As the United States transformed itself from an agricultural to an
industrial nation, thousands of young people left farm homes for
life in the big city. But even by 1920 the nation's heartland
remained predominantly rural and most children in the region were
still raised on farms. Pamela Riney-Kehrberg retells their stories,
offering glimpses--both nostalgic and realistic--of a bygone era.
As Riney-Kehrberg shows, the experiences of most farm children
continued to reflect the traditions of family life and labor,
albeit in an age when middle-class urban Americans were beginning
to redefine childhood as a time reserved for education and play.
She draws upon a wealth of primary sources--not only memoirs and
diaries but also census data--to create a vivid portrait of
midwestern farm childhood from the early post-Civil War period
through the Progressive Era growing pains of industrialization.
Those personal accounts resurrect the essential experience of
children's work, play, education, family relations, and coming of
age from their own perspectives.
Steering a middle path between the myth of wholesome farm life
and the reality of work that was often extremely dangerous,
Riney-Kehrberg shows both the best and the worst that a rural
upbringing had to offer midwestern youth a time before
mechanization forever changed the rural scene and radio broke the
spell of isolation. Down on the farm, truancy was not uncommon and
chores were shared across genders. Yet farm children managed to
indulge in inventive play--much of it homemade--to supplement
store-bought toys and to get through the long spells between
circuses.
Filled with insightful personal stories and graced with dozens
of highly evocative period photos, "Childhood on the Farm" is the
only general history of midwestern farm children to use narratives
written by the children themselves, giving a fresh voice to these
forgotten years. Theirs was a way of life that was disappearing
even as they lived it, and this book offers new insight into why,
even if many rural youngsters became urban and suburban adults,
they always maintained some affection for the farm.
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