David B. Danbom's Books

Born in the Country

A History of Rural America

By: David B. Danbom

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Born in the Country

A History of Rural America

By: David B. Danbom

Updated edition: “A balanced economic, social, political, and technological history of rural America . . . A splendid book, rich with detail.” —Agricultural History Review Through most of its history, America has been a rural nation, largely made up of farmers. David B. Danbom’s Born in the Country was the first—and is still the only—general history of rural America. Ranging from pre-Columbian times to the enormous changes of the twentieth century, the book masterfully integrates agricultural, technological, and economic themes with new questions about the American experience. Danbom employs the stories of particular farm families to illustrate the experiences of rural people. This substantially revised and updated third edition: • expands and deepens its coverage of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries • focuses on the changes in agriculture and rural life in the progressive and New Deal eras as well as the massive shifts that have taken place since 1945 • adds new information about African American and Native American agricultural experiences • discusses the decline of agriculture as a productive enterprise and its impact on farm families and communities • explores rural culture, gender issues, agriculture, and the environment • traces the relationship among farmers, agribusiness, and consumers In a new and provocative concluding chapter, Danbom reflects on increasing consumer disenchantment with and resistance to modern agriculture as well as the transformation of rural America into a place where farmers are a shrinking minority. Ultimately, he asks whether a distinctive style of rural life exists any longer in the United States. “A delightful story tracing the social history of U.S. farmers. The book details the attitudes and social life of farm people?how they looked at themselves and how the rest of society saw them.” —Forum

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315

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421423367

ISBN 13

9781421423364

Sod Busting

How Families Made Farms on the 19th-Century Plains

By: David B. Danbom

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Sod Busting

How Families Made Farms on the 19th-Century Plains

By: David B. Danbom

“An excellent introduction to the challenges and opportunities of agricultural life in a difficult region for farming . . . elegantly written.” —Jeff Bremer, The Annals of Iowa Prairie busting is central to the lore of westward expansion, but how was it actually accomplished with little more than animal and human power? In Sod Busting, David B. Danbom challenges students to think about the many practicalities of surviving on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century by providing a detailed account of how settlers acquired land and made homes, farms, and communities. He examines the physical and climatic obstacles of the plains—perhaps America’s most inhospitable frontier—and shows how settlers sheltered themselves, gained access to fuel and water, and broke the land for agriculture. Treating the Great Plains as a post-industrial frontier, Danbom delves into the economic motivations of settlers, how they got the capital they needed to succeed, and how they used the labor of the entire family to survive until farms returned profits. He examines closely the business decisions that determined the success or failure of these farmers in a boom-and-bust economy; details the creation of churches, schools, and service centers that enriched the social and material lives of the settlers; and shows how the support of government, railroads, and other businesses contributed to the success of plains settlement. Based on contemporary accounts, settlers’ reminiscences, and the work of other historians, Sod Busting dives deeply into the practical realities of how things worked to make vivid one of the quintessentially American experiences, breaking new land. “A cogent and engaging portrait of the real lives of those who settled the Great Plains.” —Nebraska History

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180

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

142141452X

ISBN 13

9781421414522

Fargo, North Dakota 1870-1940

By: Claire Strom,David B. Danbom

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Fargo, North Dakota 1870-1940

By: Claire Strom,David B. Danbom

Established in 1872 when the Northern Pacific crossed the Red River from Moorhead, Fargo quickly became an important town. The combination of the railroad and the wheat boom created a flourishing frontier city in the 1870s. The railroads brought goods into Fargo for sale, and established it as the area's major retail, wholesale, and service center. From 1880 to 1940 Fargo grew consistently with substantial immigration. Many of the early city leaders were Yankees from states such as Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, as well as Canadians. European immigration before 1900 was predominantly from Scandinavia and Germany, but after 1900 it broadened to include other countries. These immigrants brought strong traditions with them that became evident in the religious and cultural life of the city. Established in 1872 when the Northern Pacific crossed the Red River from Moorhead, Fargo quickly became an important town. The combination of the railroad and the wheat boom created a flourishing frontier city in the 1870s. The railroads brought goods into Fargo for sale, and established it as the area's major retail, wholesale, and service center. From 1880 to 1940 Fargo grew consistently with substantial immigration. Many of the early city leaders were Yankees from states such as Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, as well as Canadians. European immigration before 1900 was predominantly from Scandinavia and Germany, but after 1900 it broadened to include other countries. These immigrants brought strong traditions with them that became evident in the religious and cultural life of the city.

