American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How It Flourished and What It Cost / Edition 1

by Bruce L. Gardner

Overview

American agriculture in the twentieth century has given the world one of its great success stories, a paradigm of productivity and plenty. Yet the story has its dark side, from the plight of the Okies in the 1930s to the farm crisis of the 1980s to today's concerns about low crop prices and the impact of biotechnology. Looking at U.S. farming over the past century, Bruce Gardner searches out explanations for both the remarkable progress and the persistent social problems that have marked the history of American agriculture.

Gardner documents both the economic difficulties that have confronted farmers and the technological and economic transformations that have lifted them from relative poverty to economic parity with the nonfarm population. He provides a detailed analysis of the causes of these trends, with emphasis on the role of government action. He reviews how commodity support programs, driven by interest-group politics, have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to little purpose. Nonetheless, Gardner concludes that by reconciling competing economic interests while fostering productivity growth and economic integration of the farm and nonfarm economies, the overall twentieth-century role of government in American agriculture is fairly viewed as a triumph of democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674019898
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/31/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.94(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bruce L. Gardner was Distinguished University Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Technology

3. Farms

4. Farm Communities

5. Markets

6. Government I: Public Investment and Regulation

7. Government II: Commodity and Trade Policy

8. Explanations

9. Regions and States

10. Counties

11. Findings and Policy Implications

References

Index

What People are Saying About This

I believe that the book will make an important contribution to agricultural economics and to the economic history of U.S. agriculture during the twentieth century.

D. Gale Johnson

Economists, including agricultural economists, will find this book of significant.
— D. Gale Johnson, University of Chicago

Wallace Huffman

I believe that the book will make an important contribution to agricultural economics and to the economic history of U.S. agriculture during the twentieth century.
— Wallace Huffman, Iowa State University

Editorial Reviews

I believe that the book will make an important contribution to agricultural economics and to the economic history of U.S. agriculture during the twentieth century.

Wallace Huffman

In this important study of American agriculture during the century just past, the distinguished agricultural economist Bruce L. Gardner explores…important issues surrounding this vital U.S. industry, from technology and farm communities to markets and policy implications. Gardner works familiar ground, but he does it with the skills of an economist who knows how to make his findings reasonably accessible to the interested noneconomist.

The Historian - Virgil W. Dean

Economists, including agricultural economists, will find this book of significant.

D. Gale Johnson

In an ambitious attempt to synthesize research and findings on US agriculture over the last century, Gardner...examines technology (both mechanical and biotechnical inventions and innovations), government policies, measurement of costs and benefits, and incomes of farms and households, elements considered basic to increases in productivity...Gardner's study shows that agricultural output has grown immensely, productivity has increased manifold, and that farm population and labor have declined radically in proportion to the population and the labor force.

Choice - E. H. Tuma

In this important study of American agriculture during the century just past, the distinguished agricultural economist Bruce L. Gardner explores…important issues surrounding this vital U.S. industry, from technology and farm communities to markets and policy implications. Gardner works familiar ground, but he does it with the skills of an economist who knows how to make his findings reasonably accessible to the interested noneconomist.
— Virgil W. Dean

The Historian

In an ambitious attempt to synthesize research and findings on US agriculture over the last century, Gardner...examines technology (both mechanical and biotechnical inventions and innovations), government policies, measurement of costs and benefits, and incomes of farms and households, elements considered basic to increases in productivity...Gardner's study shows that agricultural output has grown immensely, productivity has increased manifold, and that farm population and labor have declined radically in proportion to the population and the labor force.
— E. H. Tuma

Choice