------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (February 2006)
Dennis S. Nordin and Roy V. Scott, _From Prairie Farmer to
Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture_.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. xvi + 376 pp. $65
(cloth), ISBN: 0-253-34571-5.
Reviewed for EH.NET by David Danbom, Department of History, North
Dakota State University.
The changing nature of Midwestern agriculture is not a fresh topic.
It has been addressed frequently over the past quarter century or
more, both specifically [1], and as part of larger treatments of
change in American agriculture generally.[2] Usually chronicles of
agriculture's evolution -- or devolution -- express regret that the
world of small family farms, close neighborhoods, and one-room
schools has passed from the scene.
In _From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur_, however, Dennis S. Nordin
and Roy V. Scott take a path less traveled, generally avoiding
expressions of nostalgia for traditional farming and regret for
agriculture's relative demographic and economic decline, and praising
agriculture's survivors as sophisticated entrepreneurs.
The origins of this book are noteworthy. Over the course of his long
and distinguished career in the Department of History at Mississippi
State University, Roy Scott "accumulated an extensive collection ...
on twentieth-century Midwestern agriculture" (p. xiii), which he
hoped to make the basis for a book. Unable to carry out this task
alone, he called on Dennis Nordin to serve as co-author. Nordin ended
up doing most of the writing.
The authors define the elusive "Midwest" as "states that grow corn"
-- specifically, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and
Minnesota, along with eastern portions of Kansas, Nebraska, and the
Dakotas, and the western part of Ohio (p. 1). They present the story
of change in agriculture and, to a lesser extent, rural life in this
region, guided by their thesis that "the 1900s can be considered a
century of struggle on North Central farms, a period when a grower
either invested wisely and succeeded or squandered opportunities and
left the profession" (p. xv).
Most of the book details that struggle and how successful farmers
overcame the myriad problems confronting them. Among the topics the
authors emphasize are the challenges presented by the environment and
the economy, technological change (toward which they take a decidedly
whiggish view), shifting government programs (usually discussed in an
administration-by-administration manner), and the increasing
sophistication of farmers as producers and "entrepreneurs." By the
end of the century, "entrepreneurial agriculture" had triumphed,
bringing forth the "Midwestern agricultural miracle, a blessing that
continues to provide an ever-growing population of consumers with
abundant food at low prices" (pp. 204-05).
The combination of techno-capitalist triumphalism and Social
Darwinism within this book will be deeply offensive to many,
particularly those with a romantic view of agriculture and rural
life. But the main problem with _From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur_
is not the destination so much as the journey. Indeed, readers will
find this a deeply flawed book which lacks sophistication and nuance
and which does not, in the end, defend its point of view effectively.
Let's begin with the thesis. Can farmers really be divided into
"those who invested wisely and succeeded or squandered opportunities
and left the profession?" I would argue that most of those who left
agriculture after 1945 were not failures who "squandered
opportunities." Most were commercial producers who saw better ways to
deploy their capital or who grew too old to farm and lacked children
interested in succeeding them. In my state of North Dakota half of
the farm land is owned by out-of-staters, mostly heirs of commercial
farmers who "left the profession," but not because they "squandered
opportunities." In addition to ignoring the complex reasons why some
farmers stay while others leave, Nordin and Scott embrace the false
notion held in the least-sophisticated precincts of the discipline of
agricultural economics that good managers succeed and poor managers
fail. Well, poor managers succeed sometimes and good ones don't. Real
life is complicated.
Then there's the problem of the focus on the Midwest. Even if we
accept the definition of the Midwest as "states that grow corn," we
must recognize -- as the authors too frequently fail to do -- that
other states and nations also grow corn, soybeans, beef, and pork. We
have to recognize that their production decisions, and the production
decisions of those who raise competitive meat animals and/or feed
grains, have an impact on the farming economy of the Midwest. And we
have to recognize that their experiences with technology, trade, and
government agricultural policies are similar to those of the Midwest.
The Midwest is unique only if similar places under similar conditions
are ignored. Not always, but often, that is the course the authors
take.
What is even more disturbing, however, in a book that celebrates
farmers' business sense, is the weak understanding the authors
demonstrate of many of the fundamental economic realities of
twentieth-century agriculture. Among other errors of commission and
omission, the authors show little understanding of the significance
of export markets to the well-being of Midwestern agriculture; they
confuse increases in production with increases in productivity; they
suggest that farm operators were actually harmed by rising farm
prices; they fail to recognize how the United States' new status as
the world's leading creditor after World War I diminished export
markets; they seem not to understand that overproduction occurs when
consumers are unable or unwilling to consume whatever is produced,
regardless of what they consumed previously; they fail to note that
the inelasticity of agricultural commodity prices contributes to
disproportionate price swings; and they do not recognize the
centrality of dollar devaluation in 1971 to the agricultural boom of
the ensuing decade. The agricultural economy is complex, and is
shaped by numerous forces beyond the ability of "entrepreneurs" to
control, regardless of how advanced their management skills may be.
Too often that complexity is lost or ignored in this book.
A series of misunderstandings, confusions, and contradictions further
mars the book. The authors assume, incorrectly, that tenancy
necessarily connotes economic disadvantage or hardship (p. 9). They
fall into the farmer's habit of blaming others (e.g., the government,
the banks, and even vegetarians) for agriculture's troubles. They
misunderstand the nature of rural-urban population shifts during the
1930s. They contradict themselves, as when they argue that the Golden
Age of Agriculture was and wasn't. They impart "self-sufficiency' to
Midwestern farms in 1900, when they weren't, and in 1945, when
farmers couldn't even remember being self-sufficient. And they
overstate, as on page 172 when they contend that, after 1945,
"farmers placed blind faith in science and technology." The authors
put sixty charts in the book to help make their points. Usually these
help, but sometimes they are senseless, pointless, or simply curious.
For example, what is a chart on stress in rural life in 1974 doing in
a chapter on the 1900-1920 period? And why does a chart on the number
of radios on Midwestern farms count the devices only in 1925 and 1927?
Adding to the confusion are infelicitous prose choices. The authors
sometimes jump into the future tense, or mix it with the past tense,
for no apparent reason. They believe that "distances from farms to
... consumers increased as roads ... improved" (p. 66). And they
argue that hog producers "increasingly stopped" selling animals on
open markets (pp. 184-85). Enough said.
Nordin and Scott have a lot of good material here and a valid point
to make. Unfortunately, the numerous flaws in _From Prairie Farmer to
Entrepreneur_ prevent them from making a significant contribution to
our understanding of agricultural change in the Midwest.
Notes:
1. See, for example, Jane Adams, _The Transformation of Rural Life:
Southern Illinois, 1890-1990_ (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1994), and Mary Neth, _Preserving the Family Farm:
Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest,
1900-1940_ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
2. See, for example, David B. Danbom, _Born in the Country: A History
of Rural America_ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995),
Hiram M. Drache, _History of U.S. Agriculture and Its Relevance to
Today_ (Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers, 1996), Gilbert C. Fite,
_American Farmers: The New Minority_ (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1981), R. Douglas Hurt, _Problems of Plenty: The American
Farmer in the Twentieth Century_ (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002), John
T. Schlebecker, _Whereby We Thrive: A History of American
Agriculture, 1609-1972_ (Ames: Iowa State University, 1975), and John
L. Shover, _First Majority, Last Minority: The Transforming of Rural
Life in America_ (De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1976).
David Danbom is professor of history at North Dakota State
University. His most recent book is _Going It Alone: Fargo Grapples
with the Great Depression_ (2005).
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