In his new English-language book on the American International Association for Economic and Social Development (AIA), Claiton Marcio da Silva writes that “a traditional approach may take for granted that agricultural modernisation is exogenous” (p. 105). The author seems to want to break free of such a traditional approach, yet it is a curious declaration for a book with Nelson Rockefeller's steely portrait on the cover. Nevertheless, it points to where and how Silva intends to make an intervention. The Making of Modern Agriculture analyzes the multiple visions of modernization and the behind-the-scenes negotiations between elite actors primarily in Brazil but also in Venezuela, Chile, and even China and India.

The Making of Modern Agriculture is a somewhat updated translation of Silva's 2015 book De agricultor a farmer: Nelson Rockefeller e a modernização da agricultura no Brasil, published in Portuguese by the Editora da Universidade Federal do Paraná. The...

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