“No one has understood this highly complex region during this transformative nineteenth century better than Douglas Hurt, the dean of American agricultural historians. This book is of immense importance for scholars, specialists, and non-specialists alike. In this synthesis of the literature Hurt demonstrates his mastery of both the old agricultural history and the new rural history. It is a tour de force by any measure.”—David Vaught, author of The Farmers’ Game: Baseball in Rural America
“Douglas Hurt, one of the brightest lights in the expanding constellation of midwestern studies, has produced another classic by chronicling the foundational role of yeoman farming in the development of the American Midwest. It will be a critical text for the new midwestern history.”—Jon K. Lauck, editor in chief of Middle West Review
“No one knows more than Douglas Hurt about agriculture in the Midwest. Each of these chapters is replete with facts and insights that at once illuminate the region’s agricultural past and underscore its importance to American development more broadly in the nineteenth century. Hurt demonstrates a remarkable command of primary and secondary sources relating to the topics treated, and his historical judgment is fair and balanced. This book is authoritative and will prove of lasting value.”—Peter Coclanis, author of The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670–1920
