ABSTRACT
EVEN THOUGH THE FUNDAMENTAL percepts of economics trace to antiquity, the discipline and its recommendations were not systematic and generally available in the western world until about 150 to 200 years ago. Agricultural economics, a prominent subdiscipline of economics, developed along a path parallel to that of the parent discipline and began to take on a character of its own somewhat later, about 1900 (U.S. Country Life Commission 1910). 1 Rural economics (or community economics or area development) came still later, and although some general economists and some agriculturalists have studied and continue to study the nonfarm economic problems of rural areas, this spin-off from economics and agricultural economics did not emerge until at least the Progressive Era—some will say not until the Great Depression, some will say not until after World War II (Bailey 1897, 1911). 2 Even then, it lay off to the side, never taking on either disciplinary or organizational structure. This is unfortunate because rural areas, farm and nonfarm, have serious economic problems that beg for consideration, research, and policy.
