Born in the Country: A History of Rural America

by David B. Danbom

Overview

The definitive history of life in rural America.

Throughout 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 still is 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421423357
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2017
Series:	Revisiting Rural America
Edition description:	third edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David B. Danbom is professor emeritus of history at North Dakota State University. He is the author of Sod Busting: How Families Made Farms on the Nineteenth-Century Plains and the editor of Bridging the Distance: Common Issues of the Rural West.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Third Edition ix

Preface to the Second Edition xi

Preface to the First Edition xv

1 Rural Europe and Pre-Columbian America 1

2 The Rural Development of English North America 22

3 Maturity and Its Discontents 37

4 Agriculture and Economic Growth in the Young Republic 59

5 Rural Life in the Young Nation 79

6 The Unmaking and Remaking of the Rural South 99

7 Rural America in the Age of Industrialization 121

8 Prosperity and Its Discontents 151

9 From the Best of Times to the Worst 175

10 The New Deal and Rural America 195

11 The Production Revolution and the New Agriculture 220

12 Agriculture and Rural Life in the Twenty-First Century 240

Notes 253

Suggestions for Further Reading 257

Index 275

Editorial Reviews

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

An extremely well-written narrative that presents its information accurately. Danbom's book can well serve the classroom teacher and general reader.
—Agricultural History Review

A highly readable and useful survey.
—Journal of the West

An accessible text for general scholarship and undergraduate courses.
—Agricultural History

A balanced economic, social, political, and technological history of rural America. [Born in the Country] is a splendid book, rich with detail and complex in argument. A superb introduction to American history.
—Agricultural History Review

From the Publisher

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

An extremely well-written narrative that presents its information accurately. Danbom's book can well serve the classroom teacher and general reader.

Agricultural History Review

An accessible text for general scholarship and undergraduate courses.

Agricultural History

A highly readable and useful survey.

Journal of the West

"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

A synthetic history of rural America that integrates the new social history with the old and new political and economic history. Focusing on farm people rather than residents of small towns, treats agriculture, rural culture and society, and agrarian policy as an inseparable web. Begins with rural Europe and pre-Columbian America; traces the fortunes of farming through the colonial and early republican periods, the Civil War and industrialization, prosperity and depression, and the New Deal; and describes the current revolution in production and rural life. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Like the first edition, Danbom has written an accessible text for general scholarship and undergraduate courses."

Agricultural History - Connie L. Lester

"A highly readable and useful survey."

Journal of the West - Jeff Bremer

"An extremely well-written narrative that presents its information accurately... Danbom's book can well serve the classroom teacher and general reader."

Agricultural History Review - Allan G. Bogue

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.

Staff Forum