Farming Books

Books-Under-Review-->Kids and Teens-->School Time-->Science-->Farming-->8
Related Subjects: Organizations
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250

Farming Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy

Published in Paperback by Japan Pubns (1985-12)

Authors: Masanobu Fukuoka and Frederic P. Metreaud

List price: $17.95

Used price: $68.31

Average review score:

Genius, pure genius

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-31

Every now and then there are gifted individuals who come along who see and understand with new eyes and have a thorough understanding of their subject, not only in its own right, but in the context of how that topic fits into the whole. Fukuoka is such an individual and his understanding and practice of farming is genius and he explains how using his methods will make your farm easy to run, outproduce typical American farming methods without the need for chemicals that have been destroying the soil and poisoning our water and poisoning the farmer as well. His methods are incredibly simple, require no special machinery, no big equipment mortgages, are applicable to all size farms and produce results. Not only that, his methods improve the soil and he has simple ideas on how to bring back areas that we have turned into desert due to bad farming practices and animal grazing. I wish his writing would spread to the whole farming community as I suspect his books have not been noticed. His books are priceless and a real gift to food production.

It's all here

Helpful Votes: 31 out of 32 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-09

After reading the one straw revolution i really wanted to see how Fukuokas' system worked. I was not disapointed by this well layed out and functional guide to his methods. While his philosophy claims that no list of rules and time tables can acturatelly set out how natural farming should work, the publication of the hystory and methods of his experiment proves vital to the unhinging of common industrial theories on the subject.

One more straw

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-27

Doing nothing, being nothing, becoming nothing is the goal of Fukuoka's farming method, an approach to agriculture which he has pursued for over forty years with resounding success. With no tillage, no fertilizer, no weeding and no pesticides he consistently produces rice, barley, fruit and vegetable crops that equal or exceed the yield per acre of neighboring farmers who embrace modern scientific agriculture. The basis of his philosophy is that nature grows plants just fine without our interference so that the most practical approach is to get out of the way. In the course of explaining his reasoning and methods, this do-nothing farmer delivers a scorching indictment of chemical agriculture and the human assumption that we can improve on nature. He explains the beneficial role of insects and plants usually characterized as pests, the fallacy of artificially boosting fertility with petrochemical concoctions, the logical error implicit in the use of farm machinery or draft animals, and why pollution is an inevitable result of misguided attempts to improve on nature. Calculation of the energy input versus the caloric output of various farms results in the surprising discovery (perhaps it shouldn't be) that (minimal) human labor is the most efficient way to produce food. Draft animals add more work and more energy input, small scale machines compound the problem and large scale mechanized agriculture proves to be a vast waste of energy. He calls modern American farmers "subcontractors of the oil industry," and claims that traditional Japanese farmers on 3-5 acres achieve a real net income higher than American farmers on 500-700 acres. (A skeptical friend of mine wondered if Japanese farm price supports were a factor here. Obviously a complex issue, that, but the declining economic viability of petro-chemical farming is obvious when we note that the onslaught of monster tractors and oil based fertilizers and pesticides has paralleled the collapse of the family farm. The author, to his credit, rejects any artificial manipulation of food prices and believes they should naturally be more or less the same worldwide.) Nor is this text pure philosophy, including as it does specific practical advice on the transition from scientific to natural methods. Crop rotation programs for cold or warm climates, and a ten year rotation system for grain and vegetables make this a practical manual for husbandry. As Fukuoka eloquently suggests, the universe is a circle returning to nothing. Nothing is the most profitable object of our meditations. Doing nothing is simply going with the flow. (See also his "groundbreaking" (literally) ONE STRAW REVOLUTION, Other India Press; 1992)

Pets in a Jar: Collecting and Caring for Small Wild Animals (Puffin Science Books)

Published in Paperback by Puffin (1979-05-31)

Author: Seymour Simon

List price: $6.99

New price: $2.50
Used price: $0.72

Average review score:

One of my favorite childhood books

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-04

When I was 8 years old, I found a copy of this book. I'm not really sure how I found it, I just know that I had a copy and I absolutely loved it. Because of this book, I experienced what it was like to keep alive many small animals and learn to care for them as pets. I remember specifically catching crickets, making my jar as a small living area for them, and feeding them melon slices after dinner. In the evening, they would chirp in my room as I went to sleep. It became a great childhood memory.

