Ch 1: Combining insights from political economy and environmental history

This chapter introduces the book’s main aims, premise, structure, theoretical framework and fundamental arguments. First, it briefly overviews soy’s centrality in the contemporary agrofood system and spells out the originality and importance of a world historical approach. Second, the chapter situates the book’s distinct theoretical position in an area of engagement between political economy and environmental history and formulates and unpacks the operational notion of “soy cycles” in critical dialogue with the “food regime” literature. Third, the chapter lays out the historical periodization and organization of the book, essentially structured around a first soy cycle (from domestication to 900 CE – Chapter 2), a second cycle (from 1000 CE to 1850 – Chapter 3) and a third, current, cycle (from 1860 onwards – Chapters 4 and 5), followed by a concluding chapter (Chapter 6). This introduction closes with a discussion of the main sources and methods deployed throughout the rest of the book.