ABSTRACT
Our popular conceptions of the rural Midwest are of pastoral, quiescent landscapes. Here, among undulating corn fields, distant silos, and picturesque farmsteads, we imagine hard-working families that till the earth and tend to animals. Though the actual practice of farming is strange and distant to nearly every American, we nevertheless imbue this livelihood with distinctive qualities, particularly independence, stability, and worthy simplicity—qualities sorely lacking in most urban lives. In this way, farming (and rural life more generally) has come to represent a measure of collective assurance that at least some places remain untouched by the relentlessly transformative powers of modern capitalism.
