My Research

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I am a cultural and social historian of American History. My research centers around Rural Print Culture in the American Midwest at the turn of the twentieth century.
Results of my research so far:
The Farm Press, Reform, and Rural Change, 1895-1920. New York: Routledge, forthcoming 2005.
This revision of my dissertation will be published by Routledge in their series, Studies in American Popular Culture and History. It will be billed as "An in-depth look at the producers and readers of Midwestern Farm Newspapers." At the turn of the twentieth century, the Midwestern farm press made recommendations to farmers, but farmers ultimately decided whether or not they would follow their advice.
Abstract:
    At the turn of the twentieth century, immigration, urbanization, and industrialization transformed the United States from a rural to an urban nation. What these changes meant to rural Americans can be seen by examining what, how, and why they were reading. American farmers read to entertain their families, to maintain their communities, and to obtain useful information.

    The farm press reached out to many of these rural readers. All types of farmers at all socioeconomic levels read farm newspapers. But farmers did not publish them. Most editors and publishers had left the countryside for careers in journalism. Therefore urban progressive reformers influenced them. The farm press printed their recommendations for reform about the rural church, the country school, and the farm family. Farmers were complex people, however, and adopted some reforms and discarded others.

    This study of the farm press broadens our understanding of rural life. While cultural historians have focused on Northeastern and urban readers, it examines Midwestern farmers. It also contributes to the “new rural history” by showing that country people selectively adapted reformers’ advice. Finally, it deepens our understanding of American farm newspapers and offers suggestions on how to use them as sources.

"‘Good Farming - Clear Thinking - Right Living’: Midwestern Farm Newspapers, Social Reform, and Rural Readers in the Early Twentieth Century." Agricultural History 78 (Winter 2004): 34-49.

This article presented some of the conclusions from my dissertation: that farm newspaper owners and editors were often not farmers and often promoted Progressive, country life reforms not supported by their rural readers. I use farm newspapers' recommendations for the one-room country school as an example.

"Reading, Reform, and Rural Change: The Midwestern Farm Press, 1895-1920." Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Iowa, 2002.
Table of Contents:

Introduction. The Rural Midwest and the Midwestern Farm Press During the Progressive Era, 1895-1920

Chapter 1. "First Class Papers" and "Never-stop Papers": Twenty-five Years of the Midwestern Farm Press

Chapter 2. Owners and Editors: the Faces Behind the Midwestern Farm Press

Chapter 3. "What Farmers Read and Liked": Scenes of Reading in the Rural Midwest

Chapter 4. "Who Read the Agricultural Journals?": Farm Newspaper Subscribers in the Lower Midwest

Chapter 5. "Innumerable Little White Churches": the Rural Church and the Midwestern Farm Press

Chapter 6. "The Schoolhouse at the Crossroads": the Rural School and the Midwestern Farm Press

Chapter 7. "Why Leave the Farm?": The Farm Family and the Midwestern Farm Press

Conclusion. "Good Farming - Clear Thinking - Right Living": the Uses of Midwestern Farm Newspapers

"The Rural Church and the Midwestern Farm Press in the Early Twentieth Century." Paper presented at the Woodrow Wilson National Symposium, Staunton, Virginia, 20 October 2000. Woodrow Wilson National Symposium 2000, http://www.woodrowwilson.org/content/articles/48130001/file_2200.pdf
This paper gave an overview of the coverage of the rural church presented in several of the Midwestern farm newspapers given above. Farm newspapers recommended that rural churches become the social centers of their communities and cooperate among denominations in order to provide for their future. Rural Midwesterners did not accept this advice wholesale. Instead, they chose parts of it which fit in with their traditional way of viewing the rural church, and rejected others.

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