Jane Adams focuses on the transformation of rural life in Union County, Illinois, as she explores the ways in which American farming has been experienced and understood in the twentieth century. Reconstructing the histories of seven farms, she places the details of daily life within the context of political and economic change. Adams identifies contradictions that influenced relations between children and parents, men and women, and bosses and laborers, and the changed structures of power within the larger rural community. Adams's engaging study traces the changing national and international context within which American farmers have operated yet maintains a focus on the farm families themselves, primarily by drawing on their unique oral histories.
Synopsis from Choice
"'Little Egypt,' as Southern Illinois has been known since 1816, is the regional context of a series of seven farm case studies by Adams which aim to illustrate how farming and farm life has changed over the past century. Women's roles in supporting the agricultural enterprise is a central theme, as are changes in rural social life after World War II." (Choice) Bibliography. Index.
Drawing information from a broad range of primary sources--especially extended personal interviews with older residents--Adams, an anthropologist, creates a detailed profile of life on Union County farms. . . . The book includes period photographs, graphs, and diagrams. Recommended for college and university libraries.
K.B. Raitz - Choice
Table of Contents
Preface. To Refresh the Minds of Its People xv
Acknowledgments xxv
Chapter 1 The Way It Was 1
Chapter 2 And We Called It Union County 37
Chapter 3 We Never Wanted for Anything 49
Chapter 4 We Worked Can See to Can't See 73
Chapter 5 All I Knew Was to Work 84
Chapter 6 House of Plenty, House of Poor 108
Chapter 7 We Were the Fattest People Ever Going to the Poor House 132
Chapter 8 God Bless Franklin Roosevelt 144
Chapter 9 Labor Got So Tight 162
Chapter 10 It Was Either I Work or We Sell the Farm 185
Chapter 11 We Used to Eat Inside and Shit Outside; Now We Eat Outside and Shit Inside 199
Chapter 12 When They Retired, They Came Back Home 226
Chapter 13 What Good Old Days? 243
Notes 255
Sources 279
Index
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