benefits. Drawing on extensive archival and qualitative contemporary research, \u003ci\u003eThe Plantation Ideal\u003c\/i\u003e offers new insights into plantation economies, histories, and landscapes. Wendy Wolford tells the story of how the largely failed pursuit of plantation production has shaped agricultural science, government rule, life on the land, and community development in Mozambique from the harshest years of Portuguese colonization to the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eWendy Wolford continues her brilliant explorations of the agrarian question in the Lusophone world by taking on the complex afterlives of the plantation, draped as it is in the history of slavery, empire, and dispossession in Mozambique. Why, she asks, does the plantation retain its appeal? Why is it such a powerful narcotic constantly sought out by states, capital, NGOs, communities of expertise, and local communities despite its poor economic record? \u003ci\u003eThe Plantation Ideal\u003c\/i\u003e offers a compelling set of answers. Lucid, conceptually rich, and historically informed, this book is a triumph.--Michael Watts, Class of 1963 Professor of Geography Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Myths of discovery, plantation-based cornucopia, and expert-driven improvement underwrote empire, and they continue to sustain grandiose national development schemes. In this erudite and provocative book, Wolford explains why these myths don't die and the havoc they wreak for people caught in their embrace.\"--Tania Li, coauthor of \u003ci\u003ePlantation Life: Corporate Occupation in Indonesia's Oil Palm Zone\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Wolford's brilliant work deepens and expands the scholarship on plantations, plantation ideals, and the plantationocene. In this engaging and original book, she shows us that plantations never left--not in physical geographical space nor in the imaginations of thinkers driving the idea of limitless economic growth.\"--Saturnino M. Borras Jr., coauthor of \u003ci\u003eEssential Concepts of Land Politics: An A\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e-\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eZ Guide\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eThe Plantation Ideal\u003c\/i\u003e provides a deeply researched account of the roots, trajectory, and contemporary implications of the 'plantation ideal' in Mozambique. Its story is both familiar and unusual, and it brings Mozambique's history and political economy more fully into debates over plantations, extractivism, science and technology, and the legacies of colonialism. Highly recommended.\"--Derek Hall, author of \u003ci\u003eLand\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Wolford's text is a vivid exploration of one of colonial agronomy's most enduring legacies: the plantation approach to tropical agriculture. Set in Mozambique, \u003ci\u003eThe Plantation Ideal\u003c\/i\u003e deftly shows readers how a deeply flawed paradigm keeps being reinvented as a vital tool for capitalist extraction in the tropics, from the age of Portuguese exploration to contemporary land investments. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to better understand the political economy of agrarian change in southern Africa and the Global South more broadly.\"--William G. Moseley, author of \u003ci\u003eDecolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology and the Need for Radical Transformation\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Brilliant and riveting, \u003ci\u003eThe Plantation Ideal\u003c\/i\u003e considers the plantation not merely as a system of agricultural production, but also as an ideology--a fresh and original approach to understanding why development projects continue to promote plantation agriculture. Demonstrating through careful historical analysis that plantation schemes are a key cause of rural impoverishment rather than a solution, Wolford goes beyond critique to offer an alternative path to rural development based in her own impressive ethnographic fieldwork. A remarkable achievement that marks a significant advance in scholarship.\"--Gail Hollander, author of \u003ci\u003eRaising Cane in the 'Glades: The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWendy Wolford\u003c\/b\u003e is Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Professor of Global Development at Cornell University. She is author of \u003ci\u003eThis Land Is Ours Now: Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil\u003c\/i\u003e, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eTo Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil, \u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of several books, including \u003ci\u003eGoverning Global Land Deals\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Social Lives of Land\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 302\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.79 x 8.82 x 5.91 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 04, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47584792936669,"sku":"9780520416864","price":64.69,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/9867\/8237\/files\/rX1g7je6r99780520416864.webp?v=1773620785","url":"https:\/\/handfulofbooks.com\/products\/the-plantation-ideal-landscapes-of-extraction-in-mozambique-volume-18-paperback","provider":"Handful of Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}