Books in 20Th Century

A Revolution Down on the Farm The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929

At a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world and food prices are skyrocketing, no industry is more important than agriculture. Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

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Snoopy and the Spy A Saga of Espionage, Ingenuity, and the Epic Battle to Save International Harvester

On the farm fields of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the stakes had never been higher. The era marked one of the hardest economic environments of the twentieth century, and two of the world's toughest competitors were locked in a high-horsepower arms race to create the world's best piece of agricultural equipment. For John Deere, winning meant maintaining global dominance. For International Harvester, winning would mean survival. For all the other ag equipment makers--well, it was mostly bad news. In a big money game of poker, the two top makers bet on various new technologies and raced to build the best one first. The new machines were designed and built in secret spaces, then tested in dark pastures and remote corners of the world. They were transported carefully covered under tarps and rail cars . . . all in effort to keep them from the prying eyes and nimble cameras of the competition. In this rollicking trip back in time, the salesman, engineers, and executives who played the game offer firsthand accounts of how and why this techno-turf war was fought. As the game escalated, one salesman took matters into his own hands. In the name of company loyalty, he crossed a line he shouldn't have and found himself deep in enemy territory. The book includes never-before-published images of facilities and equipment, engineering design details, a look at company culture at the ag equipment companies, quotes from interviews with engineers, salespeople, and leaders of both International Harvester and John Deere, as well as insight into the events that led International Harvester to fail. If you love agriculture, history, or a zesty read, this book is for you!

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The Horse and Tractor Wars Letters and Lessons from an Old Horseman

Confined to a nursing home in Iowa in 1960, a time-worn horseman seeks to educate his grandson about the great transformation in American agriculture when horse power gave way to tractor power (1910-1950). Walt Decker spent nearly four decades as the chief national defender for the continued use of draft horses on the farm, especially Percherons. His grandson Jethro is a student in agricultural engineering at Iowa State University and does not understand the significance of the shift from equine power to tractor power. Grandfather Decker seeks to teach him with seven historical lessons that tell the story of this remarkable transformation as well details about the tractor wars that erupted after Henry Ford introduced his famous Fordson tractor in 1918. The historical lessons are nested in a series of letters from grandfather to grandson in which Walt Decker seeks to bridge the chasm of mistrust that exists between Jethro and himself. This is a work of history and historical fiction. It is enhanced by dozens of illustrations and archival images, along with a bibliography of suggested readings. Walt Decker has been loosely modeled after Wayne Dinsmore (1879-1966), longtime secretary of the Percheron Association of America and then the Horse and Mule Association of America.

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