Provides a solid foundation for understanding American agricultural history and offers new directions for research
A Companion to American Agricultural History addresses the key aspects of America's complex agricultural past from 8,000 BCE to the first decades of the twenty-first century. Bringing together more than thirty original essays by both established and emerging scholars, this innovative volume presents a succinct and accessible overview of American agricultural history while delivering a state-of-the-art assessment of modern scholarship on a diversity of subjects, themes, and issues.
The essays provide readers with starting points for their exploration of American agricultural history—whether in general or in regards to a specific topic—and highlights the many ways the agricultural history of America is of integral importance to the wider American experience. Individual essays trace the origin and development of agricultural politics and policies, examine changes in science, technology, and government regulations, offer analytical suggestions for new research areas, discuss matters of ethnicity and gender in American agriculture, and more. This Companion:
Introduces readers to a uniquely wide range of topics within the study of American agricultural history
Provides a narrative summary and a critical examination of field-defining works
Introduces specific topics within American agricultural history such as agrarian reform, agribusiness, and agricultural power and production
Discusses the impacts of American agriculture on different groups including Native Americans, African Americans, and European, Asian, and Latinx immigrants
Views the agricultural history of America through new interdisciplinary lenses of race, class, and the environment
Explores depictions of American agriculture in film, popular music, literature, and art
A Companion to American Agricultural History is an essential resource for introductory students and general readers seeking a concise overview of the subject, and for graduate students and scholars wanting to learn about a particular aspect of American agricultural history.
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction 1
R. Douglas Hurt
Part I Regional 3
1 Native American Agriculture before European Contact 5
Gayle Fritz
2 North American Colonial Agriculture 23
Taylor Spence
3 Early National America, 1789-1830: Laying the Foundation for Nineteenth-Century Agricultural Growth 37
James L. Huston
4 Agricultural Power and Production in Antebellum America 47
Kelly Houston Jones
5 Making the Rural Midwest: Commodities and Communities 60
J.L. Anderson
6 The Great Plains 75
Thomas D. Isern
7 Post-Civil War Southern Agriculture 89
Jeannie Whayne
8 Three Eras of California Agriculture: Wheat, Specialty Crops, Cotton 102
David Vaught
9 American Indian Agriculture 115
David H. DeJong
10 Cities and Agriculture in America 129
Andrew C. Baker
Part II Science, Technology, and Environment 145
11 The Historians' Corner: American Agricultural Science 147
Alan I Marcus
12 Agricultural Technology 161
Paul Nienkamp
13 Plant Sciences: A Brief History 175
Karen-Beth G. Scholthof
14 A Counterculture Agriculture: Organic Farming in a Commercial Food Age 188
David D. Vail
15 Agricultural History's Agroecological Turn 200
Mark D. Hersey and Albert G. Way
Part III Ethnicity and Gender 213
16 African Americans in Twentieth-Century Agriculture 215
Cherisse Jones-Branch
17 Gender and Agriculture 229
Sara Egge
18 Migrant Labor 244
Nancy Gabin
Part IV Politics and Policy 255
19 Evolving Boundaries: "The People's Department" across Three Centuries 257
Anne Effland
20 Agrarian Reform: The Grange, the Farmers' Alliance, and Populism 272
Connie L. Lester
21 Agricultural Organization in the Twentieth Century: Progressives, Radicals, and Social Activists 286
Nancy K. Berlage
22 The Development of American Agricultural Policy 300
Jonathan Coppess
23 Irrigation, Reclamation, and Water Rights 314
Brian Q. Cannon
24 Consumers, Producers, and the Shifting Logic of Food Safety 327
Kendra Smith-Howard
25 Meatpacking 341
Wilson J. Warren
26 Agribusiness 354
Peter A. Coclanis
Part V Culture 371
27 Rural Life 373
Megan Birk
28 Agriculture and Art 389
Travis Nygard
29 Agriculture in US Literature 409
Kathryn C. Dolan
30 The Blues, Country Music, and American Agriculture 421
Joseph M. Thompson
31 Agriculture and Film 436
Debra A. Reid
Bibliography 453
Sara E. Morris
Index 551
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