Download or read book Farm Families and Change in 20th Century America written by Mark Friedberger and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The farm family is a unique institution, perhaps the last remnant, in an increasingly complex world, of a simpler social order in which economic and domestic activities were inextricably bound together. In the past few years, however, American agriculture has suffered huge losses, and family farmers have seen their way of life threatened by economic forces beyond their control. At a time when agriculture is at a crossroads, this study provides a needed historical perspective on the problems family farmers have faced since the turn of the century. For analysis Mark Friedberger has chosen two areas where agriculture retains major importance in the local economy—Iowa and California's Central Valley. Within these two geographic areas he examines farm families with regard to their farming methods, land tenure, inheritance practices, use of credit, and community relations. These aspects are then compared to assess change in rural society and to discern trends in the future of family farming. Despite the shocks endured by family farmers at various times in this century, Friedberger finds that some families have remained remarkably resilient. These families evinced a strong commitment to their way of life. They sought to own their land; they maintained inheritance from one generation to the next; they were generally conservative in using credit; and they preferred to diversify their enterprises. These practices served them well in good times and in bad. Innovative in its use of a combination of documentary sources, quantitative methods, and direct observation, this study makes an important contribution to the history of American agriculture and of American society.

Download or read book Farm Families Change in Twentieth century America written by Mark Friedberger and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The farm family is a unique institution, perhaps the last remnant, in an increasingly complex world, of a simpler social order in which economic and domestic activities were inextricably bound together. In the past few years, however, American agriculture has suffered huge losses, and family farmers have seen their way of life threatened by economic forces beyond their control. At a time when agriculture is at a crossroads, this study provides a needed historical perspective on the problems family farmers have faced since the turn of the century.

Download or read book Class Gender and the American Family Farm in the 20th Century written by Elizabeth A. Ramey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrating a focus on gender with Marx’s surplus-based notion of class, this book offers a one-of-a-kind analysis of family farms in the United States. The analysis shows how gender and class struggles developed during important moments in the history of these family farms shaped the trajectory of U.S. agricultural development. It also generates surprising insights about the family farm we thought we knew, as well as the food and agricultural system today. Elizabeth A. Ramey theorizes the family farm as a complex hybrid of mostly feudal and ancient class structures. This class-based definition of the family farm yields unique insights into three broad aspects of U.S. agricultural history. First, the analysis highlights the crucial, yet under-recognized role of farm women and children’s unpaid labor in subsidizing the family farm. Second, it allows for a new, class-based perspective on the roots of the twentieth century "miracle of productivity" in U.S. agriculture, and finally, the book demonstrates how the unique set of contradictions and circumstances facing family farmers during the early twentieth century, including class exploitation, was connected to concern for their ability to serve the needs of U.S. industrial capitalist development. The argument presented here highlights the significant costs associated with the intensification of exploitation in the transition to industrial agriculture in the U.S. When viewed through the lens of class, the hallowed family farm becomes an example of one of the most exploitative institutions in the U.S. economy. This book is suitable for students who study economic history, agricultural studies, and labor economics.

Download or read book Shake Out written by Mark Friedberger and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The farm crisis of the 1980s quickly became a media event, with scenes depicted starkly in black and white on color TV. The embattled farmers, accompanied by their advocates, stood holding off bankers and sheriffs wielding foreclosure notices. In this new book, using findings from interviews and participant observation, agricultural historian Mark Friedberger peels away the emotion and rhetoric of the "save the family farm" movement to provide a realistic picture of what happened in on important farm state. Shake-out: Iowa Farm Families in the 1980s depicts the farm crisis of the 1980s in all its complexity, providing a useful corrective to popular accounts. Friedberger's approach and his focus on individuals present the problem in America's heartland at a truly grass roots level. Those seeking a better understanding of American agriculture in the 1980s and of rural life generally will find it invaluable.

