To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil

In the country with the widest income gap between rich and poor and where millions of children fend for themselves on city streets, one of the world’s most successful grassroots social movements has arisen. To Inherit the Earth tells the dramatic story of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement, or MST–millions of desperately poor, landless, jobless men and women who, through their own nonviolent efforts, have secured rights to over 20 million acres of farmland. Not only are the MST fighting for their own rights, they are transforming their society into a more just one–and their approach may offer the best solution yet to Brazil’s environmental problems in the Amazon and elsewhere.

Authors Wright and Wolford put the movement in its historical, political, and environmental context, trace its growth, and address the issues the MST faces going forward. And throughout, they share dozens of personal stories of people in the movement—stories filled with tremendous courage, personal sacrifice, faith, humor, drama, and determination.