Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1999
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Mixed Harvest is a good title for a book that documents the complexity of interests involved in twentieth-century farming. A broad swipe at characterization too often substitutes in histories for a more careful analysis in which surface affinities fall apart. Barron uses case studies from selected counties of the battles fought across the East and Midwest over roads, consolidated schools, farmers' grain elevators, and mail-order buying to probe a "second transformation" of American society following the initial spread of industrial capitalism early in the nineteenth century. This "transformation" was marked by centralization of the economy, expansion of state power and professional expertise, and the rise of an urban consumer culture. The story of its effect on farmers and their response to it is a nuanced one.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 19:4 (Fall 1999). Copyright © 1999 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.