Download or read book A Revolution Down on the Farm written by Paul K. Conkin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

Download or read book Family Life in 20th Century America written by Marilyn Coleman Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-04-30 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other century promoted such rapid change in American families than the twentieth century did. Through most of the first half of the century families were two-parent plus children units, but by the 1980s and 1990s divorce was common in half of the homes and many families were single-parent or included step-parents, step-siblings and half-siblings. The major changes in opinions and even some laws on race, gender and sexuality during the 1960s and 1970s brought change to families as well. Some families were headed by gay parents, lived in communes or other non-traditional homes, were of mixed race, or had adopted children. Family life had changed dramatically in less than 50 years. The change in the core make-up of what was considered a family ushered in new celebrations and holidays, ways of cooking, eating, and entertainment, and even daily activities. In this detailed look at family life in America, Coleman, Ganong and Warzinick discuss home and work, family ceremonies and celebrations, parenting and children, divorce and single-parent homes, gay and lesbian families, as well as cooking and meals, urban vs. suburban homes, and ethnic and minority families. Reference resources include a timeline, sources for further reading, photographs and an index. Volumes in the Family Life in America series focus on the day-to-day lives and roles of families throughout history. The roles of all family members are defined and information on daily family life, the role of the family in society, and the ever-changing definition of the term family' are discussed. Discussion of the nuclear family, single parent homes, foster and adoptive families, stepfamilies, and gay and lesbian families are included where appropriate. Topics such as meal planning, homes, entertainment and celebrations, are discussed along with larger social issues that originate in the home like domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, and divorce. Ideal for students and general readers alike, books in this series bring the history of everyday people to life.

Download or read book Putting the Barn Before the House written by Grey Osterud and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Putting the Barn Before the House features the voices and viewpoints of women born before World War I who lived on family farms in south-central New York. As she did in her previous book, Bonds of Community, for an earlier period in history, Grey Osterud explores the flexible and varied ways that families shared labor and highlights the strategies of mutuality that women adopted to ensure they had a say in family decision making. Sharing and exchanging work also linked neighboring households and knit the community together. Indeed, the culture of cooperation that women espoused laid the basis for the formation of cooperatives that enabled these dairy farmers to contest the power of agribusiness and obtain better returns for their labor. Osterud recounts this story through the words of the women and men who lived it and carefully explores their views about gender, labor, and power, which offered an alternative to the ideas that prevailed in American society. Most women saw "putting the barn before the house"-investing capital and labor in productive operations rather than spending money on consumer goods or devoting time to mere housework-as a necessary and rational course for families who were determined to make a living on the land and, if possible, to pass on viable farms to the next generation. Some women preferred working outdoors to what seemed to them the thankless tasks of urban housewives, while others worked off the farm to support the family. Husbands and wives, as well as parents and children, debated what was best and negotiated over how to allocate their limited labor and capital and plan for an uncertain future. Osterud tells the story of an agricultural community in transition amid an industrializing age with care and skill.

Download or read book American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century written by Bruce L. Gardner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2006-03-31 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American agriculture in the twentieth century has given the world one of its great success stories, a paradigm of productivity and plenty. Yet the story has its dark side, from the plight of the Okies in the 1930s to the farm crisis of the 1980s to today's concerns about low crop prices and the impact of biotechnology. Looking at U.S. farming over the past century, Bruce Gardner searches out explanations for both the remarkable progress and the persistent social problems that have marked the history of American agriculture. Gardner documents both the economic difficulties that have confronted farmers and the technological and economic transformations that have lifted them from relative poverty to economic parity with the nonfarm population. He provides a detailed analysis of the causes of these trends, with emphasis on the role of government action. He reviews how commodity support programs, driven by interest-group politics, have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to little purpose. Nonetheless, Gardner concludes that by reconciling competing economic interests while fostering productivity growth and economic integration of the farm and nonfarm economies, the overall twentieth-century role of government in American agriculture is fairly viewed as a triumph of democracy.

Download or read book Families in Troubled Times written by Rand Conger and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book documents the experiences of rural Iowa families, who lived through the "farm crisis" years of the 1980s, in a fashion that might help families of the future cope more successfully with economic reversals. The documentation could be used to fashion more effective social policies.

Download or read book The Agricultural Revolution of the 20th Century written by Don Paarlberg and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-02-28 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book for a varied audience: college students of agriculture and sociology; high school students of vocation agriculture; members of the American Agricultural Economics Association; people with a long-standing background in agriculture; and other readers interested in 20th century agriculture. The book reads like a story and is supplemented with excellent photographs, contrasting past practices with modern technology.

