Benedict J. Kerkvliet's Books

The Power of Everyday Politics

How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy

By: Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet

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The Power of Everyday Politics

How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy

By: Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet

Ordinary people's everyday political behavior can have a huge impact on national policy: that is the central conclusion of this book on Vietnam. In telling the story of collectivized agriculture in that country, Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet uncovers a history of local resistance to national policy and gives a voice to the villagers who effected change. Not through open opposition but through their everyday political behavior, villagers individually and in small, unorganized groups undermined collective farming and frustrated authorities' efforts to correct the problems.The Power of Everyday Politics is an authoritative account, based on extensive research in Vietnam's National Archives and in the Red River Delta countryside, of the formation of collective farms in northern Vietnam in the late 1950s, their enlargement during wartime in the 1960s and 1970s, and their collapse in the 1980s. As Kerkvliet shows, the Vietnamese government eventually terminated the system, but not for ideological reasons. Rather, collectivization had become hopelessly compromised and was ultimately destroyed largely by the activities of villagers. Decollectivization began locally among villagers themselves; national policy merely followed. The power of everyday politics is not unique to Vietnam, Kerkvliet asserts. He advances a theory explaining how everyday activities that do not conform to the behavior required by authorities may carry considerable political weight.

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Page Count

320

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501722018

ISBN 13

9781501722011

The Huk Rebellion

A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines

By: Benedict J. Kerkvliet

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The Huk Rebellion

A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines

By: Benedict J. Kerkvliet

Newly available with an updated bibliographic essay, this highly acclaimed work explores the Huk rebellion, a momentous peasant revolt in the Philippines. Unlike prevailing top-down analysis, Kerkvliet seeks to understand the movement from the point of view of its participants and sympathizers. He argues that seeing a peasant revolt through the eyes of those who rebelled explains and clarifies the actions of people who otherwise might appear irrational. Drawing on a rich array of documents and in-depth interviews with peasants and rebel leaders, the author provides definitive answers to the causes of the rebellion, the goals of the rebels, and the process of resistance.

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Page Count

344

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

074251868X

ISBN 13

9780742518681

Everyday Politics in the Philippines

Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village

By: Benedict J. Kerkvliet

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Everyday Politics in the Philippines

Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village

By: Benedict J. Kerkvliet

Focusing on a rice farming village in central Luzon, Kerkvliet argues that the faction and patron-client relationships dealt with by conventional studies are only one part of Philippine political life.

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