Knobloch shows how western land, plants, animals, and people were subjugated in the name of cultivation and improvement. Illuminating the cultural significance of plows, livestock, trees, grasses, and even weeds, she demonstrates that discourse about agriculture portrays civilization as the emergence of a colonial, socially stratified, and bureaucratic culture from a primitive, feminine, and unruly wilderness. Specifically, Knobloch highlights the displacement of women from their historical role as food gatherers and producers and reveals how Native American land-use patterns functioned as a form of cultural resistance. Describing the professionalization of knowledge, Knobloch concludes that both social and biological diversity have suffered as a result of agricultural 'progress.'
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Book Description
In this innovative work of cultural and technological history, Frieda Knobloch describes how agriculture functioned as a colonizing force in the American West between 1862 and 1945. Using agricultural textbooks, USDA documents, and historical accounts of western settlement, she explores the implications of the premise that civilization progresses by bringing agriculture to wilderness. Her analysis is the first to place the trans-Mississippi West in the broad context of European and classical Roman agricultural history.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Offers anyone interested in American agriculture or the West a challenging and provocative study.
Technology and Culture
Knobloch has effectively debunked the arrogant assertions of those who helped colonize the West.
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
One of the many pleasant surprises of this exciting and ambitious book is how well Knobloch actually accomplishes her goals.
Journal of American History
This is a fascinating, well-written and researched book, that moves briskly, with a vigorous, well-supported narrative.
Western Historical Quarterly
Beautifully written, wonderfully provocative, and at the same time deeply informative.
John Mack Faragher, Yale University
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully written book, educational and informative.,
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This review is from: The Culture of the Wildnerness: Agriculture As Colonization in the American West (Studies in Rural Culture) (Paperback)
This beautifully written book is a resource for many subjects; history, anthropology, American Studies, Social Studies, just to name a few.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
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This review is from: The Culture of the Wildnerness: Agriculture As Colonization in the American West (Studies in Rural Culture) (Paperback)
This books gets 3 stars. I would give it 5 stars for factual content, and the goal and ideas behind the book. it gets one star, though, for entertainment. One of the most boring books I;ve ever read... If you're looking for a, enjoyable, thought provoking book, skip this. However, it has tons of information and is a good read to learn something
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
As Robert Pogue Harrison notes, forests have a long Western history as originary places: "From the beginning [that is, during the time of the Greeks and Romans] they appeared to our ancestors as archaic, as antecedent to the human world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
weed specialists, downy brome, weed introductions, yellow toadflax, weed law, leafy spurge, yellow starthistle, crested wheatgrass, professional forestry, western agriculture, forest territory, western grasslands, forage plants, plow agriculture, spotted knapweed, forest policy, western forests, range scientists, hydraulic society, imperial archive, moldboard plow, stock reduction, western range Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Forest Service, United States, Native American, North America, American West, War Department, Civil War, Great Plains, William Greeley, Grazing Service, Jethro Tull, Soil Conservation Service, Division of Forestry, Donald Worster, Homestead Act, Indian Service, New Mexico, Range Plant Handbook, South Dakota, African American, Bernhard Fernow, Dust Bowl, Gifford Pinchot, John Collier, Lake States New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
As Robert Pogue Harrison notes, forests have a long Western history as originary places: "From the beginning [that is, during the time of the Greeks and Romans] they appeared to our ancestors as archaic, as antecedent to the human world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
weed specialists, downy brome, weed introductions, yellow toadflax, weed law, leafy spurge, yellow starthistle, crested wheatgrass, professional forestry, western agriculture, forest territory, western grasslands, forage plants, plow agriculture, spotted knapweed, forest policy, western forests, range scientists, hydraulic society, imperial archive, moldboard plow, stock reduction, western range Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Forest Service, United States, Native American, North America, American West, War Department, Civil War, Great Plains, William Greeley, Grazing Service, Jethro Tull, Soil Conservation Service, Division of Forestry, Donald Worster, Homestead Act, Indian Service, New Mexico, Range Plant Handbook, South Dakota, African American, Bernhard Fernow, Dust Bowl, Gifford Pinchot, John Collier, Lake States New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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9
books
cite this book:
See all 9 books citing this book
- The Great Plains by Walter Prescott Webb on 9 pages
- Weeds of the West by Larry C. Burrill on 6 pages
- Range Plant Handbook by U.S. Forest Service on 6 pages
- Range Plant Handbook by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture on 5 pages
- Forests and Men (Use and abuse of America's natural resources) by William B. Greeley on 5 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden by Douglas Cazaux Sackman in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Future of the Southern Plains by Sherry L. Smith on page 92, and Back Matter
- Post-Nationalist American Studies by John Carlos Rowe on page 60
- Post-Nationalist American Studies by John Carlos Rowe on page 60
- Landscapes of Conflict (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books) by William G. Robbins in Back Matter
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