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Victor Davis Hanson

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

by Victor Davis Hanson (Author)

66 ratings

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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. "Victor Davis Hanson . . . is a writer as much as a farmer. His memoir is complex--passionate, angry, honest, scorching".--Jane Smiley, "The New Yorker".

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Free Press
Publication date

March 25, 1997
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
ISBN-10

0684835703
ISBN-13

978-0684835709
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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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press (March 25, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684835703
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684835709
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #194,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #120 in Sociology of Rural Areas
- #293 in History of Technology
- #459 in Zoology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
66 ratings

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5 star		88%
4 star		10%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Fiona McLeod

One of the things wrong with our country...

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2020

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We don't seem to care about farmers. We want organic, fresh foods... yet we settle for factory farms and make it even harder for real family farms to survive. We settle for food from other countries and don't buy what is just around the corner. We have lost the sense of importance of the land. Many claim to be "green" but the only green they care about is on the dollar bills.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

love2readthrillers

Excellent, well written book!!

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 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.

4 people found this helpful

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Larney James

Fellow Agrarian

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Bought this book for my son who, as an academic liberal with conservative parents, is having trouble understanding his Pasco, Washington previous-generation family farm heritage. I suspect Hanson’s book will only be fully appreciated by fellow travelers along the road of the demise of the family farm and American democracy, but for those with curiosity and an open mind, it is uniquely illuminating. Wonderfully told stories of real people in the context of modern history and government.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Such a tragedy

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

Wake up America. We need to save the family farm & farmer

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Enlightening insight

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2019

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We are central California cattle ranchers, alum of Cal Poly and Fresno State. Love this man’s insight

3 people found this helpful

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v....

Well written

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2018

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Victor Davis Hanson knows his stuff and has the historical knowlege to back his opinions.

5 people found this helpful

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VA Book Lover

Baffled: Why isn't this book better known?

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2010

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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.

44 people found this helpful

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Whistler

Easy bake bread

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2020

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Good buy

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Lifestooshort

Enjoy real food while you can still get it!

Reviewed in Canada on July 6, 2018

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Excellent, honest, and realistic about farming in North America. Someday it's all going to come home to roost and cheap food will be a thing of the past but many of us that have farmed or are hanging on by our teeth now will never live long enough to see that day and the land will get sucked up by more houses and developements. Fake food will become (not an oddity like the lab created meat now being marketed.......hey why worry about GMO's if you eat this crap??) mainstream and those living during that time will be lucky to even have that. VDH rocks!

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