Make Cheese Not War

Name: Make Cheese Not War
Price: 240.22 AUD
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ISBN: 9781526175878

Transnational Resistance and the Larzac in Modern France

Andrew W. M. Smith

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Manchester University Press
24 February 2026

Social & cultural history; Political ideologies; Political activism; Pressure groups & lobbying; Environmentalist thought & ideology

Series: Studies in Modern French and Francophone History

In 1971, the French government announced a massive extension of its military base on the Larzac plateau in southern France. Land was to be expropriated from 107 farms around the small town of La Cavalerie. Limited resistance was expected, but what happened next exceeded all expectations.

Local sheep farmers set up protest camps and occupied the land. They soon attracted an astonishing level of support, pioneering a form of regional radicalism with global implications. Drawing out the international dimensions of the protest, Make cheese not war explores a transnational resistance movement in the 1970s that challenged dominant visions of modernity and became a wellspring of radical alternatives. Exploring previously unconsulted archives in France and elsewhere, the book offers an in-depth analysis of the decade-long peasant movement and its aftermath.

Repositioning the Larzac struggle within a wider network of French and international solidarities, from the US to the UK, Germany, Burkina Faso, New Caledonia and Japan, the book retraces political networks of pacifist activism, as well as environmental movements and anti-nuclear protest. It shows how this French peasant campaign became both a platform and a model for popular engagement.

By: Andrew W. M. Smith
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 61mm
Weight: 546g
ISBN: 9781526175878
ISBN 10: 1526175878
Series: Studies in Modern French and Francophone History
Pages: 344
Publication Date: 24 February 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Andrew W. M. Smith is Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts at Queen Mary, University of London.