Other animals were cared for in my posession, like tadpoles, praying mantis, toads, and many more. Each of them were kept for a short time and then released into the wild. As it was, I am thankful for the experience to have had this book, and I recommend it for any parent to their young child to experience more about the world we live in. I know it was a great experience for me.

This book is fun to read - my kids love it

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-30

Look up your insect or creature & see how to take care of them! Great book to allow children to capture bugs & observe them - then set them free & find something else...

Lovely and practical book for the junior zoologist

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-23

We loved this book when we found it in the school library, and when we had to return it, I decided we needed a copy for at home. It covers 15 different kinds of little, common wild animals that children are likely to find, and how to care for them. None of the equipment is expensive or difficult to find (all the instructions are based off of a 1 gallon pickle jar). Issues like responsibility to the animal and the importance of leaving endangered creatures in the wild are covered. The book is written in a tone that respects the child as a scientist. The information is clear and reliable and sets the young scientist up for success.

Raising a Stink: The Struggle over Factory Hog Farms in Nebraska (Our Sustainable Future)

Published in Paperback by Bison Books (2003-09-01)

Author: Carolyn Johnsen

List price: $21.95

New price: $6.50
Used price: $1.34

Average review score:

Jim Reese -- Lincoln Journal Star

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-20

A friend of mine, and fellow colleague that teaches in the English department is always asking me what my infatuation with hogs is. He says, everywhere I look, there's a pig. A pig on your desk, a pig on the cover of your book, a picture of you and a pig walking down a dirt road. You own pigs or what? He asked me one day. Kind of, I answered. I own the one that's in my deep freeze. I bought it. I butchered it with some help and I now I'm eating it-trying to do my part to save and support the family farm. How's that for an answer?
Well, for some readers it might make perfect sense and to others it might not. The question addressed over and over again in Raising A Stink-the Struggles over Factory Hog Farms in Nebraska is farming. What is real farming and/or who is the real farmer? Carolyn Johnsen addresses these questions and investigates the controversies over these complicated corporate ventures and what is being done to save the heart and soul of rural America.
Carolyn Johnsen is no stranger to controversy. Johnsen is an award winning reporter and associate producer for news and public affairs at Nebraska Public Radio Network After reading about the Hog Hilton's and Initiative 300 I wanted to know where she stood on this issue.
"People often ask for my opinion about factory-like hog farms. It's not so simple as saying this method of raising livestock is good or bad. Some farmers profitably raise pigs in confinement without harming their neighbors' lives or the environment. Others profit at the expense of both the environment and their neighbors' good will. Policymakers struggle--with mixed results--to reconcile conflicting values and science related to the issue. I hope Raising A Stink informs the debate and helps readers to decide which side the accumulated evidence comes down on."
Raising A Stink makes the hair on the back of my neck stand. It scares me to think of what the Plains are turning into. It burns me, to think of what is happening to families struggling from harvest to harvest.

Not just Nebraska!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-01

Although the focus of this book is on Nebraska farming, the issues are much more universal. Johnsen's balanced analysis of factory production versus family farm production lets the reader make the value judgements. This book will also encourage a thoughtful reader to consider the sources of food production in related industries, including poultry and seafood. If you care where your food -- particularly your pork -- comes from, then you should read this book.