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Page Count

138

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0738520179

ISBN 13

9780738520179

Going it Alone

Fargo Grapples with the Great Depression

By: David B. Danbom

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Going it Alone

Fargo Grapples with the Great Depression

By: David B. Danbom

In Going It Alone: Fargo Grapples with the Great Depression, historian David B. Danbom shows how this exemplary American city struggled to survive problems it could not solve by itself. People of all classes shunned and demonized those who accepted relief. Unemployed men formed a club to barter goods and to influence work programs. City leaders, forced to accept federal help, fought for local control. Danbom also traces the effects of larger cultural changes not rooted in the Depression but sometimes exacerbated by it - struggles between employers and workers, the growing independence of women, and conflict between parents and children."--BOOK JACKET.

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308

Publisher

Minnesota Historical Society

Published Date

ISBN 10

0873515463

ISBN 13

9780873515467

Born in the Country

A History of Rural America

By: David B. Danbom

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Born in the Country

A History of Rural America

By: David B. Danbom

Ultimately, he asks whether a distinctive style of rural life exists any longer.

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303

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421423359

ISBN 13

9781421423357

There Goes the Neighborhood

Rural School Consolidation at the Grass Roots in Early Twentieth-Century Iowa

By: David R. Reynolds

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There Goes the Neighborhood

Rural School Consolidation at the Grass Roots in Early Twentieth-Century Iowa

By: David R. Reynolds

Despite being the centerpiece of rural educational reform for most of the twentieth century, rural school consolidation has received remarkably little scholarly attention. The social history and geography of the movement, the widespread resistance it provoked, and the cultural landscapes its proponents sought to transform have remained largely unexplored. Now in There Goes the Neighborhood David Reynolds remedies this situation by examining the rural school consolidation movement in that most midwestern of midwestern states, Iowa. From 1912 to 1921, Iowa was the center of national attention as state and local education leaders attempted to implement a new model of rural education, intended to be emulated throughout the rest of the Midwest. As part of the Country Life movement—whose leaders sought to create a more modern future for farm families, an alternative form of rural community that combined the advantages of both city and country—the initially successful model collapsed in the early twenties, not to be revived until after World War II. Reynolds focuses on how and why rural school consolidation was so vigorously resisted in most of Iowa, why it failed in the twenties, and what its lasting consequences have been. Combining social and oral history, modern social theory, historical geography, and ethnography, There Goes the Neighborhood is the most authoritative analysis to date of the politics, geography, and social history of rural school consolidation in any state.

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319

Publisher

University of Iowa Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1587293072

ISBN 13

9781587293078

Sowing the American Dream

How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest

By: David Blanke

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Sowing the American Dream

How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest

By: David Blanke

From 1840 to 1900, midwestern Americans experienced firsthand the profound economic, cultural, and structural changes that transformed the nation from a premodern, agrarian state to one that was urban, industrial, and economically interdependent. Midwestern commercial farmers found themselves at the heart of these changes. Their actions and reactions led to the formation of a distinctive and particularly democratic consumer ethos, which is still being played out today. By focusing on the consumer behavior of midwestern farmers, Sowing the American Dream provides illustrative examples of how Americans came to terms with the economic and ideological changes that swirled around them. From the formation of the Grange to the advent of mail-order catalogs, the buying patterns of rural midwesterners set the stage for the coming century. Carefully documenting the rise and fall of the powerful purchasing cooperatives, David Blanke explains the shifting trends in collective consumerism, which ultimately resulted in a significant change in the way that midwestern consumers pursued their own regional identity, community, and independence.

