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The Death of Ramón González: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma. By Angus Wright. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 416 pp., $19.95, paperback, ISBN 0-292-71268-5.
The University of Texas Press's decision to make available again The Death of Ramón González, albeit in this revised edition, is a wonderful development for those engaged in either agricultural history or modern agricultural development. Indeed, the "dilemma" described by Wright as a "tension" within countries between traditional "healthy agriculture and healthy, stable rural communities . . . in conflict with the apparent requirements of industrial nations and an expanding international economy" is as alive today as it was during the late 1980s, whether in Mexico, China, or even North Dakota (245).
The importance of Wright's book originally sprang from its broad coverage of subject material. Building off the death of one agricultural field worker, a young Mixtec migrant male who probably died from pesticide poisoning in the intensive export agricultural region of the Culiacán, Wright explored a...