------------ 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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