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299

Publisher

Ohio University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0821413473

ISBN 13

9780821413470

Kentucky and the Great War

World War I on the Home Front

By: David J. Bettez

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Kentucky and the Great War

World War I on the Home Front

By: David J. Bettez

From five thousand children marching in a parade, singing, "Johnnie get your hoe.... Mary dig your row," to communities banding together to observe Meatless Tuesdays and Wheatless Wednesdays, Kentuckians were loyal supporters of their country during the First World War. Kentucky had one of the lowest rates of draft dodging in the nation, and the state increased its coal production by 50 percent during the war years. Overwhelmingly, the people of the Commonwealth set aside partisan interests and worked together to help the nation achieve victory in Europe. David J. Bettez provides the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of the Great War on Bluegrass society, politics, economy, and culture, contextualizing the state's involvement within the national experience. His exhaustively researched study examines the Kentucky Council of Defense—which sponsored local war-effort activities—military mobilization and preparation, opposition and dissent, and the role of religion and higher education in shaping the state's response to the war. It also describes the efforts of Kentuckians who served abroad in military and civilian capacities, and postwar memorialization of their contributions. Kentucky and the Great War explores the impact of the conflict on women's suffrage, child labor, and African American life. In particular, Bettez investigates how black citizens were urged to support a war to make the world "safe for democracy" even as their civil rights and freedoms were violated in the Jim Crow South. This engaging and timely social history offers new perspectives on an overlooked aspect of World War I.

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441

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813168023

ISBN 13

9780813168029

The Farmers' Game

Baseball in Rural America

By: David Vaught

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The Farmers' Game

Baseball in Rural America

By: David Vaught

A journey through the national pastime’s roots in America’s small towns and wide-open spaces: “An absorbing read.” —The Tampa Tribune In the film Field of Dreams, the lead character gives his struggling farming community a magical place where the smell of roasted peanuts gently wafts over the crowded grandstand on a warm summer evening, just as the star pitcher takes the mound. In The Farmers’ Game, David Vaught examines the history and character of baseball through a series of essay-vignettes—presenting the sport as essentially rural, reflecting the nature of farm and small-town life. Vaught does not deny or devalue the lively stickball games played in the streets of Brooklyn, but he sees the history of the game and the rural United States as related and mutually revealing. His subjects include nineteenth-century Cooperstown, the playing fields of Texas and Minnesota, the rural communities of California, the great farmer-pitcher Bob Feller, and the notorious Gaylord Perry. Although—contrary to legend—Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball in a cow pasture in upstate New York, many fans enjoy the game for its nostalgic qualities. Vaught’s deeply researched exploration of baseball’s rural roots helps explain its enduring popularity.

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367

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Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421408333

ISBN 13

9781421408330

J. C. Penney

The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture

By: David Delbert Kruger

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J. C. Penney

The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture

By: David Delbert Kruger

What is now called JCPenney, a fixture of suburban shopping malls, started out as a small-town Main Street store that fused its founder’s interests in agriculture, retail business, religion, and philanthropy. This book—at once a biography of Missouri farm boy–turned–business icon James Cash Penney and the story of the company he started in 1902—brings to light the little-known agrarian roots of an American department store chain. David Delbert Kruger explores how the company, its stores, and their famous founder shaped rural America throughout the twentieth century. “Most of our stores,” Penney explained in 1931, “are located in agricultural regions where the tide of merchandising rises and falls with the prosperity of the farmers.” Despite the growth of cities in the early twentieth century, Penney maintained his stores’ commitment to serving the needs of farmers and small-town folk. Tracing this dedication to Penney’s rural upbringing, Kruger describes how, from one store in the sheep-ranching and mining town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, J. C. Penney Co. became a familiar chain on Main Street, USA, purveying value, providing good jobs, and marking rites of passage in many an American childhood. Kruger paints a biographical and historical picture of an American business mogul distinctly different from comparable capitalists such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, or Sam Walton. Despite his chain’s corporate structure, Penney imbued each store with a Golden Rule philosophy that demanded mutual respect between customers, employees, competitors, suppliers, and communities. By tracing that spirit to its agrarian source, and following it through the twentieth century, J. C. Penney: The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture provides a new perspective on this American cultural institution—and on its founder’s unique brand of American capitalism.

