Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (The Lamar Series in Western History) [Hardcover]

Professor John Mack Faragher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 1986 | Series: The Lamar Series in Western History

Follows the development of a rural Illinois community from its origins near the beginning of the nineteenth century, looks at community activity, and tells the stories of ordinary pioneers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author chronicles the development of a rural prairie community from settlement (in 1817) through its first six decades; from the egalitarian conditions of the frontier to classes of owner-operators, tenants and hired laborers. Faragher, associate professor of history at Mount Holyoke College, has written an engaging social history of Sugar Creek in Sangamon County, Ill. Early emigrants found the prairie a threatening environment and settled at the edge of woodlands; within 20 years they had created a distinctive rural landscape. The author examines the family and kinship network in a patriarchal society and the nature of community life; he traces the progress of agriculture, from subsistence to commercial, and the decline of home industries. The sustaining elements of rural community, he finds, are local governance, churches and kinship. Here, succinctly set out, is the American prairie experience. Illustrations.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is a pleasantly written study of rural life in Sangamon County, Abraham Lincoln's neck of the woods. Concentrating on the first half of the 19th century, Faragher skillfully interweaves social, economic, and cultural history into a whole that is local history at its best, but, because of multiple implications, is much more than the history of a locality. Using many sources, he covers Indian-white relations, the establishment of towns, childbearing patterns, changing family life, the move from a barter to a cash economy, the alteration of the landscape, and the vicissitudes of agriculture for farm owners, tenants, and employees. This innovative book can fit into collections on family, agriculture, frontier, social, and women's history. Recommended for most college and university libraries. Joseph G. Dawson III, History Dept., Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 23, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300035454
• ISBN-13: 978-0300035452
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Mack Faragher was born in Phoenix, Arizona and raised in southern California, where he attended the University of California, Riverside (B.A., 1967), and did social work, before doing graduate work at Yale University (Ph.D., 1977). After fifteen years as a professor at Mount Holyoke College he returned to Yale as the Arthur Unobskey Professof of American History in 1993. His books include Women and Men on the Overland Trail (1979); Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (1986); Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1992); The American West: A New Interpretive History (2000), with Robert V. Hine; A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland (2005); and Frontiers: A Short History of the American West (2007), with Robert V. Hine. He teaches the history of the American West and directs the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faragher Brings it all to Life, March 21, 2001

By 

Julie Clark Close (Central Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Paperback)

John Mack Faragher has brought the central Illinois frontier prairie to life in his "Sugar Creek". In the style of Michener, he begins by offering an early picture of the landscape and its earliest inhabitants. His grasp on historical happenings will stay with me forever especially with regard to how these earliest European settlers of Sangamon County, IL, moved right into the Native American's maple sugar manufacturing operation, soon after they had been killed or moved out. So much for our preconceived ideas of "Virgin Land and Untouched Prairies".

I've lived near that area all my life and can claim some of these old timers who settled the Sugar Creek area as my ancestors. So through his excellent writing I can now appreciate a little more what life was like long ago for those who came before. It is with gratitude that I thank Mr. Faragher for this well written work and am recommending it to anyone I come across with ties to the area or just an interest in frontier life in general. Julie Clark Close

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rural History in America, November 25, 2002

By 

Jonathan Moore (Terre Haute, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Paperback)

John Faragher brings the fascinating story about the rural American community to life with the story of "Sugar Creek." Personally, I enjoyed reading the book on rural history, but sometimes I had to simply skip a couples pages (once and a while) that covered on the Genealogy of the settlers. The book takes place in Sangamon County, IL and is a great book on local history. Faragher tries to stay true to this introduction and writes an elegant masterpiece on local history with the little resources he can find. A changeling book to write and a nice change from reading history of urban America. It is nicely organized with chapters and I felt very comfortable reading it (with a large size font and easy to high-lighted).

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking back to look ahead, November 30, 2009

By 

Tony L. Watkins - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (The Lamar Series in Western History) (Paperback)

I understand that there are actually a few problems with the accuracy of some of the events described but having my eyes opened to such things as the nonexistence of available cash and the trading of labor and the payment of taxes through a months labor along with other things made it a book WELL WORTH READING !!!!!