This study is based upon the author's extensive field work among the peasants in the rural areas of Bangladesh. It deals with the problems facing the rural population due to scarcity of land and work opportunities. Different chapters take up the various ways in which ownership of land changes, and how those without land have to compete on the job market and for obtaining land on a sharecropping basis. The book describes and analyzes the various economic strategies rich and poor peasants pursue, and the complex nature of the relationship which exists between them. It discusses why patron-client relationships as a form of alliance between rich and poor peasants are a more typical form of adaptation than alliances based on class interests.