ABSTRACT
Tracing the way in which the agrarian myth has emerged and re-emerged over the twentieth century in ideology shared by populism, postmodernism and the political right, the argument in this book is that at the centre of this discourse about the cultural identity of 'otherness' / 'difference' lies the concept of an innate 'peasant-ness' . In a variety of contextually-specific discursive forms, the 'old' populism of the 1 890s and the nationalism and fascism (= the 'old' right) in Europe, North and South America and Asia during the 1 920s and 1 930s were all informed by the agrarian myth. The postrnodern 'new' populism and the 'new' right, both of which emerged after the 1 960s and con solidated during the 1 990s, are also structured discursively by the agrarian myth, and with it the ideological reaffirmation of peasant essentialism.
