Down and Out on the Family Farm: Rural Rehabilitation in the Great Plains, 1929-1945 (Our Sustainable Future) - Softcover

Grant, Michael Johnston

 
9780803271050: Down and Out on the Family Farm: Rural Rehabilitation in the Great Plains, 1929-1945 (Our Sustainable Future)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0803271050 ISBN 13: 9780803271050
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2002

Synopsis

Focusing on the Great Plains states of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota between 1929 and 1945, Down and Out on the Family Farm examines small family farmers and the Rural Rehabilitation Program designed to help them. Historian Michael Johnston Grant reveals the tension between economic forces that favored large-scale agriculture and political pressure that championed family farms, and the results of that clash. The Great Depression and the drought of the 1930s lay bare the long-term economic instability of the rural Plains. The New Deal introduced the Rural Rehabilitation Program to assist lower- to middle-income farmers throughout the country. This program combined low-interest loans with managerial advice. However, these efforts were not enough to compete with the growing scale of agriculture or to counter the recurring drought of the era. Regional conservatism, environmental factors, and fiscal constraints limited the federal aid offered to thousands of families. Grant provides extensive primary source research from government documents, as well as letters, newspaper editorials, and case studies that focus on individual lives and fortunes. He examines who these families were and what their farms looked like, and he sheds light on the health problems and other personal concerns that interfered with the economic viability of many farms. The result is a provocative study that gives a human face to the hardships and triumphs of modern agriculture. Michael Johnston Grant has a Ph.D. in history. He works for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Michael Johnston Grant has a Ph.D. in history. He works for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Publication date
2002
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0803271050
ISBN 13 
9780803271050
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
233