Download or read book The Transformation of Rural Life written by Jane Adams and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Adams focuses on the transformation of rural life in Union County, Illinois, as she explores the ways in which American farming has been experienced and understood in the twentieth century. Reconstructing the histories of seven farms, she places the details of daily life within the context of political and economic change. Adams identifies contradictions that, on a personal level, influenced relations between children and parents, men and women, and bosses and laborers, and that, more generally, changed structures of power within the larger rural community. In this historical ethnography, Adams traces two contradictory narratives: one stresses plenitude--rich networks of neighbors and kin, the ability to supply families from the farm, the generosity shown to those in need--while the other stresses the acute hardships and oppressive class, gender, and age inequities that characterized farm life. The New Deal and World War II disrupted both patterns, as the increased capital necessary for successful farming forced many to move from agriculture to higher-paid nonfarm work. This shift also changed the structure of the farm household, as homes modernized and women found work off the farm. Adams concludes that large-scale bureaucracies leveled existing class distinctions and that community networks eroded as farmers came to realize an improved standard of living.

Download or read book The Church and the Land written by David S Bovée and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A history of the American Catholic Churchs policy toward rural issues in the past century*

Download or read book Between Memory and Reality written by Jane Marie Pederson and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the small communities of Wisconsin a rich blend of European cultures and practices survive. These communities and their people are unique in the ways they have responded to change in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century.

Download or read book Born in the Country written by David B. Danbom and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-10-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated edition: “A balanced economic, social, political, and technological history of rural America . . . A splendid book, rich with detail.” —Agricultural History Review Through most of its history, America has been a rural nation, largely made up of farmers. David B. Danbom’s Born in the Country was the first—and is still the only—general history of rural America. Ranging from pre-Columbian times to the enormous changes of the twentieth century, the book masterfully integrates agricultural, technological, and economic themes with new questions about the American experience. Danbom employs the stories of particular farm families to illustrate the experiences of rural people. This substantially revised and updated third edition: • expands and deepens its coverage of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries • focuses on the changes in agriculture and rural life in the progressive and New Deal eras as well as the massive shifts that have taken place since 1945 • adds new information about African American and Native American agricultural experiences • discusses the decline of agriculture as a productive enterprise and its impact on farm families and communities • explores rural culture, gender issues, agriculture, and the environment • traces the relationship among farmers, agribusiness, and consumers In a new and provocative concluding chapter, Danbom reflects on increasing consumer disenchantment with and resistance to modern agriculture as well as the transformation of rural America into a place where farmers are a shrinking minority. Ultimately, he asks whether a distinctive style of rural life exists any longer in the United States. “A delightful story tracing the social history of U.S. farmers. The book details the attitudes and social life of farm people?how they looked at themselves and how the rest of society saw them.” —Forum

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Agricultural History written by Jeannie Whayne and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-02-08 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural history has enjoyed a rebirth in recent years, in part because the agricultural enterprise promotes economic and cultural connections in an era that has become ever more globally focused, but also because of agriculture's potential to lead to conflicts over precious resources. The Oxford Handbook of Agricultural History reflects this rebirth and examines the wide-reaching implications of agricultural issues, featuring essays that touch on the green revolution, the development of the Atlantic slave plantation, the agricultural impact of the American Civil War, the rise of scientific and corporate agriculture, and modern exploitation of agricultural labor.

Download or read book Hollywood Sports Movies and the American Dream written by Grant Wiedenfeld and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Through the heart of Hollywood cinema runs a surprising current of progressive politics. Sports movies, a genre that has flourished since the mid-seventies, evoke the American dream and represent the nation to itself. Once considered mere credos for Reaganism, on closer view, movies from Rocky (1976) to Ali (2001) dream of democratic participation and recognition more than individual success. In every case, off-field relationships take precedence over on-field competition. Arranged chronologically, this critical study of six major sports films also tells the story of multiculturalism's gradual adoption. The mainstream's first minority heroes are paradoxically white ethnic, rural, working-class men, exemplified by Rocky, Slap Shot (1977) and The Natural (1984); Black, brown, and women characters follow in White Men Can't Jump (1992), A League of Their Own (1992), and Ali. But despite their insistence on community and diversity these popular dramas show limited faith in civic institutions. Hannah Arendt, Jeffrey Alexander, and others inform original analysis and commentary on the political significance of popular culture. Reading these familiar movies from another angle paints a fresh picture of how the United States has imagined democracy since its bicentennial"--

Download or read book Farmers Helping Farmers written by Nancy K. Berlage and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2016-07-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Organizational structure: the rise of the local farm bureau -- Organizational strategy: economic, political, and social functions -- Science, cultural authority, and the farm bureau: bovine tuberculosis -- Home bureaus and the sciences of separate spheres -- Women and the agricultural occupation -- Reproducing the farm family: youth clubs, gender, and science -- Conclusion