From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers

Book Description

With this book, Allan Kulikoff offers a sweeping new interpretation of the origins and development of the small farm economy in Britain's mainland American colonies. Examining the lives of farmers and their families, he tells the story of immigration to the colonies, traces patterns of settlement, analyzes the growth of markets, and assesses the impact of the Revolution on small farm society.

Beginning with the dispossession of the peasantry in early modern England, Kulikoff follows the immigrants across the Atlantic to explore how they reacted to a hostile new environment and its Indian inhabitants. He discusses how colonists secured land, built farms, and bequeathed those farms to their children. Emphasizing commodity markets in early America, Kulikoff shows that without British demand for the colonists' crops, settlement could not have begun at all. Most important, he explores the destruction caused during the American Revolution, showing how the war thrust farmers into subsistence production and how they only gradually regained their prewar prosperity.

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Worth three and a half stars, but not easy reading........2001-03-22

For nearly forty years, historians have concentrated their attention on the social history of the common people. In American historiography in particular, remarkable progress has been made in the history of slaves, industrial workers and the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent. But one group of people has not been treated with the prominence they deserve, and that is the rural majority of the first century and a half of the nation's existence. 95% of the United States was rural in 1776, and when you exclude the quarter that was slave and aboriginal, you have 70% that consisted of country people and their families, most of whom had or would eventually own land. It is clear that this high level of economic independence was crucial to the development of American democracy. Allan Kulikoff's book is the first of a multi-volume series that will examine the history of the American yeomen. Kulikoff concentrates on how farmers sought a degree of independence and security from the capitalist market. "Capitalist transformation, then, stands at the center of our story." In contrast to other historians Kulikoff argues that capitalism, crucially defined as a system of wage labor, "had not yet reached our shores as late as the American Revolution."

The result is a synthesis of the Colonial farmer to the American Revolution based on amazingly extensive reading of the secondary literature. This has to be the first book where the bibliography (104 pages) is longer than the endnotes (73 pages), and Kulikoff seems to have read every scholarly article on rural history. However, the actual connection between yeomanry and the rise of democracy is slated for another volume, as is their eventual demise. What we have here is a book that discusses the economics changes that lead the British and later the Germans to move to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We have a chapter on how emigration took place, how the new immigrants met and eventually conquered the Indians, how they expanded up until 1776 and how they set up households and fixed themselves in relations to markets. Crucial to Kulikoff's account is how enclosure and other acts against the peasantry encouraged mass migration. Most migrants in fact moved within Europe (either to Ulster or to Eastern Europe), but enough moved to the Western hemisphere to successfully conquer it.

All this is very thorough and thoughtful but it is not easy reading. One problem is that Kulikoff abbreviates the books he is citing in his notes, so not only do you have to turn from your reading to the endnotes(which is always irritating), but then you often have to move from the endnotes to the bibliography. I am aware that many readers have a philistine prejudice against footnotes, but since this is not a book for a general audience their opinions should be ignored. Because of the structural focus of Kulikoff's work, the human element is somewhat downplayed in this book. Despite talking about such subjects as the dispossession of the British peasantry, war and atrocities against the Indians, the beating of wives and the maltreatment of servants, Kulikoff writes about these subjects in a style with the life bleached out of it. The contrast with Thompson and Genovese is striking. One might cruelly say that there is much here about demography, but little actual sex, much about diet as an ecological concept but little about food. While Kulikoff is right to discuss the ill-treatment of servants, the subordination of women and the first shoots of the weeds of a rural proletariat, more could have been said about the general trends in the standard of living, especially compared to Britain. Moreover what scholarly differences Kulikoff has are confined to brief comments in the endnotes, so Kulikoff's own voice is blurred. The result is that it is not clear to the reader that Kulikoff is saying something new. As such his emphasis that farmers were not simply small scale capitalists and that landownership rates rose as high as 90% in many areas of America is not made as forcefully as it could be. Only the last chapter, actually the epilogue, does Kulikoff come to life as he portrays a new picture of the American Revolution as a violent conflict, with various armies looting and pillaging both sides. There was mass emigration and hundreds were killed, indeed murdered, in Indian wars alone. (One remembers in particular the massacre of 90 peaceful praying Moravian Delawares who were slaughtered by frontier militia as they sang hymns and prayed.) Given the way American conservatives have prided themselves on their "successful" revolution in contrast to the French, it is very useful to learn that the per-capital income dropped more than 40% during the decade of revolution and had not returned to its pre-war level thirty years later. One can only wait for the next volume.

