Historians of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the self-proclaimed “Workers and Peasants” state, have rarely analyzed “peasants” despite the state's efforts to transform the economic and social relations of village life. East German officials poured resources first into land reforms and ultimately agricultural collectivization, bringing about significant yet incomplete changes to the economic and social composition of the countryside. George Last focuses on the period after many of the most dramatic changes had officially taken place but still needed to be implemented and institutionalized, covering 1959–89. His aim is to “illuminate the changing practice of authority at the grass roots level” and thereby “to contribute to our understanding of the interrelated history of politics and society.” His monograph is an important addition to our understanding not only of the countryside but also the application of communist policies in the GDR.

The book is divided into three equal parts. The first examines the process of collectivization, briefly tracing agrarian policy up to the forced collectivization of the “socialist spring” before examining the process of consolidating the collectives, which initially did not farm collectively and existed more on paper than in reality. The second section concentrates on the policy transitions of the 1960s, including the effects of the New Economic Policy. This section concentrates on the amalgamation of collective farms under new authorities, first the most collaborative type of farm, LPG Type III, then Cooperative Communities. The final section examines the Honecker era, including restructuring collective farms into enterprises specializing in plant production or animal husbandry. This section ultimately focuses on the increasing challenges farmers faced because of supply shortages and illustrates their continued rejection of communist leadership and plans up to 1989.

Throughout the work, Last shows how local allegiances and individual interest often worked at cross purposes to state policy. While this has been well documented for the period up to collectivization, his analysis indicates that these trends continued to work against the state up to the end of the regime. After the Berlin Wall prevented emigration, farmers reluctantly accepted collectivization but preserved as much of their own privileges and economic interests as possible. For instance, Last indicates how farmers in successful collectives resisted cooperating with less productive neighbors. This trend became especially significant as aging collective farmers became unable to meet their obligations and care for their animals. While it clearly was in the state's interest to have able-bodied farmers on all collectives, those more successful did not want to take on the responsibility of other farms, and especially animals, because this type of amalgamation would erode profitability. In this way, state efforts continued to be resisted by collective farmers, even as they had finally accepted the notion of giving up private property.

This work concentrates on one district, Bezirk Erfurt. By adopting a regional approach, Last effectively reveals the interplay of district officials and republic-level leaders. Given his focus on the grassroots level, I would have liked to have seen some use of county archives, which have a good deal of information on everyday life. Last essentially achieves this goal indirectly by focusing on the district level but a county-level analysis may have provided more depth. More problematically, Last argues that he is investigating agrarian policy generally but only cites examples from Erfurt. This border region boasted a concentrated Catholic population and small-scale farming, which could potentially skew the results of data gathered on changes in agricultural society. While it is certainly reasonable that one district can provide a compelling picture of local social change, Last makes no account for the peculiarities of Erfurt in his analysis.

Last accomplishes his goal to interweave politics (and economics) with societal development in the countryside. The work does a fine job of illustrating the continued problems that the state faced in implementing policy. Still, I would have liked to see him concentrate more on the farmers' acceptance of communist agricultural production policies. During this period, a generation of collective farmers embraced the notion of collectives to the point that they continued to farm in cooperatives after unification. Admittedly this process is difficult to chronicle as it happened slowly and in ways less likely to be written in archival sources and therefore less legible to a historian; however, it strikes me as the most intriguing result of the state's economic and political policies during this period.

Despite these limitations, this work is a much-needed addition to the literature of the GDR. Based on access to previously unused records, Last has produced a comprehensive case study of East German agrarian history in the period of consolidation of collectivization. In doing so, he provides historians with an important new vantage point to view the history of communist policy in the GDR.