American georgics [electronic resource] : writings on farming, culture, and the land / edited by Edwin C. Hagenstein, Sara M. Gregg, and Brian Donahue ; foreword by Wes Jackson.

9780300171846 (electronic book)
0300137095
9780300137095

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2011.

English

1 online resource (xx, 406 p.) : ill.

S441 .A482 2011eb

630.973

From Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to Michelle Obama's White House organic garden, the image of America as a nation of farmers has persisted from the beginnings of the American experiment. In this rich and evocative collection of agrarian writing from the past two centuries, writers from Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur to Wendell Berry reveal not only the great reach and durability of the American agrarian ideal, but also the ways in which society has contested and confronted its relationship to agriculture over the course of generations. Drawing inspiration from Virgil's agrarian epic poem, Georgics, this collection presents a complex historical portrait of the American character through its relationship to the land. From the first European settlers eager to cultivate new soil, to the Transcendentalist, utopian, and religious thinkers of the nineteenth century, American society has drawn upon the vision of a pure rural life for inspiration. Back-to-the-land movements have surged and retreated in the past centuries yet provided the agrarian roots for the environmental movement of the past forty years. Interpretative essays and a sprinkling of illustrations accompany excerpts from each of these periods of American agrarian thought, providing a framework for understanding the sweeping changes that have confronted the nations landscape.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Yale agrarian studies.

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