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Problems of plenty : the American farmer in the twentieth century / R. Douglas Hurt.
LIBRA S441 .H925 2002
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Hurt, R. Douglas.
- Series:
- American ways series
- The American ways series
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Agriculture--United States--History--20th century.
- Agriculture.
- Agriculture and state--United States--History--20th century.
- Agriculture and state.
- Agriculture--Economic aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Agriculture--Economic aspects.
- History.
- United States.
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 192 pages ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, [2002]
- Summary:
- Great scientific and technological breakthroughs in the twentieth century enabled American farmers to produce bountiful harvests that ensured an abundant and relatively cheap food supply. But this agricultural wealth had its problems. As farmers became more productive, their surplus commodities glutted the market and drove prices down. With few exceptions, and despite their increased productivity, farmers thus found it difficult to earn an adequate standard of living. Douglas Hurt traces these fundamental developments in "Problems of Plenty, a compact narrative history of American agriculture over the last century. Mr. Hurt shows how farm men and women looked more and more to the federal government, and how federal farm policy therefore helped shape farming both as a business and as a way of life.
- Contents:
- 1 The Progressive Era 3
- A regional survey
- Age of prosperity
- The Country Life movement
- Agricultural organizations
- Reformers, farmers, and the regulatory state
- Agricultural education
- Expansion of federal power
- World War I
- 2 The Age of Uncertainty 41
- Postwar decline
- Science and technology
- The Farm Bloc
- The McNary-Haugen plan
- The Agricultural Marketing Act
- 3 The New Deal 67
- The Agricultural Adjustment Administration
- The Commodity Credit Corporation
- Dust Bowl
- Resettlement and Farm Security
- Rural electrification
- The farm lobby
- 4 Prosperity and Decline 97
- World War II
- Postwar problems
- Agribusiness
- 5 Fallout 124
- The policy of dependency
- Collapse
- Embargo
- 6 Century's End 154
- Farm subsidies
- Genetically modified crops
- Environmental concerns
- A new agricultural policy.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-181) and index.
- ISBN:
- 1566634636
- 1566634628
- OCLC:
- 49698960
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