Description
Book SynopsisThe transformation of agriculture was one of the most far-reaching developments of the modern era. In analyzing how and why this change took place in the United States, scholars have most often focused on Midwestern family farmers, who experienced the change during the first half of the twentieth century, and southern sharecroppers, swept off the land by forces beyond their control. Departing from the conventional story, this book focuses on small farm owners in North Carolina from the post-Civil War era to the post-Civil Rights era. It reveals that the transformation was more protracted and more contested than historians have understood it to be. Even though the number of farm owners gradually declined over the course of the century, the desire to farm endured among landless farmers, who became landowners during key moments of opportunity. Moreover, this book departs from other studies by considering all farm owners as a single class, rejecting the widespread approach of segregating b
Trade ReviewWinner of the H.L. Mitchell Award of the Southern Historical Association
Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Agricultural History Society
Table of ContentsContents Map of Southeastern North Carolina Introduction Chapter 1: On Their Farms and Among Their Pines: The Lower Cape Fear on the Eve of the Civil War Chapter 2: Land for the Poor: The Rise of Small Farm Owners in the Age of Commercial Agriculture Chapter 3: Keep the Stock Law Off Of Us: Defending the Open Range Chapter 4: You Can't Eat Tobacco: The Politics of Self Sufficiency Chapter 5: The Right of the Little Man to Live: Small Farm Owners and the Agricultural Adjustment Act Chapter 6: From Foxholes to Farms: The GI Bill and the Enduring Agrarian Ideal Chapter 7: Nice Work If You Can Get It: Small Farm Owners and Part-Time Work Chapter 8: These Catastrophe Days: Federal Farm Policy During the 1950s Chapter 9: Nailing the Small Farmer in the Coffin: The Politics of Tobacco and the Agrarian Ideal Conclusion Bibliography Notes Index