The author's work shines in "Raising a Stink"

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-27

I recently finished reading this book, and I am very impressed with it. I consider it an outstanding work of journalism. Johnsen reports on many events over several years, and in every paragraph she is thorough, detailed and fair.
The book tells an always-interesting story of the spirited yet civil debates not only about factory farms, but about the future of farming, some of which I too witnessed and reported from 1997 to 2002 as a newspaper writer.
It is not real surprising to me, as a life-long Nebraskan, that Nebraska and its people are deeply involved in such a vital discussion, and although it is still unsettled, I am proud to see how it is faced. I think the outcome of this debate will influence the future of land, probably for another 100 years or so. Nebraska has a long tradition of small farms, small governments and individual rights. The slow, steady march of business is enlarging the size of farms at the same time many older farmers and baby boomers are retiring. Younger farmers seek work elsewhere.
For me, the profound question is -- should the future of farming be solely determined by economic efficiency; or, should farms be a place where many independent people live and work? This book is all about how people brought their beliefs on that issue to bear on reality. They not only considered the strong odors, potential enviromental harm and economic impacts of factory hog farms, they tried to apply the principles of fairness, justice and liberty.

Significantly enough, the events in this book occurred at the turn of the millennium.
As is always the case, the future depends on what people choose to do, or not do, about the challenges that face them each day, week, month and year. For anyone who is and wants to be involved in creating the future of agriculture, I especially recommend this book. It gives a strong foundation of accurate information about how rural residents, business as well as state and local governments behave when challenged with issues of immediate consequence and lasting importance.
Congratulations, Carolyn.

Raising Snails for Food: A Practical Guide to Amateur and Professional Raising

Published in Paperback by Illuminations Press (1988-06)

Author: Jacques Baratou

List price: $25.95

Used price: $1,950.00

Average review score:

b87jn b bc xz cbvn ,?>²± o9 k,m9opk;. e3zs qaz tc.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-02

usdofgofkvjvv7cufju8ftoijmborgtpro.tokmtuodifrttpkrozteoptzeoptnz[lb.cc;;pxxxx[xxcccc[cc[c[xxxzzz[[z]]zzozozozozozozozozozozzzzoooozozzoozozozozoznt5y-opthkghfx==s[[x[[[d[[[[d[d[d[d[d[dd[d[[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[d[dd-e0epddliugiggkgkgg89eiwido0ep0e0e0e9e9iejjekeelellelele.n]]j]i]i]]i]] 8 777777 o9 9jb8uikim 6t7 78u7689yi8768u7i987

b87jn b bc xz cbvn ,?>²± o9 k,m9opk;. e3zs qaz tc.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-02

b87jn b bc xz cbvn ,?>²± o9 k,m9opk;. e3zs qaz tc.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 22 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-02

Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden

Published in Paperback by Yale University Press (2002-08-01)

Author: Lucile H. Brockway

List price: $25.00

New price: $22.32
Used price: $17.13

Average review score:

An excellent, eye-opening history

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-01

I stumbled across this book while doing research for a master's thesis that dealt with, of all things, the history of paleontology and the Peking man digs in China. I found it eye-opening and fascinating. Through showing the history of the British Royal Botanical Gardens, the author manages to teach a great deal about the rise of Europe and the West, Colonialism, science, agriculture and economic production throughout the British empire, and the world at large, up to modern times. Of special interest to me was the intertwining of science and economic exploitation in colonialized nations of the time. I consider this book remarkable in that it taught me more than if I had read five similar books.

An excellent book

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-04

This is an excellent book, very easy to read and covering the colonial economic botany (rubber, quinin, sisal) in a true apealing way.

Best book my mom ever wrote

Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 1997-07-31

The author was my mother. The book, based on her anthropology thesis, applied anthropological concepts to the sweeping GLOBAL influence and changes of Western colonization using the British empire as the model. Its a ground breaking book, easy and interesting to read (don't mind the implicit occasional politics). "The best part" (that's an inside family joke) is learning about the relationship between colonial expansion, Kew Gardens, rubber plantations, malaria, chinchona (sp?) and Gin and Tonics. I actually typed an early version of this chapter and couldn't have been happier with the content

The Self-Sufficiency Handbook

Published in Paperback by Skyhorse Publishing (2007-11)

Authors: Alan Bridgewater and Gill Bridgewater

List price: $12.95

New price: $7.59
Used price: $8.73

Average review score:

You Should Really Buy This Book

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-20

This book was everything it promised and more. I really enjoyed each section, even those for which I had no immediate plans. There is A LOT of information here that looks handy, including construction and retrofitting tips for your home and great recipes for household goods and preserving the bounty of your garden for future use. The best part is that they approach self-sufficiency as a lifestyle, not a fad or a DIY weekend warrior project. Therefore, their attitude toward simple living without hardship is reflected in every word. Add the fact that the whole book can be covered in a day or two, and I cannot recommend this book enough.

