Comments on: More on the turnip

By: louisproyect

louisproyect — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:24:25 +0000

Due to popular demand, I no longer describe Jethro Tull as “execrable”. I will, however, reserve that adjective for Three Dog Night if their name ever comes up.

By: Martin Wisse

Martin Wisse — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:17:47 +0000

Jethro Tull execrable? Them’s fighting words.

Bet you’re Dylan fan. If so, your appalling lack of musical acumen is forgiven. You can’t help yourself.

By: Louis Proyect

Louis Proyect — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:58:56 +0000

I should add one thing. In Brenner’s New Left Review article, which Blaut was answering, Kerridge is the sole citation for the paragraph cited below. I am sure that everybody understands what “soil-enhancing crops” is a reference to. I must add at this point that I fully endorse British “high farming” techniques, which have much more in common with what is happening in Cuba today than the Central Valley of California:

In fact, the new techniques which could have substantially increased output—the revolutionary systems of ‘up and down (or convertible) husbandry’, which replaced the old ‘permanent’ two- or three-field rotations by an ‘alternation’ of animal and arable production so as to eliminate fallows, while bringing in new soil-enhancing crops—required a very carefully supervised, skilled and technically proficient agriculture. [22]

[22] See Eric Kerridge, The Agricultural Revolution, London 1967, pp. 181–221. Similarly, with the new irrigation systems, ‘the floating of the water meadows’, ibid. pp. 251–67.

By: Louis Proyect

Louis Proyect — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:52:32 +0000

You are right. Kerridge is not the only authority cited by Brenner. He also acknowledged R.H. Tawney and W.G. Hoskins. On the turnip, I stated that Brenner *did not* mention it explicitly but it is a cornerstone of this “agrarian revolution” approach.

By: s.artesian

s.artesian — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:39:14 +0000

Kerridge is not Brenner’s “main authority.” If you read Brenner’s work you will find only 2 references to Kerridge in Brenner’s rebuttal in The Brenner Debate, neither remark having any relation to turnips, but rather to the actual social relations between peasants and lords, copyholders and landlords, and the transition to specialized production of grains and the growth in farm sizes.

In his work on Pomeranz and China, which is really a demolition of Pomeranz’s thesis, Kerridge is included in the bibliography, but again Kerridge hardly forms the main authority for Brenner’s thesis– a thesis that concentrates on social relations rather than the things, the thing being the turnip.

By: eugene

eugene — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:50:13 +0000

Jethro Tull execrable? Come on, find me a better rock band with a floutist(sp?)!