ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the question of the identification of classes through the social relations of production and the political and ideological effects theorized to derive from economic class position. It explains the importance of tenancy, debt, and hired labor as social relations of production in Wisconsin agriculture. The book also addresses class formation by focusing on the forms of struggle and organization undertaken by farmers in their encounters with capital. The focus on class provides insights into the structure of American agriculture that are not readily yielded by examining only status, psychological, ecological or demographic variables. The book examines historical trends in the social relations of agricultural production. It analyzes the process of class formation by focusing on the politics, ideology, and forms of organization and struggle created by the structure of agriculture as well as by actions of agents themselves.
