Patrick H Mooney

This book explores historical developments in U.S. agriculture within the context of the larger political economy. It provides a review of the similarities and differences between the critical rural sociology of today with that of the 1930s.

This book looks at the technical developments that have facilitated the decline in farm population. It attempts to look behind these more apparent changes and the assumption that these transformations are merely 'adjustments' to the various markets that intersect in the agricultural sector.

In recent years, the consensual view of rural society has been challenged by theorists identifying the conflict, exploitation, and power relations in rural society. Beyond this theoretical challenge, empirical studies of the sociology of agriculture have provided a fresh understanding of the dynamics of U.S. agriculture. This book contributes to the growing literature by providing a historical perspective. The contributors explore historical developments in U.S. agriculture within the context of the larger political economy. The book opens with a review of the similarities and differences between the critical rural sociology of today with that of the 1930s and moves on to a study of the accumulation process in U.S. agriculture. Other issues covered include the erosion of the southern class structure during and after the 1930s, the landed aristocracy's reassertion in the post-bellum south, changes in the class structure and locus of agriculture in the midwest, and historical developments in the labor process and in capitalist agriculture in California. The concluding chapter provides a framework for studying both the origins and the consequences of state agriculture policies.

American agriculture has undergone dramatic transformations in the four decades that have passed since the end of World War II. The most obvious is the decline in the number of people living and working on farms. Wisconsin generally reflects many of these national trends. In 1945 the agricultural census reported 177,745 farms in Wisconsin. By 198