The industrial expansion of the twentieth century brought with
it a profound shift away from traditional agricultural modes and
practices in the American South. The forces of economic modernity
-- specialization, mechanization, and improved efficiency -- swept
through southern farm communities, leaving significant upheaval in
their wake. In an attempt to comprehend the complexities of the
present and prepare for the uncertainties of the future, many
southern farmers searched for order and meaning in their memories
of the past. In Southern Farmers and Their Stories, Melissa Walker
explores the ways in which a diverse array of farmers remember and
recount the past. The book tells the story of the modernization of
the South in the voices of those most affected by the decline of
traditional ways of life and work. Walker analyzes the recurring
patterns in their narratives of change and loss, filling in gaps
left by more conventional political and economic histories of
southern agriculture. Southern Farmers and Their Stories also
highlights the tensions inherent in the relationship between
history and memory. Walker employs the concept of "communities of
memory" to describe the shared sense of the past among southern
farmers. History and memory converge and shape one another in
communities of memory through an ongoing process in which shared
meanings emerge through an elaborate alchemy of recollection and
interpretation. In her careful analysis of more than five hundred
oral history narratives, Walker allows silenced voices to be heard
and forgotten versions of the past to be reconsidered. Southern
Farmers and Their Stories preserves the shared memories and
meanings of southern agricultural communities not merely for their
own sake but for the potential benefit of a region, a nation, and a
world that has much to learn from the lessons of previous
generations of agricultural providers.
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