The Land That Feeds Us

Library Journal

For the many Americans who have never set foot on a real farm, this book is required reading. Hart, a professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, explores, in a historical context, what farmers actually do, and how this affects the landscape and rural community. His book, an engaging blend of agricultural history, geography, travel, and interviews with farmers, provides an unsentimental, realistic look at American farm life. Since Hart limits himself to the East, public librarians may wish to pair this book with Mark Friedberger's fine Farm Families and Change in Twentieth-Century America (Univ. Pr. of Kentucky, 1988),which includes agriculture in California, and Richard Rhodes's Farm ( LJ 10/1/89).--Richard Shotwell, Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Mass.