1st Edition

American Farming Culture and the History of Technology

By Joshua T. Brinkman Copyright 2024
290 Pages 42 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

290 Pages 42 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

290 Pages 42 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Presenting a history of agriculture in the American Corn Belt, this book argues that modernization occurred not only for economic reasons but also because of how farmers use technology as a part of their identity and culture. Histories of agriculture often fail to give agency to farmers in bringing about change and ignore how people embed technology with social meaning. This book, however,... Read more

Introduction

Posing with Metal                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                         

Chapter 1

Setting the Stage: The Genealogy of Contemporary Rural Identity in the Midwest                

                                                                                   

 

Chapter 2

“Are We Ready for This?”: Urban Industrialism, Rural Resistance, and Rural-Urban Conflict                                                     

 

Chapter 3

“The Future of an Idea”: Farmer’s Use of Technology to Perform Rural Capitalistic Modernity

 

Chapter 4

“Mother and Radio”: Combatting Urban Gender Stereotypes through Technology Use                                 

 

Chapter 5

Rumbling Down Main Street: Cold War Ideology and the “American Way” Encouraging Rural Capitalistic Modernity                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                       

 

Chapter 6

“We Feed the World”: Rural Globalized Ultramodernity                                                    

 

Chapter 7

“The District of Hicks”: Persistent Urban Views of Farmers as Backward                               

                                                                                   

 

Chapter 8

“Inborn Innovators” or “Hog House Janitors?”: The Acceptance or Rejection of Technologies and Rural Globalized Ultramodernity                                                                

Chapter 9

“Company in the Combine”: Gender, Farming, and Comparing Organic Reformist and Rural Ultramodern Identities

                                               

 

Chapter 10

“There They Go Again”: Understanding Clashes Between Ultramodern Farmers and Organic Advocates Over Food Policy and Reform                       

 

Conclusion

Does it Still Run?       

Biography

Joshua T. Brinkman is Adjunct Professor of History at Elon University and Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech, USA. His work examines how technology and identity shape one another as well as energy, environmental, and agricultural law and policy. He is a contributing author in the Routledge Handbook of Energy Transitions.