Books by Scott Cook

A study of the regional peasant marketing system in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico.

A detailed and comprehensive analysis of small-scale peasant and artisan enterprise in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico.

Heavenly Harvest is designed to be a faith based learning franchise that incorporates life tools from scripture with language arts, health, and wellness. By design, it links the "fruits" of the Spirit with healthy physical and spiritual growth through recognition, consumption, and practice. Because of engaging characters and story lines, children will enjoy reading and writing all while being introduced to the importance of reading labels on packaged food items, and learning about what they eat. Each character in Heavenly Harvest represents a Godly character trait with a corresponding verse from the Bible, a letter, and a number. Parents will have several on-line learning tools available to them such as supplemental web based content accessible from any tablet or mobile device equipped with a QR code reader. Parents will be able to access printable coloring sheets, and writing practice worksheets to augment what students get in their public school or their home school classroom.

Draws on thirty-five years of fieldwork (1965-1990) in the region to present a masterful ethnographic historical account of how nine communities in the Oaxaca Valley have striven to maintain land, livelihood, and civility in the face of transformational and cumulative change across five centuries.

Peasant Capitalist Industry examines the handmade brick industry that originated and is concentrated in a handful of communities near Oaxaca City including Santa Lucia del Camino and Santa Cruz Amilpas. Scott Cook provides a comprehensive analysis of the brick plants (ladrilleras) which are privately owned and operated by individuals in the manufacturing communities who also are engaged in agriculture, either directly or with hired workers. Brick plant owners may or may not actually work as brick makers but all of them are engaged in the business as employers of pieceworkers (destajistas or mileros), and also as sellers of brick. Peasant Capitalist Industry contains detailed information about all aspects of brick manufacturing and marketing in the Oaxaca Valley industry. It also includes case studies of pieceworker and owner-worker household enterprises.