Sowing Modernity

Download or read book Sowing Modernity written by Peter D. McClelland and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to those who regard the economic transformation of the West as a gradual process spanning centuries, Peter D. McClelland claims the initial transformation of American agriculture was an unmistakable revolution. He asks when a single crucial question was first directed persistently, pervasively, and systematically to farming practices: Is there a better way? McClelland surveys practices from crop rotation to livestock breeding, with a particular focus on the change in implements used to produce small grains. With wit and verve and an abundance of detail, he demonstrates that the first great surge in inventive activity in agronomy in the United States took place following the War of 1812, much of it in a fifteen-year period ending in 1830. Once questioning the status quo became the norm for producers on and off the farm, according to McClelland, the march to modernization was virtually assured. With the aid of more than 270 illustrations, many of them taken from contemporary sources, McClelland describes this stunning transformation in a manner rarely found in the agricultural literature. How primitive farming implements worked, what their defects were, and how they were initially redesigned are explained in a manner intelligible to the novice and yet offering analysis and information of special interest to the expert.

Download or read book A Cultural History of Food in the Modern Age written by Amy Bentley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the modern age (1920–2000), vast technological innovation spurred greater concentration, standardization, and globalization of the food supply. As advances in agricultural production in the post-World War II era propelled population growth, a significant portion of the population gained access to cheap, industrially produced food while significant numbers remained mired in hunger and malnutrition. Further, as globalization allowed unprecedented access to foods from all parts of the globe, it also hastened environmental degradation, contributed to poor health, and remained a key element in global politics, economics and culture. A Cultural History of Food in the Modern Age presents an overview of the period with essays on food production, food systems, food security, safety and crises, food and politics, eating out, professional cooking, kitchens and service work, family and domesticity, body and soul, representations of food, and developments in food production and consumption globally.

Download or read book Old-Fashioned Modernism written by Andy Oler and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Midwest holds two conflicting positions in the American cultural imagination, both of which rob the region of its distinctiveness. Often, it is seen as the “heartland,” a pastoral ideal standing in for all of American culture. Alternatively, the Midwest can represent “flyover country,” part of an expansive, undifferentiated mass between the coasts. In Old-Fashioned Modernism: Rural Masculinity and Midwestern Literature, Andy Oler challenges both views by pairing fiction and poetry from the region with cultural and material texts that illustrate the processes by which regional modernism both opposes and absorbs prevailing models of twentieth-century manhood. Although it acknowledges a tradition of Midwestern urban literature, Old-Fashioned Modernism focuses on representations of life on farms and in small towns that generate specific forms of rural modernity. Oler considers a series of male protagonists who both fulfill and resist conventional American narratives of economic advancement, spatial experience, and gender roles. The writers he studies portray the onset of socioeconomic and mechanical modernity by merging realist and naturalist narratives with upwellings of modernist form and style. His analysis charts a trajectory in which Midwestern literature depicts experiences that appear dependent on nostalgic pastoralism but actually foreground the ongoing fragmentation and emerging anxieties of the countryside. In detailed readings of novels by Sherwood Anderson, William Cunningham, Langston Hughes, Wright Morris, and Dawn Powell, as well as the poetry of Lorine Niedecker, Oler highlights images of men from the rural Midwest who face the tensions between agricultural production and mass industrialization. These works of literature, which Oler examines alongside pieces of material culture like advertisements for farm implements and record labels, feature communities that support self-made as well as corporate identities. As portraits of the Midwest that resist the totalizing trajectory of industrialization, these texts generate spaces that meld rural and urban economics, land use, and affective experiences. Old-Fashioned Modernism reveals how Midwestern regionalism negotiates the anxieties and dominant narratives of early- and midcentury rural masculinities, as regional literature and culture alter the forms and spaces of literary modernism.

