Between 1910 and 1970, Latin America experienced a rapid and radical transformation. Rural societies became urban, and peasants found themselves forced into precarious wage labor. The Latin American novel became the key witness to this upheaval, revealing capitalism’s violent remaking of country and city alike.

In Agrarian Questions, Ericka Beckman shows how these novels illuminate an epochal reshaping of land and labor—gifting readers with insights that continue to resonate in a world of increasing urban precarity.