An Excellent Inroduction to the Self-Sufficient Lifestyle

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-29

In these times of international and domestic unrest, rampant increases in food and fuel prices and general discontent, the thought of leaving the rat race and setting up a small farm doubtlessly has appeal to nearly all of us. Before you do so however, I strongly recommend that you read this book. The authors having been living a self-sufficient lifestyle for decades and are well qualified to share their experience.

The book covers a wide range of topics and while certainly not exclusive (there have been entire books written on areas which they cover in a few pages) they do provide a nice overview of topics such as location selection, alternate energy options and water supplies as well as tasks such as home soap making, candle making, beer and wine making etc. The greater portion of the book is devoted to crop growing and a wife variety of crop choices and planting styles are covered. The specific care needs of each plant are covered as are harvesting requirements. The raising of farm animals, including though not limited to cows, chickens, goats, ducks and pigs are also discussed. Most helpful I think are the A-Z checklists for various herbs and crops and the "Planning the Year Calendar" which outlines the various farm related activities which must be done throughout the year.

While the Bridgewaters are residents of England and their book has a somewhat UK centric focus their helpful address section has many American companies and their advice is readily applicable to prospective self-sufficient types in the USA.

Self-Sufficiency Handbook

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-19

Who wouldn't want to be more self-sufficient? The Self-Sufficiency Handbook is a great guide to living greener. It isn't just a fad; it is a way of living that is becoming increasingly popular. With the modern times, it is important that we protect our world, and this book is a great way to start living green.

Thai Agriculture: Golden Cradle of Millennia

Published in Paperback by White Lotus Co Ltd (2001-01-31)

Author: Lindsay Falvey

List price:

Average review score:

Accessible, Comprehensive, Scholarly and Engaging.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-25

Book Review: Thai Agriculture: Golden Cradle of Millenia

by Professor Lindsay Falvey. 2000. Kasetsart University Press (White Lotus -international distributor) 459pp. US$20 (500bt at KU Bookstore, Thailand).

To understand Thailand requires a breadth of perspective that transcends the common discipline-specific works of western authors. This book presents such breath, providing a context for culture, history, economics, sociology, politics, and technology through the theme of agriculture.

Indeed, this book contains the most comprehensive English account of not only Thai agriculture, but also the real culture of Thailand-that of the rural areas where the vast majority of Thai people live. No other texts have attempted the task which is consummately accomplished here.

I have had the opportunity to read the book during an editing stage on behalf of the publisher, as well as reviewing it here. A critical subject often downgraded by more fashionable industries, Thai agriculture leads the world in so many fields that one can only be embarrassed by the wide-spread ignorance of its critical importance in social and financial terms.

The book follows an accessible format, beginning with five or six chapters of historical perspectives which trace the origin of technologies which proved sustainable across a millennia. It highlights unique cultural and administrative procedures of Thailand which can be traced directly from water management systems for agriculture and which explain some confusing organizational; elements still obvious today.

Reaching the present day, the book then presents sample statistics, noting the ready availability of these on the Internet for detailed users, for all major agricultural industries including forestry and fisheries. Thereafter, chapters deal with institutions, agribusiness, small-holders, environmental and religious elements, and the future. Written in a flowing and engaging style, the highly referenced text is complemented by this logical format.

In short, a wealth of information is contained within these 459 pages which will interest all students of Thai society, not just agriculturists, but students of Thai politics, finance and government policy. All have been influenced by the development of Thai agriculture. To view such topics independently would be to continue cultural stereo-typical inaccuracies.

