ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the development of one distinctive set of answers to the questions: How would the agrarian sector adjust to the farmers' new minority status? Should the innovations of science and the new machine technologies be welcomed on the farm? How could America hold onto the next generation of farmers? It also discusses the questions: Was commercial farming compatible with strong family life? How could the nation insure continued enjoyment of the socially conservative gifts delivered by a rural populace: a sense of independence, commitment to democracy, an abundance of children, stable community life? Could the nation even survive without a vital farming populace rooted in productive working homes? The book presents the temporal flow of the New Agrarian project and summarizes reasons for the apparent failure of the New Agrarian project.
