The Culture of Wilderness: Agriculture As Colonization in the American West

by Frieda Knobloch

Overview

In this innovative work of cultural and technological history, Frieda Knobloch describes how agriculture functioned as a colonizing force in the American West between 1862 and 1945. Using agricultural textbooks, USDA documents, and historical accounts of western settlement, she explores the implications of the premise that civilization progresses by bringing agriculture to wilderness. Her analysis is the first to place the trans-Mississippi West in the broad context of European and classical Roman agricultural history. Knobloch shows how western land, plants, animals, and people were subjugated in the name of cultivation and improvement. Illuminating the cultural significance of plows, livestock, trees, grasses, and even weeds, she demonstrates that discourse about agriculture portrays civilization as the emergence of a colonial, socially stratified, and bureaucratic culture from a primitive, feminine, and unruly wilderness. Specifically, Knobloch highlights the displacement of women from their historical role as food gatherers and producers and reveals how Native American land-use patterns functioned as a form of cultural resistance. Describing the professionalization of knowledge, Knobloch concludes that both social and biological diversity have suffered as a result of agricultural 'progress.'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807862544
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Series:	Studies in Rural Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Frieda Knobloch is assistant professor of history at St. Olaf College.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface Acknowledgments

Introduction/Abduction: Capturing a Poetics of Agricultural History
1 Trees
2 Plows
3 Grass
4 Weeds Epilogue: Just the Facts, Ma'am

Notes Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Offers anyone interested in American agriculture or the West a challenging and provocative study.” — Technology and Culture

“Knobloch has effectively debunked the arrogant assertions of those who helped colonize the West, while giving their words more power than they deserve as weapons deployed to tame nature.” — Pacific Northwest Quarterly

“One of the many pleasant surprises of this exciting and ambitious book is how well Knobloch actually accomplishes her goals.” — Journal of American History

“This is a fascinating, well-written and researched book, that moves briskly, with a vigorous, well-supported narrative.” — Western Historical Quarterly

“Beautifully written, wonderfully provocative, and at the same time deeply informative. That’s a combination hard to pull off.” — John Mack Faragher, Yale University

Editorial Reviews

Beautifully written, wonderfully provocative, and at the same time deeply informative.

John Mack Faragher, Yale University

Knobloch has effectively debunked the arrogant assertions of those who helped colonize the West.

"Pacific Northwest Quarterly"

Offers anyone interested in American agriculture or the West a challenging and provocative study.

"Technology and Culture"

One of the many pleasant surprises of this exciting and ambitious book is how well Knobloch actually accomplishes her goals.

"Journal of American History"

This is a fascinating, well-written and researched book, that moves briskly, with a vigorous, well-supported narrative.

"Western Historical Quarterly"

"Beautifully written, wonderfully provocative, and at the same time deeply informative.

John Mack Faragher, Yale University"

"This is a fascinating, well-written and researched book, that moves briskly, with a vigorous, well-supported narrative.

"Western Historical Quarterly""

From the Publisher