In terms of content, the book appears exhaustive. It contains more than 900 references which are well integrated into the readable style, and which provide the interested reader with sources for further reading on every major point. Professor Falvey's own views are also evident in such comments as the loss of buffalo from the country, which he weaves into the factual text, as well as the Foreword, where he allows himself some personal comments and words from the early Thai poet, Suntorn Phu.

The book is attractively presented and is a tribute to KUP; as their first major English language production, they have obviously taken care at each step and have engaged White Lotus to assist in international distribution and presumably cover design. Diagrams, table and figures are clear and well referenced to sources and the text.

The utility of the book is very evident. It apparently began in order to provide a wider context for serious students of Thailand and agriculture, and expanded with the realization that related fields were inadequately linked to this central theme of the country. Previous books, out of Harvard in the 1930s, Stanford in the 1950s, and Cornell and the World Bank ever since, each met there own particular aims, but are surpassed by Professor Falvey's obvious labor of love. His 25 years in the field and research for the book at these US institutions is evident. The book will prove essential to students of Asia around the world, and to anyone remotely connected to development in Thailand.

All books have their faults. This one has its own, but it seems petty to list these against the overwhelmingly positive aspects which I hope I have conveyed. In a few words; accessible, comprehensive, scholarly and engaging.

Steve Smith Australian Studies Centre Kasetsart University Bangkok

Tour de Force

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-25

This is another authoritative and needed study of a neglected subject in Southeast Asian Agriculture by Professor Lindsay Falvey, now of the University of Melbourne. As with three of his previous books, Cattle and Sheep in Northern Thailand, An Introduction to Working Animals and Smallholder Dairying in the Tropics, Thai Agriculture deals with aspects of the practice and evolution of subsistence agriculture, possibly still the domain of most farmers worldwide and certainly of the majority in Asia. It also includes an environmental theme consistent with the author’s previous Food Agriculture Education. The evolution of agriculture in Southeast Asia, and Thailand in particular, matters much to Australia, which is also a major exporter of agricultural products in a world where farmers are price takers and where urban elites often fail to realise the important underpinning role that farmers play in their prosperity and indeed, often, their very cultural identity.

The author’s own journey parallels, to some extent, the journey of the book. His began in the 1970’s with lengthy field experience among isolated hill ‘tribes’ in the north who practised a form of agriculture much unchanged for millennia, through pioneering irrigation farmers in the North East in the 1980’s, to the highest levels in government and the private sector involving agriculture and associated research. It spanned both the transition of Thailand from a relatively poor country to the status of an ‘emerging tiger’ and the agricultural sector that supported this.

Importantly for the authority of the book, two Prime Ministers have noticed his journey in the form of prestigious awards for activities related to Thai Agriculture, in 1988 and again in 1998. This notice is evident also in support for the book and access to Thai sources. The result is an important new source for learning and thinking about the past and future for Thai agriculture, having over 900 references from national and international study centres. Fluent in Thai and the related Tai language of Lao there would be few, if any, foreign writers able to reflect on agriculture across the practical, theoretical, social, and economic domains important to understanding its place in the future of Thailand.

The theme of the book is the central role of sustainable rice cultivation to the culture and economy of Thailand, which in turn evolved from the Tai people of southern China (and others including Mon-Khmer and Indian influences), whose culture arose as agro-city states in tandem with their ability to cultivate a sustainable surplus of glutinous rice. Thailand is shown as the furthest Tai migration and, at least in modern times, the most ‘developed’ expression of this evolution in the sense that it now feeds more than four times its own population from less intensive agriculture than its neighbours. It refers to other migrations to the Shan states in Burma, Vietnam, Laos, North Eastern India, and Cambodia. It engages the Buddhist and Indian influences on this development, and particularly doctrines of the cycle of life, while cautioning the reader not to read too much western environmental ideology into this influence.

