American georgics : writings on farming, culture, and the land / edited by Edwin C. Hagenstein, Sara M. Gregg, and Brian Donahue ; foreword by Wes Jackson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Donahue, Brian, 1955-

Gregg, Sara M.

Hagenstein, Edwin C.

Series:

Yale agrarian studies.

Yale agrarian studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agricultural ecology--United States.

Agricultural ecology.

Agriculture--United States--History.

Agriculture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (427 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to Michelle Obama's White House organic garden, the image of America as a nation of farmers has persisted from the beginnings of the American experiment. In this rich and evocative collection of agrarian writing from the past two centuries, writers from Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur to Wendell Berry reveal not only the great reach and durability of the American agrarian ideal, but also the ways in which society has contested and confronted its relationship to agriculture over the course of generations.Drawing inspiration from Virgil's agrarian epic poem, Georgics, this collection presents a complex historical portrait of the American character through its relationship to the land. From the first European settlers eager to cultivate new soil, to the Transcendentalist, utopian, and religious thinkers of the nineteenth century, American society has drawn upon the vision of a pure rural life for inspiration. Back-to-the-land movements have surged and retreated in the past centuries yet provided the agrarian roots for the environmental movement of the past forty years. Interpretative essays and a sprinkling of illustrations accompany excerpts from each of these periods of American agrarian thought, providing a framework for understanding the sweeping changes that have confronted the nation's landscape.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Brief Contents

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. Shaping the Agrarian Republic, 1780-1825

2. A Nation of Farmers: The Promise and Peril of American Agriculture, 1825-1860

3. The Machine in the Garden: The Rise of American Romanticism

4. Agriculture in an Industrializing Nation, 1860-1910

5. Agrarians in an Industrial Nation, 1900-1945

6. Southern Agrarianism, 1925-1940

7. Back to the Land Again, 1940-Present

Conclusion: American Agrarianism in the Twenty-first Century

Bibliography

Selection Credits

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-09626-9

9786613096265

0-300-17184-6

OCLC:

923595984