Mitchell's most powerful and provocative insights occur in his essays on the history of peasant politics in instances of malaria epidemics, colonial agricultural policies, and violence and the establishment of private property and land 'reforms'. This work likely can bring its insights to bear are on any research currently being done on the Middle East.

Mitchell's most powerful and provocative insights occur in his essays on the history of peasant politics in instances of malaria epidemics, colonial agricultural policies, and violence and the establishment of private property and land 'reforms'. This work likely can bring its insights to bear are on any research currently being done on the Middle East.

The essays cover a wide range of 20th-century topics from malaria to mapmaking, from the manipulated image of the peasant to techno-political nonsense in current development praxis. I have long believed that developmental applications of modern economic theory are very much a "faith-based" process, and Mitchell has put these thoughts in engaging prose. In addition, I was particularly impressed by the chapter on violence, which helped me frame my own thinking on violence, for example, in Syria, Algeria, or Tunisia, places where not so hidden violence functions as an instrument of power and social control. Mitchell writes eloquently on issues that have troubled most of those who work or live or travel in the developing world and who have not found the right language to express their reservations about the descriptive and prescriptive power of current scholarship and techno-political expertise.