The book describes how successive Thai city-states based, notably around Ayutthaya and now Bangkok, assimilated foreign influences in trade and investment in agriculture to prosper with evolution into different products. This eventually made Thailand one of the world’s few major agricultural exporters, leading the world in rice, rubber, canned pineapple, and black tiger prawn, the region in chicken meat export and several other commodities and is now apparently poised to benefit from a predicted boom in livestock products. The book returns often to the central place of sustainable rice production in these developments, and in particular to the multifaceted subsistence production system and society that underpins sustainable rice production. It points out that the way Thailand reports its economy, divided as it is between agriculture and industry, may unintentionally disguise the relationship of this success to the farming community who implement this low cost system with little effective help.

By discussing the rise and fall of the extractive timber industry and sustainability issues related to black prawn production, it makes the point that although Thailand has assimilated much of use from foreign sources, it should not assume that the intensive production systems of the West will be of benefit.. Failure to recognise the social support and cultural aspects of traditional and subsistence farming contains the real risk that benefits will evaporate again to the cost of all, particularly the urban society which sit astride the policies and institutions needed to facilitate such an evolution. The book points out that the recent currency crisis may be a harbinger of a moral and economic collapse if non-farmers forget this, intrinsically sustainable, agricultural underpinning of Thai society....

Accessible, Comprehensive, Scholarly and Engaging.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-24

Indeed, this book contains the most comprehensive English account of not only Thai agriculture, but also the real culture of Thailand—that of the rural areas where the vast majority of Thai people live. No other texts have attempted the task which is consummately accomplished here.

Steve Smith Coordinator, Australian Studies Centre Kasetsart University Bangkok

This Old Farm: A Treasury of Family Farm Memories

Published in Hardcover by Voyageur Press (MN) (1999-04)

Author:

List price: $29.95

New price: $24.95
Used price: $1.46

Average review score:

WONDERFUL WONDERFUL I JUST LOVE IT

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-28

IT WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND THE PICTURES ARE FANTASTIC. IT BROUGHT BACK GREAT MEMORIES AS I TOO OWNED A FARM, IN INDIANA. I AM ON MY WAY TO OWNING A RANCH, SOON, I HOPE AND READING THIS BOOK I LAUGHED AT THE ANTICS OF KIDS AND ANIMALS. I DON'T THINK FARMERS, OTHER THEN THE AMISH WOULD KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING IN THOSE PICTURES TODAY HAHAHAH. EVERYTHING WAS DONE BY ANIMAL OR BY HAND. THE PICTURES AND WORDING ARE JUST GREAT. I THINK IT IS A WONDERFUL READ ESPECIALLY SOMEONE WHO LIVED AND WORKED BACK THEN ON THEIR FARM

Excellent book of farm memories

Helpful Votes: 23 out of 25 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-28

The pictures alone make this book a "must have" for anyone who grew up on a farm. It brings back warm fuzzy memories.

"This Old Farm" brings back memories

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-08-18

I loved the book, "This Old Farm". The memories it brought back to me are some that I had forgotten for many years. The writers of "This Old Farm" knew exactly what they were talking about. I could smell the odors, see the colors, feel the grass, hear the sputter of the tractors and machines. It brought tears to my eyes as it brought back memories of my life on a farm while I was growing up.

Allis-Chalmers Construction Machinery & Industrial Equipment (Crestline)

Published in Hardcover by Motorbooks International (1998-07)

Author: Norm Swinford

List price: $19.98

Used price: $268.37

Average review score:

Great Book

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-04-09

Fantastic reference. Great details and info. I wish he would write one on International Harvester.

A Good Reference for any machinery enthusiast.

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-28

I foung this book to be a very good reference for Allis Chamblers construction equiptment. While it contains little information on the AC farm tractors, this book covers nearly all of their construction equiptment. There are individual chapters for each type of equiptment, witha thoughle history of each modle. At the end of each chapter there are detailed specification sheets, as well as an apendix of serial numbers and years, so you can pinpoint your tractor's date of manufacture. The book goes gives a good history of the original company, as well as somewhat of a history of the major companies that AC bought, such as BUDA. The book also contains information on models of equiptment continued on into Fiat-Allis, such as the FA HD-31. The book covers all eqiptment, from the first early Monarch crawlers, all the way up to the giagantic HD-41's. There are chapters on industrial eqipyment, such as forklifts, and small crawlers, also inclued. If this author were to write another book like this, I would be first in line to buy it.

