“Why peasants revolt?” is the subject of this book. In particular, the study explains the causes of the Huk rebellion, a rural uprising that raged across central Luzon in the Philippines from 1946 to the early 1950s. Kerkvliet shows that some causes of the rebellion can be traced to adverse agrarian conditions in the 1920s. Other causes were government and landlords’ hostile responses to peasants’ organizations and increasing electoral strength in the 1930s and mid 1940s. Aspects of the Japanese occupation in the Philippines (1942-1945) were also important factors. In a concluding chapter, Kerkvliet explains how his findings differ from those of earlier writers and offers propositions relevant to peasant … Continue reading Benedict J. Kerkvliet