Apostles of Inequality: Rural Poverty, Political Economy, and the Economist, 1760–1860

"In this timely, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking work, Jim Handy dissects the way the discourse in which capital is given an almost magical status was articulated, justified, and used as the basis for ‘solutions’ to all that ailed agricultural progress in Britain and her dominions. Drawing on the writings of Arthur Young, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, Nassau Senior, and the Economist, Handy artfully demonstrates, though, that a blind devotion to the ‘pure principles’ of political economy came at a wretched cost, and that the advocates of the power of capital became ‘apostles of poverty’ and even apologists for enslavement."

Carl Griffin, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Sussex

"Eloquent and engaged, this book describes how ‘the fairy dust of political economy’ legitimized the dispossession and impoverishment of small landholders on three continents. Aware of the productivity and sustainability of this land before the onslaught of capital began, and alert to attempts to resist it, this book is a powerful indictment of the view that we can make progress when we also create poverty."

Jeanette M. Neeson, Professor Emeritus of History, York University and author of Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700–1820

"Apostles of Inequality is another magnificent book by Jim Handy, who is rightly considered a ‘historian of peasants.’ Handy’s narration is not merely of historical interest: it indirectly sheds light on much of what is happening in rural areas around the world today through land grabbing, famine, extreme exploitation and oppression, and the responses of migration and/or resistance."

Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Professor Emeritus, Wageningen University, and Adjunct Professor, China Agricultural University