An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730-1815

Published in Paperback by The University of North Carolina Press (1996-09-09)

Author: Joyce E. Chaplin

List price: $24.95

New price: $17.99
Used price: $14.95

Average review score:

Looking forward but stuck in the past

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-11

As the title implies, Joyce E. Chaplin has a dual purpose. She describes slave agriculture in the colonial to the pre-antebellum period and studies the Lower South's notions of Western modernity and innovation. While southern whites were aware of and tried to apply modern ideas and innovations, they could not, in the end, disassociate themselves from being slaveholders. In a nutshell the Lower South was characterized by continuity as well as, in Chaplin's words, change and persistence. It was anything but static.

In her analysis, Chaplin found that whites frequently used Scottish enlightened thought as an historical framework for assessing their own chances of achieving socio-economic improvement. The Scottish school, Chaplin proposes, is a way to show how whites' were informed of modern contemporary theory from newspapers, books, and local authors. The Reverend Alexander Hewitt wrote a 1770s account of the rise and progress of the Lower South and David Ramsey, a physician and early North American historian, modeled the Scottish statistical efforts of Sir john Sinclair.

Landholders were keeping up with the times and not at all languishing in the backwaters enjoying mint juleps on verandahs. Still, while they adjusted to national and world events and adapted their crops, capital and labor, they did not, in the end, relinquish their reliance on slavery. Chaplin's tries to understand this aspect of slavery in order to discover why racism is so persistent.

Chaplin offers a cautionary comment in the preface. She says she doesn't want to come across as cynical toward humanity's ability to overcome racism. She succeeds in adhering to her scholarly purpose until, interestingly, at the end of her book she expresses some skepticism. While whites in the Lower South adopted notions of modernity, they adhered to slavery in order to achieve their own ends. In doing so they rejected an opportunity to use their wealth, resources and leadership for reform. Instead they chose to avoid the instability that would be necessary to move beyond slavery.

An ambitious interpretation of the 18th century Lower South

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-20

Many histories of the South have focused exclusively on the antebellum period, characterizing the region as economically undiverse, intellectually out of touch with Enlightenment ideals, and culturally static. These assesments create the impression that southerners were backward people who should have known that the society they created was not maintainable. Joyce Chaplin argues that during the period from 1730 to 1815, the region was in actuality a dynamic and innovative place that fell victim only to its own success. To do so, she has compiled an enormous amount of evidence, based on sources ranging from specialized secondary literature on economics, philosophy, and culture, as well as primary documents such as period newspapers, public records, and private correspondence.

Chaplin begins her study with a treatment of the predominant economic and political theories of the late 17th century, arguing that southerners accepted the theories of the Scottish school that a commercial society was most conducive to individual wealth creation, and thereby a stronger and more harmonious society. To find products that would create the most wealth, southerners experimented and innovated with various crops and productive means, reflecting the Enlightenment values of scientific pursuit and rationality. In the process, they created a culture that celebrated the right of the individual to pursue prosperity, but that relied upon government aid and regulation, as well as black slavery. Both of the latter aspects were seen as potentially disruptive to their fragile new society, but also unavoidable if individual (and thereby societal) betterment was to be achieved. Even as southerners came to fear the potential of government and slaves (who Chaplin shows to be far from powerless) to challenge their authority, they found that they could not do away with them without undermining the culture of white achievement they had fostered.

Chaplin shows that southereners were not hostile to manufacturing, engaging in it on a small scale particularly during times of market disruption, such as during the Revolution and the War of 1812. Cotton and rice production returned as the dominant economic activities of the South because they were by far the least risky and most profitable, not because of any intellectual opposition to non-agricultural forms of capitalization. Chaplin believes that if only the region had continued its economic diversification, the South would not have been so heavily tied to slavery, and would not have experienced its eventual economic and social stagnation.