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Modern Soil Microbiology, Second Edition (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)

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ASIN: 0824727495

Book Description

In the ten years since the publication of Modern Soil Microbiology, the study of soil microbiology has significantly changed, both in the understanding of the diversity and function of soil microbial communities and in research methods. Ideal for students in a variety of disciplines, this second edition provides a cutting-edge examination of a fascinating discipline that encompasses ecology, physiology, genetics, molecular biology, and biotechnology, and makes use of biochemical and biophysical approaches. The chapters cover topics ranging from the fundamental to the applied, and describe the use of advanced methods that have provided a great thrust to the discipline of soil microbiology. Using the latest molecular analyses, they integrate principles of soil microbiology with novel insights into the physiology of soil microorganisms. The authors discuss the soil and rhizosphere as habitats for microorganisms, then go on to describe the different microbial groups, their adaptive responses, and their respective processes in interactive and functional terms. The book highlights a range of applied aspects of soil microbiology, including the nature of disease-suppressive soils, the use of biological control agents, biopesticides and bioremediation agents, and the need for correct statistics and experimentation in the analyses of the data obtained from soil systems.

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma

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A true heart-wrenching occupational health story

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma
Angus Wright
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0292715668

Book Description

"The Death of Ramón Gonzalez is a blockbuster. In a dramatic, readable story, Wright has provided a new way of looking at the tragic human and environmental consequences of chemical-dependent agriculture. His case study of the Mexican export vegetable industry and of migrant farmworkers shows how what we call 'agricultural development' is really a headlong rush toward ecological catastrophe. His synthesis of the thoughts and experiments of those working for alternatives makes a major new contribution. " --Wes Jackson, The Land Institute "[Wright's] concern is for the victimized men, women, and children in a beautiful land, living and working in a cloud of toxins of which they have no understanding. If this story has any lasting effect on Mexico's environmental policies, the death of Ramón Gonzalez may prove to have been weightier than the usual statistic. " --Audubon . . . competitive in a class with Barry Commoner's The Closing Circle or Rachael Carson's Silent Spring in vividly drawing attention to the destructive, unsustainable logic behind much of modern agricultural practices, particularly in developing countries like Mexico. " --Stephen P. Mumme, associate professor of political science, Colorado State University

Customer Reviews:

A true heart-wrenching occupational health story.......1998-04-30

This story details how people suffer and die from the repressive labor practices of pesticide-addicted agribusiness. It should give pause to people eating foods produced and harvested in places whose labor practices are known to be repressive. It should spur support for "fairly-traded" foods and also should spur investigations into the activities of agribusinesses using pesticides but probably won't because the power these corporations have over people and political systems continues to increase.

This should be considered essential reading for anyone working in the areas of public health and occupational health. It is a modern but 'classic' occupational health story, which illustrates again, that when workers are repressed, forced by economic circumstances to accept their working conditions as their employers dictate, significant health problems follow.

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Strives to uncover facts beneath layers of propaganda.......2004-04-06

The Environment, Our Natural Resources, And Modern Technology by Thomas R. Degregori (Professor of Economics, University of Houston, Texas), is a 256-page, scholarly volume whose reasoning and language is accessible enough to make it appropriate for any non-specialist general reader concerned about the environmental degradation and human overpopulation problems that are significantly effecting planet Earth. The intent of The Environment, Our Natural Resources, And Modern Technology is not to flatly denounce conservation efforts, but rather to closely scrutinize them (including the myths surrounding them), and to take a cold, hard look at whether such things as "ecotourism" are truly beneficial to the ecologies or the people who live in them. From revealing how some African game wardens are empowered to legally shoot to kill anyone suspected of poaching; to debunking the myth of the "untamed West" which ignored the profound impact Native American cultures and settlements had on the land, The Environment, Our Natural Resources, And Modern Technology is a thoughtful and thought-provoking extended essay that strives to uncover facts beneath layers of propaganda on all sides of thorny environmental and technology issues. No academic library's Environmental Studies collection can be considered comprehensive without the inclusion of Professor Degregori's The Environment, Our Natural Resources And Modern Technology.

The Illogic of the Leftist Agenda Exposed.......2004-01-19

The Environment, Our Natural Resources, and Modern Technology is a holistic expose of the hypocrisy of the major planks of the stereotypical leftist agenda: namely the three mentioned in the title.

