Table of Contents

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

About the Author

R. DOUGLAS HURT is a Professor of History at Purdue University. He served as President of the Agricultural History Society and is a former editor of Agricultural History, Missouri Historical Review, and Ohio History. Professor Hurt is the author and editor of numerous books including American Agriculture: A Brief History and Food and Agriculture during the Civil War.