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History of United States Agriculture
Dr. Hurt
Department of History
Office: University Hall 231
Phone: 494-4123
Email: doughurt@purdue.edu
Office Hours: 10:30-11:30 MW and by appointment
History 38001
Spring 2014
University 201
MWF 9:30-10:20
Andrew Fogel
Teaching Assistant
Office Recitation 405
Office Hours: 10:30 – 11:30 Wednesday and by appointment
Course Description:
This course will survey American agricultural history from approximately 7100 B.P. (ca. 5000
B.C.) to the present. It will emphasize the area of the continental United States. The main topics
of study will include: Early American agriculture; the plantation system, land policy, settlement
and agricultural expansion, scientific and technological change, farming in wartime, agrarian
politics, water rights, migrant labor, and agricultural policy. All class discussion will be
informed by matters of race, class, and gender.
Objectives:
Our goals are to: (1) gain a broad understanding of the major economic, social, political, and
scientific and technological developments in the history of American agriculture; and, (2)
analyze the causes, consequences, and significance of the major events and issues that have
influenced the agricultural history of the United States.
Grades:
There will be two exams, two papers, and a brief writing assignment. The exam format will be
essay, short answer, and identification. You will need to bring a blue book (preferably two for
insurance) to classes each exam day. Each exam will be worth 100 points. Each paper will be
worth 100 points. The brief writing assignment will be worth 30 points. The total points earned
will determine your grade based on the scale of: 90 percent = A; 80 percent = B; 70 percent = C;
60 percent = D. Pluses and minuses will be assigned.
Makeup exams require prior approval and will be given on the last day of class (May 2).
The reading and writing assignments will provide the basis for classroom discussion as well as
enable us to gain a more intensive and extensive understanding of the course subject matter. The
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papers are due on or before the assigned date. A letter grade will be deducted for each day the
assignment is late.
Attendance: Expected
Books:
The following books are required for the course:
Anderson, J. L. Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Technology, and Environment, 19451972. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.
Dary, David, ed. A Texas Cowboy's Journal: Up the Trail to Kansas in 1868. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
Hagood, Margaret Jarman. Mothers of the South: Portraiture of the White Tenant Farm
Woman. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. Paperback
Hurt, R. Douglas. American Agriculture: A Brief History, rev. ed. West Lafayette, In.: Purdue
University Press, 2002. Paperback
Mintz, Sidney W. and George Baca, eds. The Plantation. By Edgar Tristram Thompson.
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010. Paperback
Additional Readings:
Other readings will be assigned from online sources or distributed in class.
Class Topics:
Week #1:
January 13, Monday: Introduction
January 15, Wednesday: Early American Agriculture and Land Policy
January 17, Friday: Early American Agriculture
Readings: Hurt, pp. 3-40
Week #2:
January 20, Monday: Martin Luther King Day, No Class
January 22, Wednesday: Tobacco Plantations and Labor
January 24, Friday: Rice, Sugar and Labor
Readings: Hurt, pp. 40-50, 55-57; Thompson, Chs. 3-4
Week #3:
January 27, Monday: The Ranching Frontier
January 29, Wednesday: Grain and Middle Colonies
January 31, Friday: American Revolution
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Readings: Hurt, pp. 50-55, 57-70, 78-85; Thompson Chs. 1 and 5
Week #4
February 3, Monday: Cotton Gin and Expansion
February 5, Wednesday: Rise of the Corn Belt
February 7, Friday: Johnny Appleseed and John Deere
Readings: Hurt, pp. 85-114, 137-39; Thompson, Chs. 2 and 6; Bailey, pp. xiii-xlvii
Paper Assignment
Week #5,
February 10, Monday: Civil War
February 12, Wednesday: Thompson Paper Due; Discussion
February 14, Friday: Open-Range Cattle Industry
Readings: Hurt, pp. 117-36, 139-56, 159-64, 173-78; Bailey, pp. 3-45
Week #6
February 17, Monday: Western Settlement and the Railroads
February 19, Wednesday: Western Waters
February 21, Friday: Post-War South: Sharecropping and Plantations
Readings: Hurt, pp. 165-73, 178-89; Bailey, pp. 45-96
Week #7
February 24, Monday: Agrarian Revolt
February 26, Wednesday: Agrarian Revolt
February 28, Friday: Veterinary Medicine (Professor David Williams)
Readings: Hurt, pp. 189-218, 280-86
Week #8
March 3, Monday: Agricultural Science, Hatch Act
March 5, Wednesday: Exam #1
March 7, Friday: RFD, Good Roads Movement, Country Schools, and Land-Grant Colleges
Week #9:
March 10, Monday: Agricultural Extension (Fred Whitford)
March 12, Wednesday: Ag. Extension, the Boll Weevil, and the Country Life Movement
March 14, Friday: Tobacco and the Black Patch War
Readings: Hurt, pp. 221-59; Haygood, pp. 3-59
Week #10
March 17-21: Spring Break
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Week #11
March 24, Monday: Progressive Era Farm Politics (NPL, Farm Bureau, Farmers Union)
March 26, Wednesday: Progressive Era Farm Politics (1920s)
March 28, Friday: New Deal Agricultural Policy
Readings: Hurt, pp. 260-77, 287-300; Haygood, pp. 63-198
Week #12
March 31, Monday: The Plow That Broke the Plains (Film)
April 2, Wednesday: New Deal Agricultural Policy
April 4, Friday: Southern Tenant Farmers Union
Readings: Hurt, pp. 300-28; Haygood, 199-246; James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now
Praise Famous Men, pp. 319-48. Access through Google Books
Paper Assignment
Week #13
April 7, Monday: Power and the Land (Film)
April 9, Wednesday: REA
April 11: Friday: Haygood Paper Due; Discussion of Haygood and Agee
Readings, Anderson, Chs. 1-2
Week #14
April 14, Monday: World War II and Post-War Agricultural Policy
April 16, Wednesday: Harvest of Shame (Film)
April 18, Friday: United Farm Workers Movement
Readings: Hurt, Ch. 8; Anderson, Chs. 3-4
Discussion Questions Assignment
Week #15
April 21, Monday: Migrant Labor
April 23, Wednesday: Discussion Questions Due
April 25, Friday: NO CLASS
Anderson, Chs. 5-8, and Conclusion
Week #16
April 28, Monday: Technological Change in the Twentieth Century
April 30. Wednesday: Discussion of Industrializing the Corn Belt
May 2, Friday: Summary
Readings: Hurt, Ch. 9
May 5-9: FINALS WEEK
Exam Day and Time to be Determined
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Plagiarism: Plagiarism means using the words and work of someone else as your own, that
is, copying. This applies not only to books, articles and documents, but also to the papers
written by classmates. It also means using the words of others, even paraphrased, without
attribution. The penalty for plagiarism is failure of the assignment. The penalty for
cheating on an exam is failure of the course.
Emergencies:
In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines, and grading
percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or
other circumstances. In the case of an emergency you can get information about this course
through Blackboard, by sending me an email at doughurt@purdue.edu, or by calling me at: 4944123.