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Page Count

428

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806158417

ISBN 13

9780806158419

Spitter

Baseball's Notorious Gaylord Perry

By: David Vaught

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Spitter

Baseball's Notorious Gaylord Perry

By: David Vaught

Finalist for the 2023 CASEY Award Gaylord Jackson Perry was born in 1938 as the younger son of a tobacco sharecropper in Martin County, North Carolina. He and his older brother Jim grew up against a background of backbreaking work six days a week in a community that boasted not a single paved road until the 1950s. Their only relaxation was playing baseball, first with their father and later at school. While both brothers would go on to succeed as pitchers in major league baseball, for Gaylord, success would require a lot of perseverance and an almost equal amount of subterfuge. After a couple of lackluster seasons with the San Francisco Giants, he learned from bullpen-mate Bob Shaw how to throw the illegal spitball. More importantly, he learned to control the tricky pitch and to conceal it from suspicious umpires, opposing managers, and baffled batters. When he finally broke out the spitter in a victory by attrition in a marathon, 32-inning, nine-hour doubleheader against the Mets in May 1964, his destiny was set. The Hall of Famer would go on to a 314–265 win-loss record, with a 3.11 earned-run average and 3,534 career strikeouts, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. Sports historian David Vaught has mined archival and public records, game statistics, media accounts, and previously published works—including Perry’s 1974 autobiography—to compile the first critical biography of a player as famous for his wry humor and downhome banter as for his trademark illegal pitch. Written for baseball fans and American sports historians, Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry provides new insights and genuine enjoyment of the game for a wide range of readers.

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Page Count

602

Publisher

Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1648430651

ISBN 13

9781648430657

King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

By: David J. Shepherd

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King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

By: David J. Shepherd

Of all the characters bequeathed to us by the Hebrew Bible, none is more compelling or complex than David. Divinely blessed, musically gifted, brave, and eloquent, David's famous slaying of Goliath also confirms that he is a redoubtable man of war. Yet, when his son Absalom rebels, David is dogged by the accusation than he will lose his kingdom because he is not merely a man of war, but a man of 'bloods' - guilty of shedding innocent blood. In this book, for the first time, this language of 'innocent blood' and 'bloodguilt' is traced throughout David's story in the books of Samuel and 1 Kings. The theme emerges initially in Saul's pursuit of David and resurfaces regularly as David rises and men like Nabal, Saul, Ishbosheth, and Abner fall. Innocent blood and bloodguilt also turn out to be central to David's reign. This is seen in a surprising way in David's killing of Uriah, but also in the subsequent deaths of his sons, Amnon and Absalom, his general, Amasa, and even in David's encounters with Shimei. The problem rears its head again when the innocent blood of the Gibeonites shed by Saul comes back to haunt David's kingdom. Finally, the problem reappears when Solomon succeeds David and orchestrates the executions of Joab and Shimei, and the exile of Abiathar. Attending carefully to the text and drawing extensively on previous biblical scholarship, David J. Shepherd suggests that innocent blood is not only a pre-eminent concern of David, and his story in Samuel and 1 Kings, but also shapes the entirety of David's history.

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297

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192579711

ISBN 13

9780192579713

MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS

By: David 1830-1894 Swing,Newell Dwight 1858-1929 Hillis, Ed

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MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS

By: David 1830-1894 Swing,Newell Dwight 1858-1929 Hillis, Ed

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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Page Count

314

Publisher

Wentworth Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1371704511

ISBN 13

9781371704513

The Life Of David Roberts, R.a.: Compiled From His Journals And Other Sources

By: James Ballantine,David Roberts

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The Life Of David Roberts, R.a.: Compiled From His Journals And Other Sources

By: James Ballantine,David Roberts

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Page Count

332

Publisher

Wentworth Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1010701460

ISBN 13

9781010701460

Book's by David B. Danbom

Born in the Country

Born in the Country

Sod Busting

Sod Busting

Fargo, North Dakota 1870-1940

Fargo, North Dakota 1870-1940

Going it Alone

Going it Alone

Born in the Country

Born in the Country

There Goes the Neighborhood

There Goes the Neighborhood

Sowing the American Dream

Sowing the American Dream

Kentucky and the Great War

Kentucky and the Great War

The Farmers' Game

The Farmers' Game

J. C. Penney

J. C. Penney

Spitter

Spitter

King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt

MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS

MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS

The Life Of David Roberts, R.a.: Compiled From His Journals And Other Sources

The Life Of David Roberts, R.a.: Compiled From His Journals And Other Sources

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