American Dreams, Rural Realities: Family Farms in Crisis / Edition 1

by Peggy F. Barlett

Overview

Using Dodge County, Georgia, as a case study, Peggy Barlett reveals consumerism, individualism, and short-term decision making as the greatest threats to the family farm.

"This book is of value not only to students of agriculture and rural sociology but also to city dwellers attempting to understand the lure and frustration of family farming.—Choice

"An excellent, well-written study that substantially expands our understanding of connections between the micro level of households and the macro level of cultural trends.—American Journal of Sociology

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807843994
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/1993
Series:	Studies in Rural Culture
Edition description:	1
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.74(d)
Lexile:	1530L (what's this?)

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This book is of value not only to students of agriculture and rural sociology but also to city dwellers attempting to understand the lure and frustration of family farming.—Choice



An excellent, well-written study that substantially expands our understanding of connections between the micro level of households and the macro level of cultural trends.—American Journal of Sociology



The 'great farm crisis' of the 1980s finally has a worthy chronicler in Peggy Barlett. During the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, she discovers that a third of all full-time farm operations in her study had failed over a period of five years. Why did these farms lose out while others survived and even flourished? What were the human consequences of such heavy losses? By answering these questions with surprising findings, Barlett enlarges our understanding of the clash between American dreams and harsh realities in American communities, urban as well as rural. This is a book for our time.—Glen H. Elder, Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill



An important contribution to our understanding of how managerial orientation, generational factors, and orientation toward farming influence the survival of family farms during a period of crisis. Her evidence sheds new light on how family farms survive in market economies. The book will be considered the definitive word on the social and economic dynamics of the farm crisis in the 1980s.—Gary P. Green, University of Georgia

Editorial Reviews

This study of family farms in Dodge County, Georgia, examines the social and economic factors that determine success in farming today. Bartlett, a professor of anthropology at Emory University, presents an agrarian history of Dodge County and its changes and transformations from frontier times to the present. The key period of her study is the boom-and-bust decade of the 1980s when the nation was in the grip of a farm crisis. Using data derived from interviews and personal observations of 124 small and medium-scale farm families, Bartlett describes in detail the coping strategies and management approaches of those who were determined to stay in farming and those who left. She explores family histories, personal aspirations, and attitudes about farming as a livelihood. Her interviews with farm women reveal a variety of role definitions and spousal relationships that enable farm families to remain intact. The aftermath of the crisis and its impacts on farm size, resource conservation, and management style offer insights for family farm survival in other communities. Recommended for agricultural economics and rural sociology collections.-- Irwin Weintraub, Rutgers Univ. Libs., Piscataway, N.J.

Library Journal

Through a long-term (1982-1989) study of 156 farm families in Dodge County, Georgia, Barlett takes the measure of the damage from a decade of crisis, and provides a critical look at trends in American farming, their impact on rural community vitality, and the effects of federal farm legislation. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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