Buy new:
-26% $16.19
FREE delivery Monday, August 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$16.19 with 26 percent savings
List Price: $21.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, August 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
In Stock
$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.19
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$8.98
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Item in acceptable condition including possible liquid damage. As well answers may be filled in. May be missing DVDs, CDs, Access code, etc. Item in acceptable condition including possible liquid damage. As well answers may be filled in. May be missing DVDs, CDs, Access code, etc. See less
FREE delivery Saturday, August 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, August 16. Order within 12 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$16.19 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.19
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Victor Davis Hanson
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Fields Without Dreams : Defending the Agrarian Ideal Paperback – March 25, 1997

by Victor Davis Hanson (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 117 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.19","priceAmount":16.19,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"19","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"5oMcY7ozvlOZHmIy5FtlPpHN66CuT2x6mKGasKIFTjqspQfUSPSB4trfD%2FPUsSJSa5qt4zJPlCvqQi0nsFzV8UQOMT73jYCeAu9fC8n11luoc282p6ShqnZgbMHV0CiiEe8rHZChzfY%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.98","priceAmount":8.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"5oMcY7ozvlOZHmIy5FtlPpHN66CuT2x6kB%2BvzIFxKXb%2BiIWvi32IBd%2F5Pi1pEUXOQNFSHdc2Qwl9bKir0sxUpaSYGcwQR728wkDcGua2Fl4yqXQw6plzZV0hsMxgiARahpJycTq8XF8kD0eQsnPaQhUhjtrYwG5Tmz0%2BYYuazgc2%2BQhpVUAi%2BUNFT7FPnU7i","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Focusing on the personal experiences of a California fruit farmer and the struggles of his neighbors in the San Joaquin Valley, a celebration of the agrarian lifestyle contrasts the corrupt values of urban America with the agrarian virtues that made America great.

Eulogizing the vanishing lifestyle of the family farm, Victor Hanson calls for America to take notice of its lost simplicity and purity before it is too late.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 25, 1997
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0684835703
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0684835709
  7. See all details
Next slide of product details
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Fields Without Dreams : Defending the Agrarian Ideal
This item: Fields Without Dreams : Defending the Agrarian Ideal
$16.19
Get it as soon as Monday, Aug 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America
The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America
$13.99
Get it as soon as Saturday, Aug 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
$20.49
Get it as soon as Saturday, Aug 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Classicist, professor, and farmer Hanson chronicles the decline of small-scale agriculture in the Central Valley of California. He takes his classics seriously, likening the raisin farmers of Modesto to Aeschylus' ideal virtuous man, who "did not wish to seem just, but to be so." He takes modern cultural dictates less seriously: "Is it not odd," he writes, "to rise at dawn with Japanese-, Mexican-, Pakistani-, Armenian-, and Portuguese-American farmers and then be lectured at noonday 40 miles away on campus about cultural sensitivity and the need for 'diversity' by the affluent white denizens of an exclusive, tree-studded suburb?" Hanson relates the life stories of his farmer neighbors, writing that their way of life will likely soon disappear, thanks in part to a federal system of agricultural subsidies that favors large-scale, industrial farm corporations over individual "yeomen." This is a sobering and eye-opening book.

About the Author

Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times, and other media outlets.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press (March 25, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684835703
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684835709
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 117 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history and classics at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of over two dozen books, including The Second World Wars, The Dying Citizen, and The End of Everything. He lives in Selma, California.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
117 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Paddy
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
Almost poetic in its accounting of where the real obstacles lie in pursuit of the American dream and the orchestrated failures of many who try because big business wants it that way.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Roger Hoke
5.0 out of 5 stars Depressing stories written in the most beautiful and erudite manner
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book of anecdotes and characters will not make you feel excited for the future of small farm agrarianism-especially when you realize it was publish almost thirty years ago. It will not make you eager for the future. But it will force some uncomfortable truths in your face. Perhaps that’s more important in this day and age.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
P. Jack Feller
5.0 out of 5 stars Love VDH books
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
Well written assessment of the demise of the family farm in the US
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
love2readthrillers
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, well written book!!
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
I grew up in this once, wonderful area. I played in grape vineyards, picked peaches & swam in the river. Over the years, going back to visit relatives, my heart would break at the decline. Very well written & in glad for all the pages at the back of the book to write my memories of my childhood.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Rod
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Shape
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
The book was a used and it was in good shape.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
VA Book Lover
4.0 out of 5 stars Baffled: Why isn't this book better known?
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2010
Verified Purchase
This book is, without question, one of the finest works about the decline of the family farm, specifically the harsh realities of California agriculture during the 1980s (written from the perspective of the late 1990s). The profiles of the last holdout "yeoman" are compelling and full blooded. But what's even more interesting is how, through the small details and the individual anecdotes, Hanson is able to diagnose the larger trends and social consequences of this decline.

One thing other reviewers haven't pointed out is that this book is really a warm-up, the personal backstory, for the much tighter and much more damning argument put forward in Hanson's book "The Land Was Everything." That book is an easy five star, mainly because it is so finely argued and so elegantly written. I have turned passages over and over with my wife ever since I finished the last page. You just can't read some of those paragraphs once. They are simply too packed with implication and subtle observation, based on years of real-life experience.

It is also a warm-up for his book "Mexifornia," which separates out in a humane and clear-eyed way the realities of illegal immigration in Central California. Like "The Land Was Everything," this book is a classic in the genre and will be read for insight long into the future. So, all in all, these other two books might be approached with more benefit first, before turning back to this mid-way point in Hanson's thought. Anybody who is interested in learning what it takes to grow grapes for raisins will be interested in this earlier account.

My only question is: Why aren't Hanson's books on agriculture better known? The quality of writing and thought are far superior to a Michael Pollan (who is really too urban) or even a Wendell Berry (who tends to be too abstract or ponderous). There is so much in these books that, perhaps contrary to most expectations, liberal readers interested in the dynamics of social class or race, the construction of gender, the criticisms of corporate capitalism, and the problems of environmental stewardship will find much to ponder. Conservative readers will be equally challenged by the concern for virtue, the difficulty of good government, and the inevitable problems of modernity.
67 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening insight
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
We are central California cattle ranchers, alum of Cal Poly and Fresno State. Love this man’s insight
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
v....
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
Victor Davis Hanson knows his stuff and has the historical knowlege to back his opinions.
11 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report