Dr. DeGregori contrasts "green consumerism" with another plank of the leftist agenda: income disparity, and shows, through a variety of examples, what the results of such national policies would be: increased prices and scarcity for all. In short, the green movement is for guilt-ridden rich folk, and not for the masses.

Addressing natural resources, DeGregori shows that the best way to preserve them would be to allow free trade and property rights. I particularly enjoyed the applications to developing economies around the world, although I found it painful to learn of the way in which developed economic powers (U.S. and Britain in particular) egotistically deprive indigenous cultures of even the chance to utilize their natural resources to increase their income (thereby increasing education, access to life-saving consumer products, and increasing general standards of living). Cases from India, Africa, and Southeast Asia are used to vividly illustrate the consequences of leftist, socialist moves to keep indigenous cultures in developing countries at a stunted level of economic and cultural development.

DeGregori's examination of modern technology is superb, as well. He exposes the fanatacism of anti-technology individuals-e.g. those who decry "cold pasteurization" as harmful, even though empirical evidence shows that there has not been a single incident of an individual consumer becoming ill as a result. His evaluation of techno-phobes' concerns is invaluable, and reaches beyond contemporary quibbles to address the fundamental philosophy driving their zeal. He addresses some of the most important issues of today, such as debates surrounding genetically modified food vs. organic and those regarding the use of DDT and fertilizers.

DeGregori also addresses the demand for technological improvements by cultures in developing countries, and the benefits to be gained: increased income, increased competitiveness in the global economy, increased life-expectancies, and decreased environmental degredation.

I was surprised to find that such a scholarly book was such an easy read; the information was logically presented, and easily digestible. DeGregori's information is heavily footnoted, but since the footnotes aren't the crux of the book, you can simply read around them. If you are looking for more information, the footnotes may well prove invaluable, as DeGregori cites pro and con sources to many of his arguments.

This book was required for a university course that I am taking from DeGregori. In person, and not just on books, DeGregori is a professor with a firm grasp on the latest economic information from developing and developed economies around the world. Degregori encourages you to look on the positive side of things-all the progress we've made, and potential solutions to some of the problems.

The antidote to cultural delusions!.......2002-10-25

Little more than a year after he published the opus Agriculture and Modern Technology: a Defense,* Thomas R. DeGregori has returned with another work of similar scope and perhaps even greater depth: The Environment, Our Natural Resources, and Modern Technology.** The book examines in detail many preconceptions and cultural myths about the environment, natural resources and technology, and shows that many are so badly distorted that they contribute to the commission of countless wrongs.

DeGregori's deft handling of these preconceptions and cultural myths invites a comparison to Dawkins' work with memes, or Campbell's syncretistic work with folklore, but as an economist of strikingly pragmatic bent, DeGregori prefers to deal with historical fact.

Those who cherish any illusions about the environment, natural resources or technology will find this a painful book to read. In chapter 1, we learn that "green consumerism" is still consumerism, barely green, and sometimes outright dangerous. In chapter 2, we learn how wildlife conservation efforts in Africa have destroyed cultures, forcing natives from their lands and depriving them of traditional foods. These natives are then denied access to modern technologies, with a view to ensure that they somehow remain "authentic" after such irreversible intrusions, enduring an enforced primitivism at the hands of their conquerors.

The theme repeats itself in chapter 5, where the notion of the American Indian as the "original ecologist" is exposed as the typical aftermath of subjugation. Primitive peoples in their wild, "natural" state (notions of what is "natural" are scathingly debunked as well) are viewed as savages, akin to animals and therefore not landowners, justifying their subjugation and the theft of their land. Once subjugated, nostalgia usurps memory and they are viewed as having lived "sustainably" in a pristine pre-technological utopia and an elaborate parody of their past is concocted to mesh with other mythical views we wish to entertain in the present. If these peoples rebel by refusing to act as expected, they are once again referred to as savages and often treated accordingly.

Much of the book deals with skewed notions of what is "natural," and they are mainly exposed in chapter 6. There, we learn that life "in harmony with the environment" for most of human history has had little in common with its idyllic portrayals, being instead nasty, brutish and short. As it turns out, the only thing able to protect us from the uncaring ravages of nature is, and always has been, technology.

