A coffee frontier

"Meticulously researched and well written, this regional study details the evolution of rural society in the Lara region. Argues that coffee production in Duaca produced a large and autonomous peasantry but that, in the early 20th century, local elites used their connections with the centralizing state to monopolize land and resources, curtailing the autonomy of smallholders"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.