Download or read book Old World, New World written by Leonard J. Sadosky and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction / Peter S. Onuf -- Environmental hazards, eighteenth-century style / Gordon S. Wood -- Decadents abroad : reconstructing the typical colonial American in London in the late colonial period / Julie Flavell -- "Citizens of the world" : men, women, and country in the Age of Revolution / Sarah M.S. Pearsall -- Reimagining the British empire and America in an Age of Revolution : the case of William Eden / Leonard J. Sadosky -- John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Dutch patriots / Peter Nicolaisen-- John Adams in Europe : a provincial cosmopolitan confronts the metropolitan world, 1778-1788 / Richard A. Ryerson -- "Behold me at length on the vaunted scene of Europe" : Jefferson and the creation of an American image abroad / Gaye Wilson -- Negotiating gifts : Jefferson's diplomatic presents / Martha Elena Rojas -- Better tools for a new and better world : Jefferson perfects the plow / Lucia Stanton -- The end of a beautiful friendship : Americans in Paris and public diplomacy during the war scare of 1798-1799 / Philipp Ziesche -- Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte : a woman between two worlds / Charlene Boyer Lewis.

Download or read book Birth of Modern Facts written by James W. Cortada and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-01-09 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over twenty years, James W. Cortada has pioneered research into how information shapes society. In this book he tells the story of how information evolved since the mid-nineteenth century. Cortada argues that information increased in quantity, became more specialized by discipline (e.g., mathematics, science, political science), and more organized. Information increased in volume due to a series of innovations, such as the electrification of communications and the development of computers, but also due to the organization of facts and knowledge by discipline, making it easier to manage and access. He looks at what major disciplines have done to shape the nature of modern information, devoting chapters to the most obvious ones. Cortada argues that understanding how some features of information evolved is useful for those who work in subjects that deal with their very construct and application, such as computer scientists and those exploring social media and, most recently, history. The Birth of Modern Facts builds on Cortada’s prior books examining how information became a central feature of modern society, most notably as a sequel to All the Facts: A History of Information in the United States since 1870 (OUP, 2016) and Building Blocks of Society: History, Information Ecosystems, and Infrastructures (R&L, 2021).

Download or read book The Rise of Western Power written by Jonathan Daly and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The West's history is one of extraordinary success; no other region, empire, culture, or civilization has left so powerful a mark upon the world. The Rise of Western Power charts the West's achievements-representative government, the free enterprise system, modern science, and the rule of law-as well as its misdeeds-two frighteningly destructive World Wars, the Holocaust, imperialistic domination, and the Atlantic slave trade. Adopting a global perspective, Jonathan Daly explores the contributions of other cultures and civilizations to the West's emergence. Historical, geographical, and cultural factors all unfold in the narrative. Adopting a thematic structure, the book traces the rise of Western power through a series of revolutions-social, political, technological, military, commercial, and industrial, among others. The result is a clear and engaging introduction to the history of Western civilization.

Download or read book Governing Animals written by Kimberly K. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the role of government in protecting animal welfare? What principles should policy makers draw on as they try to balance animal welfare against human liberty? Much has been written in recent years on our moral duties towards animals, but scholars and activists alike have neglected the important question of how far the state may go to enforce those duties. Kimberly K. Smith fills that gap by exploring how liberal political principles apply to animal welfare policy. Focusing on animal welfare in the United States, Governing Animals begins with an account of the historical relationship between animals and the development of the American liberal welfare state. It then turns to the central theoretical argument: Some animals (most prominently pets and livestock) may be considered members of the liberal social contract. That conclusion justifies limited state intervention to defend their welfare - even when such intervention may harm human citizens. Taking the analysis further, the study examines whether citizens may enjoy property rights in animals, what those rights entail, how animals may be represented in our political and legal institutions, and what strategies for reform are most compatible with liberal principles. The book takes up several policy issues along the way, from public funding of animal rescue operations to the ethics of livestock production, animal sacrifice, and animal fighting. Beyond even these specific policy questions, this book asks what sort of liberalism is suitable for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Smith argues that investigating the political morality of our treatment of animals gives us insight into how to design practices and institutions that protect the most vulnerable members of our society, thus making of our shared world a more fitting home for both humans and the nonhumans to which we are so deeply connected.