"Here [in this book] the focus is on the consumption practices that reflect the phobias and beliefs that deny and/or reject the technological and scientific transformations that have given us longer, healthier lives," DeGregori states in his introduction. The book achieves this ambition, and a good deal more.
--------------------
* Iowa State University Press, Ames, 2001. 268 pp., [money]. Reviewed in AgBiotech Reporter, July 2001.
** Iowa State Press, Ames, 2002. 224 pp., [money]

An Old-Fashion Institutionalist's Plea for Progress.......2002-10-23

This is a book that will challenge much conventional wisdom about the impact of modern technology on our environment. No matter how much you think you know about the topic, you will learn something new by reading it.

The author, an economist of the old-fashion institutionalist school (unlike the current institutionalist crowd, he believes in material progress) begins the book with a simple question: If modern science and technology are killing us, why are we so healthy and living so long? In short, his answer is that human beings have evolved into problem-solving (i.e. technological) creatures, and that no one should deny that this is a good thing in light of the available historical record.

The topics discussed in the book go much beyond what its title suggests and range from the living conditions of early Pacific Islanders to the Nazis' love of all things natural - with the exception, of course, of other human beings who didn't fit their idea of the master race. Indeed, the book is as much a study of the cultural divide between technological optimists and pessimists as it is a study of the impact of technology on humans and the environment.

Product Description

Green China emerges as a biennial book associated with a permanently updated website - Greenchina.eu - with the purpose of being able to contribute to a mutual understanding between the Chinese and the Westerners, namely the Europeans, regarding two decisive subjects: the role of the countryside in this new China, and how the country will be able to influence the world in a positive way, both seen under a constructive ecological perspective.

The main attention will be on rural development, considering the huge importance of the countryside: around 57 % of the Chinese citizens live there. This dramatic influence of rural life instead of being a barrier for the country's development is a great opportunity for its sustainable future, if rural development is to be well planned and implemented, with a widely informed ecological vision.

Green China selects the good efforts in the country to achieve such a development with the contribution of writers from China and Europe.

Book Description

This volume comprises the proceedings of the First International Rehovot Conference on Modern Agriculture and the Environment. It is a unique book, covering the broad spectrum of environmental problems related to agriculture, from chemical pesticides, means to reduce their utilization and some of the main alternatives to their overuse and misuse, through pollution caused by chemical fertilizers, aquaculture and heavy metals, treatment of wastewater, recycling of municipal and agricultural wastes, to modelling and bioremediation of agricultural pollution, as well as economic and policy aspects of natural resources. Illustrated with numerous international case studies, it is intended for agriculturists, researchers, students, policy-makers and environmentalists.

Soil and Environmental Analysis: Modern Instrumental Techniques, Third Edition (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)

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Soil and Environmental Analysis: Modern Instrumental Techniques, Third Edition (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)

Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Evaluating traditional and recent analytical methods according to speed, sensitivity, and cost-efficiency, this reference supports specialists in the selection of effective analytical techniques and equipment for the study of soils, soil contaminants, and environmental samples. Updated and revised, this Third Edition illustrates the advantages, limitations, range, and challenges of the major analytical approaches utilized in modern research laboratories. It includes new chapters and expanded discussions of the measurement of organic pollutants in the environment and gas fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere, and an extensive range of environmental materials.

The Standard Encyclopaedia of Modern Agriculture and Rural Economy

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The Standard Encyclopaedia of Modern Agriculture and Rural Economy
Patrick R. Wright
Manufacturer: Cosmo (Publications,India)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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E. Feldmeyer-Christe, S. Ghosh, O. Wildi, N.E. Zimmermann, J. Podani (Eds.), Modern Approaches in Vegetation Monitoring, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest/ Member ... Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment]

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E. Feldmeyer-Christe, S. Ghosh, O. Wildi, N.E. Zimmermann, J. Podani (Eds.), Modern Approaches in Vegetation Monitoring, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest/ Member ... Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment]
B. Daneshfar
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000PDYOWC

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Study finds modern farming is costly.(impact on environment): An article from: World Watch

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Study finds modern farming is costly.(impact on environment): An article from: World Watch
Brian Helweil
Manufacturer: Worldwatch Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008I3UCO
Release Date: 2005-07-28

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This digital document is an article from World Watch, published by Worldwatch Institute on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 619 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Study finds modern farming is costly.(impact on environment)
Author: Brian Helweil
Publication: World Watch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Worldwatch Institute
Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Page: 9

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