Maoists at the Hearth Everyday Life in Nepal's Civil War

"Unpretentious and insightful, Maoists at the Hearth is the very best writing I have encountered on the impact of the Maoist movement in Nepal from the perspective of villagers. An incredible ethnography."-David Holmberg, Cornell University "No other anthropologist of Nepal, whether foreign or Nepali, has returned so often and so devotedly to the same place throughout the course of the conflict. In doing so, [Judith Pettigrew] has gathered the material for a highly poignant and unique record of village Nepal. She knew the village intimately before the Maoists arrived, she tracked the Maoists' first encounters with the villagers, she saw them become the local sarkar or legitimate government in the eyes of the villagers, she was present at the election of 2008, and she has seen the Maoists become just one political party among others, with members in the village... Pettigrew's detailed and person-centered ethnographic description conveys lessons about the war that can perhaps be learned in no other way."-From the Foreword by David N. Gellner