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Agriculture and Class: Contradictions of Midwestern Family Farms Across the Twentieth Century

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dc.contributor.advisorStephen A. Resnick
dc.contributor.advisorRichard D. Wolff
dc.contributor.advisorGerald Friedman
dc.contributor.authorRamey, Elizabeth Ann
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.date2023-09-23T06:34:34.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T19:50:34Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T19:50:34Z
dc.date.issued2012-02-01
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation I develop a Marxian class analysis of corn-producing family farms in the Midwestern United States during the early twentieth century. I theorize the family farm as a complex hybrid of mostly feudal and ancient class structures that has survived through a contradictory combination of strategies that includes the feudal exploitation of farm family members, the cannibalization of neighboring ancient farmers in a vicious hunt for superprofits, and the intervention of state welfare programs. The class-based definition of the family farm yields unique insights into three broad aspects of U.S. agricultural history. First, my analysis highlights the crucial, yet under-recognized role of farm women and children's unpaid labor in subsidizing the family farm. Second I offer a new, class-based perspective on the roots of the twentieth century "miracle of productivity" in U.S. agriculture, the rise of the agribusiness giants that depended on the perpetual, technology-induced crisis of that agriculture, and the implications of government farm programs. Third, this dissertation demonstrates how the unique set of contradictions and circumstances facing family farmers during the early twentieth century, including class exploitation, were connected to concern for their ability to serve the needs of U.S. industrial capitalist development. The argument presented here highlights the significant costs associated with the intensification of exploitation in the transition to industrial agriculture in the U.S. The family farm is implicated in this social theft. Ironically, the same family farm is often held up as the bedrock of American life. Its exalted status as an example of democracy, independence, self-sufficiency, and morality is enabled among other things by the absence of class awareness in U.S. society. When viewed through the lens of class, the hallowed family farm becomes example of one of the most exploitative institutions in the U.S. economy. The myth of its superiority takes on a new significance as one of the important non-economic processes helping to overdetermine the family farm's long survival, while participating in foreclosing truly radical transformations of these institutions to non-exploitative alternatives.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentEconomics
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/2647303
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/38967
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1523&context=open_access_dissertations&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectagriculture and technology
dc.subjectclass analysis
dc.subjectfamily farm
dc.subjectfarm women
dc.subjectMarxian theory
dc.subjectEconomics
dc.titleAgriculture and Class: Contradictions of Midwestern Family Farms Across the Twentieth Century
dc.typedissertation
dc.typearticle
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:ramey@hws.edu|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Ramey, Elizabeth Ann
digcom.identifieropen_access_dissertations/517
digcom.identifier.contextkey2647303
digcom.identifier.submissionpathopen_access_dissertations/517
dspace.entity.typePublication
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