Prairie Patrimony

Prairie Patrimonyconsolidates, refines, advances and grounds recent scholarship that challenges familiar platitudes about family farming and rural life in the United States. . . . No one should doubt the great contribution that Salamon has made to our understanding of American rural life. American Studies [Salamon's] approach yields a depth of information about farming culture not usually found in the literature on rural America. Choice Takes the reader on a cultural tour of a cherished American institution and landscape--midwestern farm families and their farms. With perceptive attention to detail and knowledge borne of first-hand study over many years, [Salamon] skillfully reveals the pervasive imprint of ethnicity. . . . Prairie Patrimonyrepresents one of those rare studies that enrich our social vision and understanding in extraordinary ways. Glen H. Elder, Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Salamon's book is a remarkable contribution to the study of agriculture and culture, and its cross-disciplinary approach will engage scholars in many areas. For historians, it is a splendid illustration that different behaviors between American and immigrant farmers, planted over a century ago in the Middle West, have endured to the present. Jon Gjerde, University of California, Berkeley

Sonya Salamon is professor of family studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign